A Valentine Cake with Betty Crocker & The Little People

When I was growing up in America the baking culture was moving away from weighing and measuring ingredients to make a cake and welcomed ready to make cake mixes such as Betty Crocker.

Although trends have now swung back to weighing and measuring ingredients there is still a time and a place for Betty Crocker such as when you are in a hurry and when you want a quick cake to make with the help of The Little People.

I was visiting my daughter and The Little People who are always keen to help in the kitchen. I had a couple of silicone, heart shaped baking shapes so when sent a selection of Betty Crocker products The Little People and I set about making a cake.

There was no differing of opinions, we would make the Classic Vanilla and use the Vanilla Icing with Sprinkles. Sprinkles!! How exciting - Small kept asking when we would do the sprinkles!

Big had some television to finish watching so Small and I got on with our task.

Big popped in to help with a bit of stirring

and of course some spatula licking!

Cakes into the oven to bake and then left to cool completely.

The icing is ready to spread and normally I would have but in honour of Valentine's Day I added some red food colouring and mixed thoroughly.

I spread the icing between the layers and on top of the cake. Although it doesn't look like much icing when in the container but it is enough to sandwich the two layers and cover the top and sides with a nice thick layer of icing.

Small was so keen to put the sprinkles on top!

And the finished cake. If you look really closely you will also see the bit in the middle where Small had a taste of the sprinkles!

I was sent a selection of Betty Crocker mixes. I was not paid to write a positive review and as always all opinions and photos are my own.

My Betty Crocker Birthday Cake

I have been making Betty Crocker cakes and bakes for years and recently my daughter came to visit for my birthday at the beginning of the month.  As a busy mum she didn't have time to make the cake at home but brought the mix and icing with her to make at mine.

 

Needless to say we were too busy to bake that weekend and this week I decided to bake this cake.

I have had loads of other cakes from Betty Crocker but this Victoria Sandwich (which is my favourite tea time cake) is relatively new.  Having eaten a lot of Victoria Sandwiches over the years I feel I am qualified to judge this one!

As in typical Betty Crocker style it was simple to prepare and baked perfectly.  However sometimes these mixes are a bit lumpy unless you use a mixer.  I used a new mixer that I have been sent called Masha.

The Masha is like a potato ricer and is designed to make the smoothest, creamiest mash potatoes but it is equally good for soups, baby foods and cake mixes.  It is like the typical stick blender but has a ring around it with small slits and like a ricer it pushes the mixture through these slits.

 

The Masha is lightweight and easy to clean.

I used the icing (frosting) from Betty Crocker and some raspberry jam for the middle of the cake and the icing for the top.  The cake was lovely and moist and everyone enjoyed it. Personally I prefer my own buttercream icing but wanted to try it this way.

But I still ate it!!