Review: Duncan Hines Simple Mornings muffin mix

This post is a quick review of Duncan Hines Simple Mornings Wild Maine Blueberry premium muffin mix. The verdict is that this box of muffin mix makes delicious muffins. I will be buying these again and recommend them to anyone who likes blueberry muffins.

A good muffin recipe seems to be a difficult thing to find. I have a few recipes that I use, but they are either too heavy or too sweet. Because of this, I occasionally buy packages of muffin mix so I don't have to go through all that work for inadequate muffins. A few weeks ago I found this muffin mix at the store and it immediately ended up in my basket. When I got home I made the muffins and ate 3 of them soon after baking.

When I bought this muffin mix I didn't realize that it included real blueberries, even though it says so right on the box. The blueberries were packed in a tin with water. They weren't overly squishy and were in decent condition.

The batter was easy to mix. Just add eggs, oil, and water. (I didn't see dry milk in the ingredient list, so that's an extra bonus for me. I can consider this a dairy free snack!)

It makes enough batter for 12 medium sized muffins or 6 large muffins. Possibly 24 mini muffins.

They baked nicely and the blueberries didn't sink to the bottom, which is always a worry when baking with berries!

I'm glad Duncan Hines made this new muffin mix and I hope the stores here continue to carry it. It isn't expensive and makes muffins that are much better than the ones I can buy at the store bakery! The box also has directions to make a quick bread out of the mix, but I haven't tried that yet.

Blueberry Muffins 2

Blueberries were on sale recently and they were very delicious. One of the places I put the blueberries was inside of these blueberry muffins.

I was unsure if I liked this recipe better than the previous recipe I made, so I remade those. This recipe makes a muffin that is a bit denser and has a different flavor. I think I like these better than the previous recipe. I certainly ate more of this batch!

Blueberry Muffins 2 (Printer friendly PDF version)

1/2 C butter, softened

2/3 C sugar

1 C milk

1 egg, lightly beaten

2 C flour

4 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

1 C blueberries

Cream together the butter and the sugar. I did everything with a wooden spoon.

Stir in the milk as best you can. Add the egg as well!

Throw in the flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix well.

Fold in the blueberries. Be gentle or they can burst open! This doesn't ruin the recipe, it just causes the muffins to be streaked blue!

Pour into greased muffin pans and bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes or until done.

Cool completely.

Enjoy! 

Blueberry Cake

I recently offered to test out a blueberry cake recipe for someone. The recipe that I tested comes from AllRecipes.com. I love blueberries and blueberry cake seems like a delicious idea, so why not test out a blueberry cake? I made little teddy bears since the cake, if it passes inspection, will be baked in a My Little Ponies character pan. They turned out great and delicious.

This cake is kind of dense like a coffee cake, but it is very moist. The cake part is not very sweet at all and compliments the blueberry flavor. This cake would probably go well with a vanilla, lemon, or blueberry frosting. Reading through some of the comments on the original recipe post, a few people complained about the blueberries falling to the bottom and suggested adding them last to help prevent this. The final cake batter is thick and seems too dry, but it isn't. A few of the comments also claimed it tasted like blueberry muffins, but I think it tastes like a cake and not like a muffin at all.

Melt In Your Mouth Blueberry Cake (Printer-friendly PDF Version)

1 1/2 C fresh blueberries

1 T flour

2 egg whites

1/4 C white sugar

1/2 C butter

1/2 C white sugar

1/4 t salt

1 t vanilla extract

2 egg yolks

1 1/2 C flour

1 t baking powder

1/3 C milk

Place the blueberries in a bowl and gently stir in the 1 tablespoon of flour until evenly coated. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. While still beating, slowly pour in the 1/4 cup of sugar. Beat until stiff peaks form. Set aside.

In another bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of sugar and butter.

Mix in the salt and vanilla extract. (I doubled the amount of vanilla. It is just something I commonly do.) Beat in the egg yolks until creamy.

In another bowl, stir together the flour and baking powder. Alternate adding the flour mixture and the milk to the sugar mixture. Be sure to mix completely between each addition. I did two additions of flour and one addition of milk.

Gently mix the blueberries into the batter (or do this after folding in the egg whites).

Gently fold the egg whites into the batter. Be careful not to bruise the blueberries unless you want bluish-purple streaking in your cake!

Pour the batter into a greased and floured cake pan. The original recipe says to use an 8x8inch pan.

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 40 to 50 minutes if using the 8x8 inch pan or until a toothpick comes out clean. If you are using a different pan, the baking time will vary. For the teddy bears pan I used, the cake was done after 20 minutes of baking.

Let the cake cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pan. You can gently loosen the cake from the pan with a butter knife before flipping.

Enjoy!

Blueberry Muffins

Muffins are delicious and easy to make. I think I've mentioned that a time or two. They may be evil in the mini form, but they seem to be happy and content in the blueberry form.

This recipe comes straight from one of the recipe books I have, unlike the previous muffin recipes which I pieced together from the internet. The main part of this muffin is delicious and moist and the blueberries go with it very well. I have used a few a muffin recipes where the batter is awful and the fruit can't even save it. Since this recipe is very simple and results in edible food, I will make them in the future.

Since few people here seem to like blueberry muffins, I cut the recipe in half which made 9 muffins. The muffins are amazing and I'm glad I decided to make them today! They are so good that my nephew tried to eat my hand to get more. There aren't many muffins left and I just made them a few hours ago.

Blueberry Muffins (Printer-friendly PDF Version)
2 C flour
1 C sugar
4 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 C vegetable oil
1 C milk
1 t vanilla
2 C frozen (thawed) or fresh blueberries

Place the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir them up a bit.

Add the wet ingredients and mix until combined. The batter will be lumpy, so don't over mix.

Fold in the blueberries until they seem distributed rather well. Shouldn't take much effort.

Spoon into greased muffin pans or liners. Fill them 2/3 full. Sprinkle the tops with cinnamon sugar if you want.

Bake at 400 for 18 - 20 minutes.

Enjoy!