Review of Duncan Hines Frosting Creations

I love homemade frosting. Unless I'm in a serious time crunch, I try to avoid canned store-bought frosting. Honestly it doesn't take that much time and effort to make a decent frosting from scratch, and I can guarantee it'll taste better than anything sold in the baking supply aisle.

Nonetheless, I recently had a coupon for the new Duncan Hines Frosting Creations. It's a plain white frosting, and you buy a flavor packet (sold separately) to add to it. In addition to my coupon, it was on sale, so I decided I'd give it a try. I also have to admit I was a little intrigued when I saw the cotton candy flavor.

Even though we already had a birthday cake for Mathilda over the weekend, I couldn't let her real birthday go by without singing "Happy Birthday" and letting her blow out three candles. I returned once again to my trusty Betty Crocker cookbook, this time choosing the chocolate cake recipe.

Here is the recipe from the Betty Crocker cookbook, which I followed to the letter with one small exception. After beating all of the ingredients together, I stirred in half a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips. It was a good addition to the recipe, now duly noted in my cookbook.

Chocolate Cake
2 1/4 cups all-purpose or 2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 2/3 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup baking cocoa
1 1/4 cups water
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 large eggs

1. Heat oven to 350 F. Grease (or spray with no stick spray) bottom and sides of one 13x9-inch pan, two 9-inch round pans, or three 8-inch round pans with shortening; lightly flour.
2. In large bowl, beat all ingredients with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on high speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into pan(s).
3. Bake 13x9-inch pan 40-45 minutes, round pans 30-35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool rectangle in pan on wire rack. Cool rounds 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire rack. Cool completely before frosting, about one hour.

 After baking the cake, I followed the directions for mixing the frosting.

I made a hole in the middle, going all the way down to the bottom, with a dinner knife.

I poured the entire contents of the flavor packet into the hole.

I stirred with my dinner knife.

Eventually it looked like this.

My suggestion is that when you think you have the flavor packet completely mixed into the frosting, keep stirring for another minute or so. When I frosted the cake, I realized that I hadn't stirred as well as I thought I had.

Here's the frosted cake

For a finishing touch, I added chocolate shavings. I took a vegetable peeler to a Hershey's bar to make the pieces curl a bit. It works better if the chocolate is cold, and I found it easier to shave the thin edges of the chocolate instead of trying to shave over the flat surface of the chocolate bar.

The best I can say about Duncan Hines Frosting Creations is that I love the color and the kids liked the taste. I'll also throw in that it was easy to mix and easy to spread. As far as the color, the pictures don't do it justice. I think the combination of the blue frosting and the brown chocolate shavings looks great. Unfortunately, I didn't think it tasted much like cotton candy at all. The kids thought it did, but I'm fairly certain they wouldn't have been able to blindly tell me it was cotton candy flavored frosting without already knowing that's what it was. Also, I polled them and asked if they liked this frosting better or the homemade coconut cream cheese frosting I made the other day, and they all said the homemade frosting was better. There are several other flavors available, but I'd only be tempted to try them if I once again had a great coupon combined with a sale.

Have you tried this frosting? What did you think?

I was not compensated for this post, nor was I provided with a free product. I bought Duncan Hines Frosting Creations. All opinions are my own.

Betty Crocker With a Twist: Carrot Cake & Cream Cheese Frosting Made with Coconut Oil

One of my most faithful kitchen companions is my Betty Crocker cookbook. I use it more than the internet for looking up recipes and useful cooking and baking information. Mine is ring bound with clearly tabbed sections that make it super easy to use. It's speckled with cake batter, stuffed with bookmarks, and marked with my notes. Most of the recipes are pretty basic and can be used as good starting points for a little experimentation. Not that I do much experimentation, but still.

Recently my mom introduced me to coconut oil, which is supposed to be a healthy source of fat. Since I no longer eat meat, I don't get a lot of fat in my diet, and I've been adding a tablespoon of coconut oil to my smoothies a few times a week. It adds a bit of a tropical flair. My mom has used it in an oatmeal cookie recipe, and I've been wondering what else I can do with it.

On Sunday we had a little birthday dinner for Mathilda, and although she changed her mind many times about what kind of cake she wanted, her final decision was carrot cake. I love carrot cake and cream cheese frosting made from scratch - I use the recipes in my trusty Betty Crocker cookbook. This time I decided to change things up a little and try using coconut oil in the recipes.

The carrot cake recipe is a little labor intensive, but very easy and immeasurably better than a boxed carrot cake mix. This is straight from the cookbook, with the exception of the one change I made, which is italicized in bold next to the original:

Carrot Cake
1 1/2 cups sugar
*1 cup vegetable oil* - instead I used 1/3 cup coconut oil and 2/3 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour (I highly suggest King Arthur - it's my favorite)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups shredded carrots (about 5 medium)
1 cup coarsely chopped nuts (optional - I omitted these)

1. Heat oven to 350 F. Grease (or use no stick spray) bottom and sides of one 13x9-inch pan or two 8-inch or 9-inch round pans with shortening; lightly flour.
2. In large bowl, beat sugar, oil, and eggs with electric mixer on low speed about 30 seconds or until blended. Add flour, cinnamon, baking soda, vanilla, and salt; beat on low speed 1 minute. Stir in carrots and nuts (if using). Pour into pan(s).
3. Bake 13x9-inch pan 40-45 minutes, round pans 30 to 35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool rectangle in pan on wire rack. Cool rounds 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire rack. Cool completely before frosting, about one hour.

That one little alteration made a big difference in the flavor of the cake. I might try going 50/50 with coconut oil and vegetable oil next time, it's just that the coconut oil is so darn expensive and I didn't want to use up too much of my jar. I suggested King Arthur flour because in my experience, my baked goods come out better when I use it. I used several organic ingredients, with the exception of the flour, vegetable oil, cinnamon, and baking soda.

I usually use the cream cheese frosting recipe that's in my Betty Crocker cookbook, but it calls for a whopping 4 cups of powdered sugar. It falls way too much into sickeningly sweet territory for my taste, and I wanted to continue with the coconut theme, so I turned to the internet for help. It did not disappoint. I found a blog post with a recipe for coconut oil cream cheese frosting. Please note that I used regular cream cheese, not Neufchatel (is there really a difference?), and I did not add the coconut rum. Also, the illustration shows a cake covered in flaked coconut, which I did not use either. This frosting was far superior to the Betty Crocker recipe, and I now have it jotted down in my cookbook so I don't forget. It would go really well with a pineapple cake or a banana cake too.

The combination of the slightly altered carrot cake and the coconut oil cream cheese frosting was delicious. We had no leftover cake, and that never happens. I think every person who ate it complimented me, and one guest even told me it was the best cake he ever had. He was 11, but who cares? A compliment is a compliment.

I didn't think to take pictures, so all I have are photos of Mattie blowing out her candles. I added pink food coloring to the frosting because she wanted a pink carrot cake.

Okay, the moral of the story is that Betty Crocker is still my BFF in the kitchen, but I don't think she'll be offended if I sometimes alter her recipes a little to make them my own.

Do you cook or bake with coconut oil? I'd love to know how you use it! I've also heard it's great for skin, and as soon as I get a second jar to keep in the bathroom, I'm going to test that theory!

Interested in trying coconut oil for yourself? Enter my giveaway for a chance to win a 32 ounce jar of Tropical Traditions coconut oil! Just click HERE and fill in the Rafflecopter form! Ends 6/10/12

Reunion

My kids finally came home late this afternoon. I was happy to see them. I missed them, but I was totally fine with them being gone for a few days. I'm going to forgo the mommy guilt and call that "healthy." I knew they were safe and happy to be with their grandparents, and I enjoyed the special one-on-one time with Mattie. 

Chris's mom's birthday is tomorrow, so we celebrated today when she and her husband brought the kids home.Which meant that instead of being outside and enjoying this beautiful summer-like weather, I was inside cleaning and baking a carrot cake, which is my mother-in-law's favorite. I didn't have any cake mix, and believe me I'm totally not above a nice and simple box of cake mix, and didn't want to go to the store, so I broke out the Betty Crocker cookbook and found a recipe for carrot cake. If I do say so myself, it came out pretty awesome. I frosted it with homemade cream cheese frosting. You just can't beat good old Betty Crocker. Everyone liked it, even Bethany who normally doesn't like carrot cake.

 

 
We had a nice dinner and then migrated to the family room to play Just Dance 2.Even Chris played, it was pretty funny. Connor kicked everyone's butt (!!). He says the trick is to not move too much, which completely negates the exercise/fitness aspect of the game, but he's 8 and skinny as a bean pole so I guess he isn't too concerned with how many calories he's burning while playing the Wii.

Anyway, my children are all nestled all snug in their beds, and that makes me a happy mama.  

They Say It's Your Birthday

Actually Chris's birthday. And it was yesterday. He wanted to stay home all day and just hang around watching movies and stuff. So my mom and his parents came over for pizza and I made cake.

                                                         It looked pretty good in the pan.

While I am unfortunately not much of a cook, I do enjoy baking. Mainly because I love sweets almost to the exclusion of all other foods. So I had a box of chocolate cake mix, but I wanted to do something different with it, so I found this recipe for meringue-swirled chocolate cake on the Betty Crocker website. Well it was my first time making meringue, so let's just say it didn't look so pretty once I took it out of the springform pan. Nor was it quite as intact.

 

                                               This is what an overcooked meringue-swirled chocolate cake looks like.


I followed the directions exactly, but I guess I should have shaved about 10-15 minutes off the baking time. But it tasted good, kind of like a sweet, crunchy cookie coating. I think I'll try this one again another time, and maybe not forget about it until the oven buzzer goes off so that I actually check on it, to, you know, make sure it's not getting ruined.    

The kids put together a little routine for Chris, to the Beatles "Birthday Song". Can I just say I love that my 9-year old daughter has Beatles music on her iPod? We'll just ignore for a moment the rest of the crap she has on there.

 
My own birthday will be here in a couple weeks, and my birthday is always a depressing day for me. This year I resolve to enjoy my birthday. In fact I think I'm going to add that to my Life List - Enjoy My Birthday Every Year. I will prepare myself to have a great day. Okay I have some time to get myself hyped up, I'll do my best.