Monday, May 21, 2012

Review of Red Velvet Cake Mix


I was so excited when I saw this in the store I took a picture right away!
  So you all know how much I love me a cake mix right?  It makes making treats so much faster, and I prefer it when I am making cake balls, or cupcake for kids.  So when we were in Wal mart a few weeks back and I saw a red velvet and cream cheese box mix I had to try it.

  Now I did it because I wanted to review it here and I wanted a reason to try it out.  I will  tell you that as with most box mixes it was okay, but really pricey if you think about it.

  So anyway I got it, and then read the box that said it only may 12 cupcakes, and I wanted to give them at work so I have to cut down just the tiniest bit to get myself an extra mini one to taste.


They look cute on the box, but there is no way there is enough icing to decorate them all like that.
  So making the batter was as easy as any other cake mix, it turned out to be a runny batter like any other.  They baked up nicely and looked fine.  But the icing, oh that was another story.

This was the stuff in the box, why they put two pouches of icing instead of one large one I don't know.  That is why I don't work for a cake mix company I would be all "no, only one bag, make it bigger!" Then I would get fired.

  So the icing says it is "cream cheese flavored" which should have clued me in at first, but it didn't.  So I was going to pipe the icing on to at least make the cupcakes look nice, but then once I put the icing into a bowl it became clear this would not work.  The icing was runny and looks gross, and there was no real cream cheese flavor to me.  So I had to fix it, I added a bunch of icing sugar to thicken and bulk it up, a little milk as I put too much sugar, then some vanilla bean paste to try to give it a better flavor.  It was okay, I mean it was way better than before.


I would tell you what this looks like, but you already know, yuck!


  To decorate I had barely enough to do a nice swirl, so if I were to use it again I would add even more icing sugar and milk to bulk it up.  As it was I then I decorated them with some simple red sanding sugar and that was it.

 I tasted  my mini and it was okay, nothing amazing, and I can tell you that is was just as airy  as any other cake mix.




These are seriously not going to be a go to for me, but hey at least you know it's there if you ever need it.

  So what I liked about this, not much really. Other than it was a box mix.

 What I disliked, well let me list the things:
-the icing was bland and watery, had to be fixed, and not enough to give a good layer of frosting
-the cost, figuring I had to put in stuff to fix the icing and that you only get 12 cupcakes, this was not worth it at the $3.50 I think I paid
-the taste, it was just okay, nothing spectacular

 So over all I give this box mix a fail, which stinks.  I mean if it was just the cake mix alone, that I could work with, perfect for cake balls.  But the addition of the "cream cheese flavored" icing really took it down a few notches.  So I would skip this, if you live in the states I think they have a red velvet cake mix, and then you can just make your own icing just as easily.

  Oh well, no one at work really got to try them either as they were for a person who was leaving and she just took them home without sharing.  So I didn't get any other opinions.  And I refuse to make these again, so there you go, not a score with me.

 And just so you know I love cake box mix, a lot, this one was just not worth it to me.
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Lil\'Luna
The DIY Dreamer

5 comments:

Connie Mercer said...

good to know~you are the expert:):):)

Murphy's Law said...

Wow. Thanks for the head's up. I haven't done a box cake in eons.

Linda Beeson said...

Since we are big fans of Red Velvet, this is one of those "good to knows"!

Penny said...

Not a fan of the "Red Velvet" cake myself, I think too much bitterness from the red food coloring, that most mixes use. Thanks for the heads up on the icing in these box mixes though! Love Penny P.S. How sad you didn't even get to try one! I would have shared!

Mary Ellen said...

You'll just have to make my red velvet cheesecake to make up for it :-)
No seriously. I have had bad experiences with some new items too like Duncan Hines "Simply" Blueberry Muffins. Awful tasting.
Bummer about your cream cheese frosting. That stinks.