Did you notice anything new???
Yay for blog makeover! It's still not completely done but it's getting there. My DIY diesease knows no limits I guess. Because I was determined to create my logo and blog layout by myself...even though I know a small fraction about either of them :)
Did you notice the new social media icons? It took me a good bit but I actually made them myself. So now new or old friends easily connect up on facebook, pintrest, blogger, or email. Yay!
They look fierce right?
Have you guys noticed all the new baking things popping up? I am always seeing something new out...I'm pretty sure we can thank reality TV for that :) There are two new things I've came across that I've been wanting to try...Duff cake mix and Duncan Hines icing flavor packets.
When I ran across his boxed cake mix at the grocery store I knew I had to try it. It was just slightly more then the other brands, I've seen it at Micheals for much much more. Duff's cakes are awesome of course, and I was so curious to see if his mix was different then the normal cake mix. I've had the pleasure of meeting Duff and some of his crew twice now....and tasting his yummy cake and boy would that be great if it could come from a box instead of a cake worth more then my car ;)
Would you belive me if I said this was a cake? Well it is! The talent this crew has is just unreal (and unfair!). The only thing about cake like this is...who wants to chop up the dog to eat it, eh?
Back to the cupcakes...I baked them exactly how the box said. I resisted every urge to add things! After 18 minutes in the over they came out great! I used my normal 3TBS in each cupcakes. I was really impressed how they raised so well in perfect cupcake form!
However.....I wasn't as thrilled with the cake. Everything was great about it for me except the actual flavor. It just wasn't what I was expecting. The flavor wasn't bad in any way just kinda bland, instead of the chocolatey flavor that I was kind of expecting. My testers pretty much said the same.
Now onto the icing. I love these! Duncan hines created these along with a plain icing that you can mix the packet into for easy fun icing flavors. I couldn't wait for these try these out! Of course they are for canned icing but why wouldn't they work in any icing? I added the flavor mix to a plain cream cheese frosting and it created the perfect caramel frosting. I'm totally sold! I have made dozen of different flavors of cupcakes using extracts, candy flavorings, ice cream toppings, syrups, pudding mixes, and so on. But these little packets make it a sinch! No adding and testing at all...just pour in a mix easy peasy.
I hope there are many more flavors to come!
For the chocolate cupcake you can make your favorite boxed mix or recipe. I reccomend Hershey's Perfectly chocolate (used here)! And here's the reciepe for the creamy caramel icing:
1 8oz box of cream cheese
1 stick unsalted butter
5 cups of powdered sugar
2 TBS milk
1 packet Duncan Hines caramel icing mix
Step 1: With a mixer cream butter and cream cheese together.
Step 2: Add in powdered sugar 1 cup at a time.
Step 3: Add in 2 TBS milk and packet of caramel icing.
If icing is too runny you can add powdered sugar or milk if its too thick.
I'm seriously so impressed how easy and so yummy this icing was. If only I had gotten these packets a week ago for the hub's samoa cake.Would have been perfect on it!
Happy baking!