Erin
I've been baking bread of a huge variety of types for over 20 years and find
that, provided you bring each type of yeast (instant, dried active, cake
(fresh)) to life in the appropriate manner there is no significant difference
between the raising powers of the different kinds. The one advantage of cake
yeast is that, all other things being equal (they seldom are!) you can (only
can) get about a 20 minute shorter first rise if you're in a real hurry. The
disadvantage of cake yeast is that it's perishable and it's rising powers
will steadily decline on a timescale of days or weeks rather than the months
or years over which dried yeasts deteriorate.
I use Allinsons active dried (a UK brand) as routine and occasionally cake
yeast more for variety than any baking reason.
The one VERY important thing to remember is that, weight for weight, both
forms of dried yeast are twice as powerful as cake so you must apply a factor
of 2 when converting recipes from one type to another.
If you do that, the 3 types of yeast are completely interchangeable.
John Wright