Well, we are suppose to be at the half-way mark for spring, but in all honesty, it hasn’t been much of a spring so far. The last few days around here have been cool, grey, windy & rainy. I know April Showers bring May flowers, but enough already! I just want a little sunshine and warm weather!! Is that too much for a girl to ask?!?
Last night, I was desperate to put a little Spring back in our steps and brighten up the gloomy days. that’s when I brought out the box of Duncan Hines Strawberry Flavoured Cupcakes!
In our house, strawberries are a well loved fruit and a sure sign of summer! We love all things strawberry and my hopes were high for this boxed mix. You see, I LOVE to bake. It’s something that I picked up from my Great Grandmother when I was a little girl. Even to this day, baking makes me feel connected to her and always cheers me up if I’m having a rough day.
But, I bake from scratch. I don’t generally like boxed mixes and pre-done icing and prefer to make my own but I’m willing to try anything once.
The box comes with your strawberry flavoured cake mix, cream cheese flavoured icing mix and a pastry bag.
I wasn’t so sure about cream cheese frosting with strawberry cupcakes but if the geniuses at Duncan Hines decided it was a good flavour combination, who am I to judge! So away we went!
The instant I opened the mix I was over come by the strawberry scent – YUM! The cake mix is as easy as any to mix up.
Add the eggs, oil & water; moisten and mix. Easy peasy. Oh, and I would like to add that I was a big fan of the little chunks of strawberry in the mix too 🙂
The box makes 12 cupcakes or a 9″ round cake. The directions said to fill the muffin liners half way, but I found it was closer to 3/4 to use up all the mix. I suppose about a 1/4 cup of mix per cupcake. Then put your pan in at 350 for 20 minutes and Voila!
Please don’t judge me by my muffin tins LOL
*WARNING* Your entire house will smell divine by this point and you will have a spouse and / or kids (possibly even pets), pacing the floor in the kitchen waiting for them to be done.
The icing was easy to mix up too. Although, I wish I would’ve used my stand mixer instead of my hand mixer for the icing. It requires 2 – 4 minutes of high speed mixing and my arm & hand were buzzing by the end.
As I mentioned earlier, I like to make my own buttercream icings when I bake so I was prepared to judge this icing to my standards. I was pleasantly surprised when it not only stood up to, but surpassed my expectations! It was fabulous consistency, easy to work with, smelled & tasted excellent!
I said I loved to bake, I never claimed to be good at decorating!
The instructions say to use the tip of the pastry bag to poke through the cupcake and fill it with a small amount of icing before swirling the top. I was skeptical this was going to work very well, but once again, was pleasantly surprised! I was able to fill and cover the cupcakes in just a few minutes. Plus, I had lots of extra. I’m always worried that I will run out, but I had icing to spare. I may or may not have even eaten a little right out of the pastry bag…
Mind you, in the time it took for me to ice 12 cupcakes, Ryan devoured THREE of them!
Ryan isn’t a huge sweets guy (unlike me, I am a sugar fiend) so for him to indulge like that is a sure sign these are delicious! They have all of the properties a perfect cupcake should have.
They were flavourful, moist & spongy and held their shape really well. The icing was sweet but not overly-sweet and the extra bit stuffed inside makes them look gourmet! The best part? 2 hours – start to finish and we were enjoying our treats 🙂
It’s official – I am a HUGE Fan of these cupcakes! Have you tried them yet? Let us know what you think!
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The product reviewed was supplied by the company. No other compensation was received. The opinions in this review are my own and have not been influenced in any way.
