When I first started using cake, bake wasn't around. It took quite some time for me to decide to give it a go, but at that time what bake gave wasn't customizable, as such it's use was limited since it took nearly as much time to bake and edit the files as it did to just write the files (once you know what you are doing that is). Roll the clock forward a bit and bake allowed you to write your own custom templates. It, again, took quite some time for me to take note of the impact of this but it is in reality a big step forwards. Not only can new bakers use bake to get a working editable application, but you can also write your own templates and use bake to get exactly the code you want.

As pointed out in a recent comment, when changing your cake version you may find that some of your hand written config files are nolonger compatible with the version of cake you have selected. However by making use of a a custom production setup there is a way to configure your application defensively and in less lines of code.

Every time I use copy, paste & edit, I'm thinking how to avoid doing so. So whenever I started a new application and moved the files around inline with what I described in the Production Setup article, it annoyed me to have to keep redefining the same variables/constants in slightly different ways with the risk of missing one of them or defining them not-quite-right. After setting up a few projects, I had one of those moments of truth that are normally accompanied by the sound of a penny hitting the floor: By not editing directly the app folder that comes with cake, it would always be available to be referred to in it's pristine, checked out state.