Product Review: FUN da-middles

I love trying new stuff. Last year when I first saw FUN da-middles in the store I waited for a coupon and bought a box to try.  And then it sat on the shelf until the kids and I were going to drive each other crazy over Christmas break.

FUN da-middles are filled cupcakes, done without the mess of a piping bag. The box comes with cake mix and a filling packet.  You'll need cupcake paper liners, eggs, and oil.  You make the cake, fill the cupcake cups 1/3 full, add some filling, then cover it up.  Bake according to directions.

And they taste delicious!  The cake is moist and tasty and the chocolate filling is fudgy.  They do not taste like Hostess or Little Debbie Cakes, they're yummier and less sugar-ful.  The only issue I have is that Better Crocker is a little over-excited about them in their press.

The baking process is as easy as they say, but because the batter must be placed with precision and the filling must be covered completely it's not the best project to have a five-year-old help on.  If any of the filling leaks out you're going to have a horrific, burnt on mess.  Also, one of their ads says "Out of the oven and DONE!"

This implies that you can eat them right out of the oven, which is completely untrue.  The instructions warn you that the filling is very hot, and you cannot even remove them from the cupcake pan to cool for 20 minutes.  I suspect to try and eat them hot would invite severe burns.

So my one-line review is:  Great product, with slightly over-enthusiastic press. Pick some up if you're looking for a treat.

He's not bored with it, really, it's the only pic he wasn't giggling and blurry in!

Happy Birthday Auntie!

My sister has been gently reminding me that I'm long over due to blog.  Since today was her birthday and I'm out of practice, I thought I'd blog the cake I made her!

She has a long history of working in coffee shops, from the first roastery she worked at in Chicago to management at Starbucks, to the lofty heights of the Second Story Cafe at Gulliver's Books here in Fairbanks.  So I made her a Coffee Cup Cake.

I used my trusty Betty Crocker Bake 'n Fill, selecting the un-filled dome cake.  Since coffee was the theme I was thinking a yellow cake for the "cup" (the outer, larger dome) and a dark cake for the "coffee" (the smaller, middle dome).  Here's the easiest mocha cake you ever made:  Take a dark chocolate cake mix and substitute strong coffee for the water.  Really, you have to try that!  I found a vanilla mix for the "cup" and added about a half a tablespoon of cinnamon to the mix.  I'm sure I've mentioned before that, having made scratch cakes, I just can't make them as cheap as the box cakes, and the quality of box cakes these days is very, very good.

The layers put together, with the "cup" iced.  You can see a crack in the mocha cake, I filled it with chocolate icing.  I sliced off the top of the big dome to make it sit flat.

The "coffee" icing added, and the "cup" icing sides built up.

Gotta have a little foam on your mocha!

And a sprinkle of cinnamon!  The handle is a frosted sugar cookie.

I couldn't have the rest of the sugar cookies sitting around tempting me, so we served them with the coffee!

My concern was would the cake pull apart, since I was using the large end as the top, and yeah, it did a little.  We grabbed some toothpicks to hold it together until slicing.  If I try that again I'll bring back-up icing for repairs.

The flavor combination of cakes was great, it tasted just like a cinnamon mocha!

Product Review: Betty Crocker Bake 'n Fill

My birthday was last week. I decided to make myself a fancy cake, since I make one for everyone else! What I wanted was a filled cake, so I pulled out my trusty Betty Crocker Bake 'n Fill cake pans. I originally saw these on an "As Seen on TV" type ad, and hubby gave them to me one year for Christmas. Like many folks I'm terribly skeptical about things can't at least hold in my hand before I buy, and ZAM co-worker Pikko suggested it'd make a good blog.

What this product claims is you'll be able to make fancy filled cakes quickly and easily. It comes with four pans to make two different shaped cakes (a dome cake and a more traditional layer cake shape) and a booklet of instructions and recipes.

If there's a trick to using this set successfuly, it's in following the instructions exactly. You must use shortening, not cooking spray, to grease the pans and fill them precisely. The only time I've had a bad cake was when I mis-measured making the cake batter and it overflowed the pan. I've made ice cream cakes and cakes filled with puddings or fruit. Ice cream cakes are probably the most time consuming, as you have to soften the ice cream just right and pack it in carefully.

For my birthday cake I used a devils food cake and sugar-free white chocolate Jell-o pudding (sugar free because I couldn't find it sugar-full!). I wanted something like the creme they put in creme-filled doughnuts, and this was awful close. In hindsight I bet my Safeway bakery ladies would have sold me four cups of filling.

I used the round dome cake pans and the pudding-filled cake guidelines in the pamphlet. I should note that the recipe calls for one box of pudding, and this took two. You make the pudding with a half-cup less milk like you do for pie, for a thicker set. I also used one chocolate pudding cup for a dollop of chocolate in the middle. If I had a little more time I would have made a chocolate ganache and poured it over the top of the cake for a chocolate overload!

With the inside so fancy I kept the outside plain. My camera ate most of my in-progress pictures and a lovely pic of the just-cut cake (I finally contacted Kodak to troubleshoot that, shouldn't be happening any more), so you'll have to settle for a "before" and some half-eaten shots.


Final review: It works as advertised and I get very nice results. You'll find your cakes a little more dense than you expect if you're using pudding cake mixes: this is in part because you have to refrigerate or freeze the cake and part because the pans restrict the rise for a firm cake that won't collapse from it's own weight. You will want to give yourself a little extra time to make the cake (maybe start a day ahead), for filling and chilling or freezing it before serving, and don't forget to make room in the fridge or freezer before you start. Overall two thumbs up and a product well worth buying if you like making fun cakes.

PS: Surfing around looking for links for the Bake 'n Fill set, I discovered Betty Crocker also makes a mini-cake version! Based on my experience with the big one, this is going on my list!

Let them eat cake!

The boys' birthdays are the 3rd and the 11th of March. It's a busy couple of weeks! We don't do big parties, but I do make their cakes. This year Kiddo also got to have his birthday at school, which I'm jealous of as my birthday is in August so I never had a school birthday party.

I figured Kiddo's kindergarten teacher didn't need 27 kids hopped up on sugar, so I made my Chocolate Zucchini Bread as muffins, reducing the sugar even further by subbing Splenda for the white sugar. The icing is good old-fashioned wedding cake icing though, as the cream cheese icing I used for Valentines Day tends to stay very soft. I didn't want to spend an hour individually frosting them, so I used a star tip on a pastry bag to make sloppy little stars. I like the effect, it'd look cute with little star flowers in there. Maybe for Easter.


Kiddo's actual birthday cake I'm terribly proud of. I thought I'd try a ganache, which is basically chocolate and cream. Ganache can vary in consistnacy from a hard candy coating to the soft part inside a bonbon. This one was soft, and I kept it in the fridge until party time. The cake is just a plain yellow box cake; the icing, the leftover green from the cupcakes. The decorations came from two different bags of mini toys.


Junior wanted Teletubbies, which are not popular with the "make your kid drive you nuts until you buy it" manufacturers right now, so I found a picture to transfer to the cake. In hindsight the picture was too detailed for the cake size and the size of my smallest star tip, but Junior recognized and ate his favorite Teletubby. The cake is (again) a yellow box cake; I've tried making cakes from scratch and getting that light, moist consistnacy requires being very meticulous. And heck, a box mix is about $1.25. The center filling is actually homemade peach-pineapple-apricott jam, and the icing is plain white buttercreme. (I went back and outlined Lala's tummy after this pic!)


I'm not sure I'll ever do enough cake decorating regularly enough to get as good as the cake ladies in the stores, but I do enjoy being able to make a special cake for birthdays!