Box or scratch? This is the question.

Before the craziness of this winter, I thought I would buy books on cupcakes and cakepops and try some recipes.  Than I had the big idea that I would take one of these books and do every recipe in it and than post it on my blog......that was 4 mos. ago.  LOL.  Boy am I ambitious!  Well I thought I would start this week.  Instead of doing one every day, I would try once a week.  I mean really, I want this to be fun, not a chore.  Okay, so the first book I tried for my very first recipe is......drum roll please.....Betty Crockers...The Big Book of Cupcakes.  I got this book and well.....all my books from amazon.com.  So I usually use Betty Crocker's Super Moist cake mix, so I thought how can I go wrong.  It might take a little more time making it from scratch, but knowing I did would be worth it.

I thought I would try the basic yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting recipes.  Now remember I am not a chef, own my own bakery or an expert in the kitchen.  I'm just your average person who loves to bake.  I can tell you only of my experience.

       

Adding the dry ingredients.  Everything appears to be going right.  or is it...

                            

                                    
                                       Scoop!  Gotta love Pampered Chef!

                            

                                              

                                   So nice and neat, every things going as planned.

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Time to frost!

                         

                                          
                    There they sit so nice in a row.

 I followed the recipe to the t......well I thought I did.  Don't they look beautiful?!......

They looked sooo yummy!  Wrongo!   The frosting was soooo delicious, but the cupcakes had the consistency of cornbread...blah.  I was so frustrated.  I thought "What, this is Betty Crocker?!"  Well I thought I should probably go over my steps one more time.  Poor Betty Crocker, it was actually my fault.. I used BREAD flour.  Dang it!  I forgot that I had filled my Tupperware container that holds my all purpose flour with my bread flour.  Needless to say I did try the recipe again.  This time using all purpose flour like the recipe calls for.  It was better, but a little dry.  If anyone out there has an idea on how to make these more moist.  Please let me know.  I'm a big fan of Betty Crocker Super Moist cake mixes.  Always delicious!  So for now box won over scratch, for time and taste.