Sprinkles Cupcake and Duncan Hines Chocolate Cake

For my birthday, I received this Sprinkles Cupcake Mix sold at Williams Sonoma. When I do enjoy the occasional cupcake, Sprinkles is the brand I crave. Their frosting is really the best I've ever had. However, without an egg beater or hand mixer, this cupcake mix sat in my cupboard since June.

Introducing, the OXO hand crank egg beater that I took home from Foodbuzz Tasting Pavilion. The first thing I made with this egg beater was the Sprinkles cupcakes for my friend Olay's birthday.

The batter comes with step by step directions that were easy to follow. Here I am scraping and beating. It took me twice as long to make the batter to the right consistency because I had to hand crank my beater. Back in the 1800's this technology would have been revolutionary! I still appreciate having a free egg beater rather than none or an expensive one that I would only use twice a year. When I met Sree from saagAHH, she said that for kitchen tools she only uses once in a while, she borrows from her friends and they lend items back and forth to each other. This sounds like a great alternative for groups of friends who love to cook.

After mixing my batter, I poured it into a cupcake tray to bake.

Finished product, pre-frosting. They look pretty.

During the frosting process.

Phil bought me Betty Crocker Rainbow Chip frosting which was delicious and according to him "a little more exciting than plain frosting." The mix came with signature Sprinkles dots to make the cupcakes look like real Sprinkles cupcakes. Part of my gift packet was a jar of white sugar pearls which I also tossed on top to decorate. The taste? I left the batter in the oven too long so it was dry. Otherwise they would have been pretty delicious I think. Oh well, Happy Birthday Olay!

 I also used the egg beater to make this Duncan Hines Triple Chocolate cake from the Foodbuzz goodie bag for a potluck.

 It comes with a fudgey chocolate mix (left) and a cake mix (right).

 The directions say to swirl in the chocolate with the cake mix before baking. This is the final result. It doesn't look like the box but it was quite moist. Not too bad. Definitely turned out better than the cupcakes.

This is the last reminder to enter the Godiva goodie bag giveaway. Please enter here.
CONTEST CLOSES ON MONDAY 11/21/2011. I WILL ANNOUNCE THE WINNERS LATE MONDAY NIGHT, PACIFIC TIME.