Michi Photostory

My husband went to Landers last month and he bought a lot of instant cake mixes. I asked him to buy our favorite brownies mix but it was not available so he bought Betty Crocker cake mix instead. We already tried and tasted this brand for the past few years so it became a staple in our pantry. I’ve already blogged about their products before.

Super Cake Yellow Mix 
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix 
Super Cake Lemon Mix 
Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix  
Oatmeal Cookie Mix 

Among these products, our favorite is the oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. Anyway, last weekend I baked the Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix and it turned out okay, not super moist but not dry. You can eat it without frosting but if you want to make it special, you can add frosting like Chocolate Ganache and Vanilla Buttercream Frosting. I still have 2 boxes of cake mix and 1 pouch of cookie mix that I will try in the next few weeks. 


Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix Recipe 

1 1/4 cups water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs

1. Heat oven to 350F for shiny metal or glass pan. 325F for dark or nonstick pan. Grease bottom and sides of the pans.
2. Mix cake mix, water, oil, and eggs in a large bowl with mixer on medium speed or beat vigorously by hand 2 minutes. Pour into pan.
3. Bake as directed or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool ten minutes before removing from pan. Cool completely before frosting.


Pan Size and Baking Time 

13”x9” - 30 to 35 minutes
8” Round (2) - 30 to 35 minutes
9” Round (2) - 25 to 30 minutes
Bundt - 40-45 minutes
Cupcakes - 14-19 minutes

It’s been 12 days since the last time I went out and today is Day 8 of Community Quarantine. I mentioned before that I have no problem with staying at home because this is my life for the last 12 years. I’m an introvert and full-time mom so I enjoy being at home pero iba pa rin pala yung feeling na hindi ka talaga makalabas ng bahay because of Covid19. I suddenly miss going to the grocery, lalo na ngayon na na nasa bahay kami lahat. Mabilis maubos ang food supply.

We always have bananas at home so my husband bought a bunch of banana day before the lockdown. I’ve been saving the few pieces of overripe bananas so I can bake banana cupcake but two days ago, my husband made banana smoothies so nabawasan pa. Waah! Since we don’t have loaf bread at home, I decided to use the remaining bananas so we have something to eat. If there is no quarantine, we can easily go to the market or grocery so we can buy other ingredients pero sa panahon ngayon, it is better to stay home and use whatever ingredients we have.


I started baking when I got married and I’ve been using this Banana cupcake recipe since 2006. I got the recipe from Yummy Magazine, good thing I copied it because I can no longer find the magazine; nasama na yata sa binaha nung Typhoon Milenyo. Anyway, I like this recipe because my cupcake is soft and moist and even I remove some of the ingredients, masarap pa rin siya. Most of the time, I don’t add instant coffee mix or cinnamon sugar. If I have available chocolate chips or nuts at home, I added it to the recipe.

Banana Cupcake and Banana Bread Recipe 

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
2 mashed bananas
1 + 1/2 tsp instant coffee dissolves in 1+1/2 water
1 cup + 2 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Procedures

1. In a bowl, mix together ½ cup butter at room temperature and 2/3 cup sugar.
2. Add 1 egg and 2 mashed bananas.
3. Mix in coffee (1 ½ tsp instant coffee dissolved in 1 ½ water)
4. Add 1 cup plus 2 tbsp flour, ½ tsp baking powder, ½ tsp baking soda, and ½ tsp salt.
5. Spoon the mixture into paper-lined muffin cups. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar (1tbsp sugar and mixed with ¼ tsp cinnamon.
6. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit about 20 to 25 minutes or till sides are lightly browned and top no longer look wet.

Using the same recipe, I can also make banana bread, I just increase the baking time. It took me 45-50 minutes to bake the banana bread when I use the loaf baking pan. I doubled the recipe and was able to bake 32 pieces of cupcakes and according to my son same taste (meaning masarap) pa rin kahit kulang kami ng isang banana, instant coffee, and cinnamon sugar.

Our Day 4 Advent Calendar Activity yesterday was “Bake a Cupcake”. Since last year, my son wanted to bake a Rainbow Cupcake but it took me a long time to fulfill his wish. If you remember my post last year, we tried to bake a rainbow cupcake but I only had two food coloring at home so we ended up baking a Christmas Cupcake. 

Read: Bake a Christmas Cupcake



So every time I go to supermarket, I always check the food coloring and I was able to buy 3 primary colors which is red, blue and yellow. But the problem is, I can’t find the white cake mix. Good thing, I saw the Pillsbury White Cake Mix two months ago at S&R so I bought 3 boxes na because bihira ko siya makita. The cake mix is more or less P80. 

I did not bake this immediately because I will include this in our Advent Calendar Activity. To make the long story short, we baked Rainbow Cupcake yesterday. 



Since I’m using a ready cake mix, all I need to do is add 3 eggs, 1/2 cup oil and 1 cup water then mix everything. I divide the batter in 6 bowls then put food coloring. 

I have the primary colors, so I just mix two colors to produce secondary colors which is violet, green and orange. O di ba, instant art lesson pa. My son was really happy in mixing the batter. 



Then I put the batter in baking cup according to rainbow colors, red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet aka ROYGBV. Yes I know, kulang ng indigo. Hehehe! 

We baked it and we’re so happy with the result. Finally we did it. We’re so happy to see the layers of the color and I can definitely say that we will do this again. But next time, 1/2 full na lang yung batter para di lumagpas yung cupcake sa baking cup. 



Rainbow Cupcake Recipe 

1 box of Pillsbury White Premium Cake mix 
1/2 cup oil 
1 cup water 
3 eggs 
Food coloring 

1. Set oven to 350F. Coat bottom of pan with no-stick cooking spray or shortening and a flour dusting. For Bundt cake, coat an entire pan. For cupcakes, use paper baking cups. 
2. Beat cake mix, water, oil and eggs in bowl with mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes. 
3. Divide batter in separate bowls. Add food colors and mix. 
4. Pour batter into muffin pan. One color at a time.
5. Bake at 350F for 19 to 23 minutes. When a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, cake is done. 
6. Cool for 10 to 15 minutes before removing from pan. Cool cake completely before frosting.

Nowadays, I seldom bake from scratch after I discovered some good instant mixes for cakes, cupcakes brownies, and cookies. I prefer using instant mixes if we want desserts at home because it is so easy to prepare and less dishes to wash. 

But when it comes to banana cupcake, I always bake from scratch because we always have bananas at home. It is the best way to use overripe bananas. Let us save banana to minimize the waste. 



Last Monday, I baked Banana Chocolate Cupcake. It is an all time favorite of my family so one batch of the recipe is not enough. I also have Duncan Hines Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting that I bought in S&R P139.95. 

The taste is almost the same with the cream cheese frosting from scratch. It is rich, creamy and easy to spread frosting. It is also gluten free. 

I don’t always put frosting on my homemade cupcake (merienda) because it is an added sugar and expense. But the Duncan Hines Frosting is not that expensive so if you like cream cheese frosting, pwede na ito. My son likes this frosting and he wanted me to bake again so we can use it again.

Read: Banana Chocolate Cupcake
          Classic Chocolate Frosting 

For the last two weeks, my son has been bugging me to bake chocolate cupcake but I was so lazy to bake because of the summer heat and I told him that we have so many food in the fridge, ubusin muna.



After our trip in Cebu, we finally baked chocolate cupcake using Duncan Hines Devil’s Food mix P169.95. I’ve tried this instant mix three years ago and if I remember it right, the cupcake was not sweet so when I saw the ready made Classic Chocolate frosting of Duncan Hines P139.95, I bought it too. 



You need 1 cup water, 3 large eggs, 1/3 vegetable oil and instant mix. Just mix the ingredients and pour batter in baking pan. Bake for 18 to 21 minutes at 350F. 



The cupcake is soft and fluffy but as I mentioned before, it is not sweet so it really needs frosting. The classic chocolate frosting is so easy to spread and not overly sweet. My son enjoyed our chocolate cupcakes.



Read: Red Velvet 
          California Walnut Brownies  
          Devil’s Food

I baked banana chocolate muffin last Wednesday so we have baon for our Holy Thursday trip. This time, I baked from scratch but I used a different recipe because I don’t want to use mixer, tamad talaga maghugas. Hehehe!

I got the recipe from marthastewart.com 

2 cups all-purpose flour 
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder 
1 teaspoon coarse salt 
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
3 extra-ripe bananas, mashed (1 cup) 
3/4 cup light brown sugar 
1 stick unsalted butter, melted 
1 large egg 
1/4 cup milk 
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips 


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with baking cups. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, whisk together banana, sugar, egg, butter, and milk. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients then stir in chocolate chips. 

Divide batter evenly between prepared cups, adding a scant 1/4 cup to each. Bake until tops spring back when lightly touched, about 20 minutes. Cool in pans 5 minutes, then remove to wire rack to cool completely. 


My son liked it, maybe because of the chocolate chips but I’m not satisfied with it because I can’t taste the banana or hindi matamis ang banana na nagamit ko. I still prefer my all time favorite recipe of banana cupcake, check it here. I will try this recipe again next time bago mabago lasa. :)

Ever since I’ve tried instant mixes, I became a fan of it because it made my life easier. I can bake something in several minutes without using a mixer, I don’t have to buy a lot of ingredients and I only need few kitchen tools. 

Summer vacation is here, so my son is at home and he always looks for food. “Mommy, I’m hungry,” “Mommy, I want cookie”, and many more. I’m not complaining kasi bihira naman yan magdemand. 



So last Monday, I tried this Betty Crocker Super Moist Lemon Cake Mix. I just add 3 eggs, 1 cup water, and 1/2 cup of vegetable oil. Mix all ingredients and bake it for 15-17min at 350F. After several minutes, our lemon cupcakes were done. 



My son likes warm cupcakes. We were so happy because the cupcake is really moist and you can smell and taste the lemon. My son doesn’t like lemon cupcake or calamansi cupcake before but now he really enjoyed eating it.





I will buy this instant mix again because the taste is the same with my lemon brownies. Mas cheaper kasi ito kaysa bumili ko ng lemon and bake from scratch. But if you are not a fan of instant mixes, you can check the following recipe that I’ve tried before. 

Lemon Cupcake
Lemon Brownies
Lemon Crinkle Cookies 

Update: July 2020

It's been years since the last time I baked this, I stopped baking for a while because I don't have an oven. Last year, we finally replaced our old oven so I'm back to baking again. And because of the community quarantine, my husband bought a lot of instant mixes that I can bake at home. I baked this lemon loaf last month using the Betty Crocker Super Moist Lemon Cake Mix. 

My son loves watching EvanTube so he showed me the video where the family was baking a rainbow cupcake. He said, mommy, I want to bake a rainbow cupcake, repeat 100 times. 

Read: Rainbow Cupcake



But I don’t have any food color at home so last week I went to the grocery and fortunately I found the Pillsbury Classic White Mix and bought food coloring too. The sad part is there are only two colors available in the grocery. 



Yesterday, my son saw me reading the procedures of the cake mix and he asked me if we will bake rainbow cupcakes and I said yes.

Ethan: Let’s bake rainbow cupcakes. 
Me: Later pa. Finish your food and we will do your homework first. 

After eating. 

Ethan: Mommy, let’s bake rainbow cupcakes. 
Me: Later pa, sa merienda 2PM. Study first. 

After homework. 

Ethan: Let’s bake rainbow cupcakes. Stop working mommy. 
Me: Later, I’ll call you if we will bake na. 

Ending, he locked himself in the room and he didn’t want to bake anymore. #nagtampo So I bake the rainbow cupcake on my own. 



When I placed the muffin tray in the oven, I went to the room and persuaded my son to go down and check the cupcake. Ending, bumaba din siya and he kept on checking the cupcake in the oven. Waiting for the baking and cooling period to finish. 



Like I said, I only have two food colors so it looks like Christmas Cupcake but in the eyes of my son, it is still Rainbow Cupcake. We love the cupcake because it is soft and moist. He finished two cupcakes and requested na baon niya yun today. I will go to the grocery again and look for other food colorings so I can bake a real rainbow cupcake. I still have 1 box of instant mix.

Anyway, the cupcake is moist, fluffy and taste ok. I wanted to make cream cheese frosting but as usual, tinamad na ko. Hehehe!

Read: California Walnut Brownies
       Devil's Food Cupcake

Last Friday, I was planning to bake banana bread to save our overripe banana but I saw Betty Crocker cake mix in our cupboard so I decided to bake this instead. I have the Betty Crocker “Super Moist Cake - Yellow” and I’ve made 20 cupcakes.

Yesterday, I decided to make an oatmeal cupcake and while waiting for the cupcake I was doing some chores and when I got back, I was shocked because there was no fire, my husband turned off the gas before he left so I have to bake the cupcake again and I don’t know how many more minutes I need to bake it. Grrr!

Yesterday was my son’s 4^th birthday party in school and I baked choco-banana cupcake and vanilla cupcake. My initial plan was to buy cake but I realized that it would be easy for the kids to bring home the cupcake after eating their meal.

ang liit ng brownies

Real Coffee and Tea Cafe is located in station 1, landmark is Astoria Boracay, enter the small alley on the right side and you will see the cafe.