Mug Cakes

Hi All!

I am back with a food review of one of my most favorite treats that came into my life in recent years: Mug Cakes (or Mug Treats as Betty Crocker is calling them)! I first discovered these through the Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond, who is one of my favorite food bloggers and Food Network TV personalities.  She did a post a few years ago with a recipe for chocolate cake in a mug. I bookmarked it immediately and have made it quite frequently according to her instructions, although it’s even better if you add peanut butter! You can find her recipe here.

I was super excited when Duncan Hines came out with mug cake mix packages because why should I bother taking out my sugar, flour, etc. when I can just dump a packet in a mug and add a little water?? I have tried a few of these over the years and they were fairly tasty (although not as good as ones made from scratch), but I never realized Betty Crocker had a line of them until recently. I am more a Betty Crocker fan  than Duncan Hines so when I was shopping at Super Wal-Mart one day and saw a huge display featuring Betty Crocker mug cakes, I went a little hog wild and purchased four different ones to try! I’ve tried them all in the past couple of weeks and here are my findings:

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Betty Crocker Soft Baked Chocolate Chip Cookie with Fudge Topping

This was the first one I tried. This was only decent if you really want only one WARM cookie; otherwise just make a whole batch, because this was the worst one of the four. The fudge topping is just chocolate syrup and I suspect they only added this because the cookie was incredibly dry and the syrup helped to compensate for that. Since I don’t love chocolate syrup, I wasn’t a huge fan. I think chocolate frosting would have made a much tastier topping. Also, I paused from eating this for about 2 minutes and when I went back it was literally rock hard,so consume IMMEDIATELY after baking!

Betty Crocker Rainbow Chip Cake with Rainbow Chip Frosting

This one was my whole reason for buying all of these. I know Pillsbury’s Funfetti gets the most love in the general population of birthday cake fan favorites or at least seems to be the most well-known, but Rainbow Chip is my favorite boxed cake mix. I like Funfetti, but I LOVE Rainbow Chip. I think the frosting and cake are both superior to Pillsbury’s Funfetti. Therefore, I was SO excited to try this mug cake!

Yet, I was disappointed in the taste of this– it’s really not a little piece of heavenly Rainbow Chip cake! 🙁 The only thing I kept thinking while eating it was how much better the actual cake is! This cake itself was a little dry and did not have the same scrumptious taste of boxed Rainbow Chip cake; it definitely fell flat in the taste category. The best part was the frosting packet, which was exactly Rainbow Chip frosting and delicious. The frosting helped to elevate the cake to somewhat yummy status, but there wasn’t enough of it included and the cake itself was really lacking moisture. This was really just ok and I wouldn’t eat it again unless I had a craving and for some reason couldn’t make a whole cake. Disappointing to say the least!

Betty Crocker Hot Fudge Brownie with Fudge Topping

OMG THIS WAS AMAZING. I made this on a dreary, rainy day after I had just gotten home from work and it really made the afternoon SO much better!! The fudge topping tasted exactly like chocolate frosting and it really took the brownie to a new tasty height. I also added whipped cream because – well why not? – and it was all so delightful. The brownie itself was fudgy with a good amount of moisture.  I wouldn’t say it was as good as a brownie from a whole boxed mix, but the frosting made it 10x better. This was SO GOOD and I literally devoured it. If you purchase any mug cakes, get this one!

Betty Crocker Triple Chocolate Cake with Fudge Frosting

When I made this I was wondering if it would really taste much different from the fudge brownie. The short answer: Yes, it did. I found this one to be way too rich to eat more than a few bites, and I consider myself to be a fairly big chocolate lover.  The cake itself was moist and has little mini chocolate chips in it. The fudge frosting was good, but it also made it super sweet and heavy when the cake itself is already fairly rich. I think I would have preferred a vanilla frosting to cut down on the chocolate overload and add a different flavor. I only ate half of this because it was so sweet. This one is definitely reserved for serious chocoholics only.

My Final Thoughts:

First, the hot fudge brownie is the BEST and the only one that I would repurchase. My second takeaway is that you really need to know your microwave before heating these up. A second or two over and these mug cakes are basically garbage because they are too dry. My microwave tends to cook everything quickly so if the directions said to microwave for 1 minute, I cut it to 55 seconds. I think in some cases a few seconds less would have probably been better. The third thought is my annoyance with Betty Crocker over the names of these mug cakes, for example both the chocolate chip cookie and brownie are advertised as coming with fudge topping. The fudge topping in the brownie mix is frosting and the fudge topping in the chocolate chip cookie is chocolate syrup. I suppose I will chalk it up to poor marketing management over at General Mills!

Have you tried mug cakes before? Hope everyone enjoyed my reviews as much as I enjoyed tasting them all! 🙂

xo

Holly