When life gives you a free box of cake mix…

QFC sent us a coupon for a free box of cake mix! Apparently this is one of our frequently-purchased products? I think we have maybe bought 1 box of cake mix since Matt moved to Seattle almost 2 years ago.
Whatever their reasoning, we got a free box of Devil’s Food Reduced Sugar cake mix! This weekend I decided to finally pull it out and turn it into treats for a game night at a friend’s place. I am not a huge baker and get really frustrated when baked goods don’t turn out correctly (I can fix a stir fry or the seasoning on a roast if something is off…if a cake goes bad, I just throw up my hands), so random urges for sweets and free cake mixes are the rare causes of Mallory Baking Time.

I prefer cupcakes for non-birthday needs…the slicing and serving of a cake is a headache sometimes, and a cupcake can just pick up and go, without all the baggage of plate, fork, blah blah blah that a regular slice of cake brings along.

Cupcakes it is!

I made 12 regular-sized cupcakes in my silicone cupcake pan (have I used this before?? I can’t really remember…)

I put the rest of the batter into two mini-cupcake tins. One regular metal and one silicone. I noticed that both were by the same company even though I got them at completely different times, places, and they are clearly different materials and slightly different sizes! Interesting!

I figured I’d experiment and see exactly how the silicone bakeware affected my cupcakes. I have used the silicone stuff several times before, but more for non-cake type things (quiche, cheesecake, frozen treats, etc.).

(Also, I’d like to throw in a mini-review for Crisco Spray with Flour…this is AMAZING! My cupcakes slid right out of both the silicone and the regular pan with no paper cupcake liners!!)

Not sure if it was my unevenly heated oven or just the silicone, but the large cupcakes had a very noticeable hump on one side…these would be perfect for decorating as monsters or something for a kid’s birthday party!

 

The two trays of mini-cupcakes went in together and while the silicone tray created similarly-humped miniatures, the regular tray was gorgeous and adorably rounded! I am eager to figure out what makes the difference between the two materials. I bet Alton Brown would have some input!

Look how perfectly rounded the ones in the metal pan are!!! These two trays cooked in the oven at the exact same time!

The humped and the non-humped both tasted delicious and I covered them with a cream cheese frosting that was deliciously lemony (and mostly covered the freakish look of the silicone-baked cupcakes).

 

 

We had originally bought this can of Rainbow Chip frosting which has been my favorite since I was tiny…I love the candies inside the frosting, and will tell you in great detail how this is NOT the same as Funfetti frosting! But we had cream cheese and I wanted to put my tiny hand mixer to the test (I may have killed the $4 Goodwill mixer, but the frosting was worth it). This was my first time making cream cheese frosting (from this Cooking Light recipe), but Matt loved it!

 

I have plans to turn this into a cherry cream cheese frosting in the future, but it will have to wait until our next free cake mix!       

In cupcake-related news, one of my favorite cakey treats mixes cake and ice cream.  Warm brownie sundaes, baked alaska, cake and ice cream…I’m guessing this stems from lots of birthday parties as a kid?  I’ve also been test-driving some lactose free milk because of a hunch that I’m developing a slight lactose intolerance (mostly when I chug giant glasses of milk or have a big bowl of cereal, ice cream or other dairy deliciousness).  So how exciting when I found Turtle Mountain’s soy and coconut milk-based goodies at the blog, Heather Eats Almond Butter. Check it out for a coconut milk product giveaway and other healthy food fun!

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 12th, 2009 at 5:23 pm and is filed under Fun, Matthew, super-friends, Yum. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.