Sprinkles Cupcakes mix

With a winter chill settling down in Southern California this weekend, the red velvet cupcake mix I brought from Sprinkles was the reason to turn on the oven.

Aside from the mix, also needed to complete the batter was a 1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter, two eggs, 2/3 a cup of milk and 1/2 teaspoon of vinegar all at room temperature. The directions were very specific of when to add the ingredients and how long to mix. I reread the recipe two before proceeding but the mixture still turned out very doughy and stiff. But I was happy to see that it was a very bright red.

The cupcakes were in the oven for approximately 22 minutes and made exactly 12 cupcakes. The mix did not include any ingredients for the frosting but called for a package of cream cheese, an additional stick of butter (yikes), 3 1/2 cups of confectioner’s sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. The frosting was already sweet at 1 cup of the confectioner’s sugar but I cut it off at 2 cups.

One thing I did find funny about the directions on the recipe were the directions on how to get the signature Sprinkles Cupcake frosting technique which involved a generous dollop of frosting using an offset spatula making large circles. Unfortunately, I did not get the technique down as evidenced by the photo above.

The cake itself was too dry for my taste even with the huge amounts of butter called for in the mix. Even the “modern dots” included in the package wasn’t worth the $14 investment. Next time I get a hankering for red velvet cupcakes I will pass on the actual mix itself and make red velvet cupcakes from scratch using Kim’s recipe. In fact, I’m going to stay away from the whole lot of cake mixes.

Good bye, Betty and Duncan. It was good while it lasted.