Is That a Banana in Your Cupcake?

On Saturday, I experimented with a banana cupcake mix I bought from Sprinkles recently. It included the cake mix and Sprinkles' signature candy dots. The kit also included a frosting recipe, but with my luck making frostings, I opted to cheat by using a store-bought tub.

The mix called for most of the standard cake mix ingredients like butter, milk and eggs. The consistency of the batter was kind of thick, so I was a bit skeptical as to whether it would turn out right. The package says it makes 12 cupcakes, but in order to not overfill the muffin cups, I added two more to make 14. I reduced the bake time from the directions by about 10 minutes. Voila! They came out perfect. Well, almost...

Aside from the fake frosting I used, the cupcake tasted EXACTLY like Sprinkles banana cupcakes. Even though the mix costs $14, I would definitely buy it again and recommend it. It's cheaper than buying a dozen cupcakes. Nothing beats the original Sprinkles, but this comes pretty close.