My oldest son, who is 10 has been interested in cooking with me lately. I'm just thrilled by the idea since we haven't done that since he was very little... The other night he helped me dish out and serve dinner. He then said he'd like to make cupcakes with me.
I picked out a recipe from the Cake Mix Doctor Returns book. It was for Strawberry Cream Cheese cupcakes with a lemon buttercream icing. We had a great time making them... but not so much eating them. My youngest son enjoyed the cupcakes but they are ridiculously sweet. The cake itself was super sweet. The icing was super sweet. I just could not choke down an entire cupcake. Sorry Cake Mix Doctor but that recipe is a dud.
So after two duds of course I've felt a bit scorned... but the kids wanted to make cake so we made cake... Out of the Cake Mix Doctor's book of course since you know I'm totally digging this book more or less... We made the Toffee Cake and it was a hit. The first day it wasn't all too great. The toffee bits were very hard and the kids didn't like the massive crunchiness to it... however by the second day that cake is awesome! If you make this cake, let it sit overnight.
It's a sour cream cake with brown butter cream cheese icing. It is really yummy. The cake is moderately heavy - not as heavy as a pound cake but not as light as a regular cake mix. The icing is really awesome too. I'm totally loving it - and so are the kids. Next week we'll work on a chocolate one since it's been awhile since we've had chocolate... Sadly I used my son's camera since I was lazy and his was the closest... and the pictures just came out terrible!