I thought I would put my very opinionated husband and my son to the test this morning, at work tomorrow we are celebrating a birthday for a co-worker. I offered to make the cake and went with easy out cupcakes; well actually I really like cupcakes and I bought some really cute cupcake papers as an impulse buy at the register; my girlfriend KP will LOVE that comment. She loves to shake her head at me when we are shopping and I grab something close to the register.

I have a great chocolate cake recipe but never really tried finding a white cake that I liked. My co-worker is one of those super picky eaters and only likes white cake, white frosting – boring so I added just a hint of blue food coloring; I tried to make them variegated in color. My test was to take a box cake mix and make it taste like homemade or as close to homemade as possible. I figured who better to see if they can taste the difference is both of my guys. Who both; mind you drove me crazy with wanting one before I was ready to set up the test, course they also didn’t know I was testing something and they were my guinea pigs.

I do always make the same frosting no matter what flavor cake I make or how many.

A few years ago a girlfriend of mine asked me to make her cupcakes for her wedding. I can bake but that doesn’t make me a baker and I can throw a mean party but that doesn’t make me a caterer either.  I have never made 130 of anything.  Let alone transport that many decorated cupcakes. Please note it if you ever say yes to a friend it was SO much easier to decorate the cupcakes on site than to travel 3+ hours in a car hoping they make it intact.

Easiest Frosting

2 sticks of butter

1 tsp vanilla

2 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar

*Easy to color and if you want a little chocolate taste add some unsweetened cocoa powder

Room temperature butter; beat till smooth; add the sugar and vanilla and beat till light and fluffy. So easy to adjust to how much you need, add a little more of each and taste as you go.

Box Cake Mix – reading the directions on the back, instead of oil use butter and make sure to double it, add an additional egg, replace the water with milk and adding a little vanilla can’t hurt.

Verdict: the altered cupcake was definitely moister; the flavor was good and in pinch could be pulled off as homemade. Homemade frosting definitely helps sell it more. My guys at first couldn’t tell the difference or so they say, they just wanted to try another couple of cupcakes.