There's a new cupcake mix in town!
Recently popping up on store shelves, you may have seen the new
Betty Crocker FUN da-Middles Cupcake Mix. It comes in 3 flavors: Chocolate Cupcake with Vanilla Filling, Yellow Cupcake with Vanilla Filling, and Yellow Cupcake with Chocolate Filling. I found 2 of the 3 flavors at our local Kroger grocery store.
The cupcake mix box says that Fun da-middles are easy and fun to make: "The filling surprise is inside", "Less Mess, less steps-no need to let cool to frost", "Perfect to pack in lunch boxes", "Specially designed filling bakes inside the cupcake."
Of course, I had to check them out!
The chocolate cupcake mix is made just like any other box mix, add eggs, water, and oil. Unlike box cake mixes, this only make 12 cupcakes, but also unlike box cake mixes, it comes with a pouch of filling! The filling is ready and all you have to do is squeeze the pouch 20 times before cutting off the corner to open. I did discover that there are about 2 cups of batter, so to make sure you get proportions right, go ahead and fill your liquid measuring cup to 1 cup for the bottom layer, reserving the other 1 cup for the top layer.
#1- Fill Cupcake liner about 1/3 full.
#2- Open filling pouch and divide filling equally among the 12 cups, making sure filling stays in the middle.
#3- Evenly distribute the reserved batter covering the filling.
The filling was the part I was very interested in...go figure right? First, if you do have a little oops, it is VERY thick, almost marshmallow-y before baking and easy to move back into the center. These bake at 350 for 24 to 29 minutes or "until surface of cupcake appears dry." They were done perfect at 24 minutes, still moist, but they did crack on the top. Next time I may check them a minute or two earlier.*
Allow to cool 20 minutes.
At this point, they are ready. This is when they could be packed in school lunches with no mess.
However, I like frosting on top of my cupcakes, not just inside. I do think it needed frosting on the top too. To keep it quick and easy with very little mess, the Whipped variety fluffy white canned frosting does the job very well, it complements the filling and they do taste similar and have similar texture and consistency.
After baking, the consistency of the filling had changed. It no longer was a thick marshmallow-y glob and it was more the same consistency as the whipped frosting that I used. There was a nice amount vanilla flavored filling inside the cupcake too. The filling didn't try and absorb into the cupcake after sitting either. The filling was sweet, but not too sweet.
The cake part of the cupcake tasted like regular box chocolate cake mix and I would imagine is the same mix as the Betty Crocker Chocolate Cake mix. The cake part baked up moist, fully containing the dollop of filling. For a box mix, this really tastes good, but could use a slight bit more chocolate flavor.
However the yummy vanilla filling is really the star of this cupcake!
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| This is not the best picture, I did cut the cupcake a little unevenly, but you get the idea! |
This cupcake IS QUICK and EASY to make! No special talent or tools required! Kids young and old love the surprise filling inside! If you are looking for an easy to make box mix cupcake, this will definitely do the job! Add a little whipped frosting to the top, finish it off with a few chocolate jimmies and you have a cute, quick and easy cupcake!
*Note: After baking these a second time, the chocolaty flavor was better. Overbaking will change the flavor. The directions say 24-29 minutes and the first time I took them out at 24 minutes. The second time I kept a watchful eye over them and they were ready at 20 minutes.
