I love to bake. I’m not the biggest fan of cooking, but it’s a necessary skill, so I do it, but baking, I love. I love that when you bake, everything has to be exact. I love trying to find the perfect recipe, and getting the baked goods cooked to perfection. Plus you get a delicious treat at the end! So, when I heard about The Duff Goldman by Gartner Studios items, I knew I had to give them a try! Duff Goldman is star of the Food Network Show, Ace of Cakes, and is an amazing baker, so I figured his line of products had to be pretty good!

I received the following items to try out:

I received the Duff Goldman by Gartner Studios Red Velvet Cake Mix, the Cream Cheese Ready to Serve Frosting, and the Raspberry Cake and Cupcake Filling.

I tried out the Red Velvet Cake Mix, and of course, paired it with the Cream Cheese Ready to Serve Frosting. The cake mix itself was really easy to make. The directions were very easy to follow, and the cooking time was pretty accurate.

Here’s the cake out of the pan:

I don’t have any real cake pans, only pie tins, so I tend to use a 9 X 13 pan, and just cut it in half, and place the halves on top of each other. It works great, and gives you a square cake.

The cake itself was nice and moist, and had a pretty good flavor. The only thing I didn’t like about it, is how very red it was. It means a lot of red dye was added. I think the flavor could have been better if less red dye was added. I get that red velvet cake is supposed to be red, but it doesn’t have to be quite so red. But, that’s just my opinion. The red color would also get on your hands if you were touching, or handling the cake, or on the plate the cake was on. Because of this, I might not recommend using it for cupcakes. But, beyond the red dye, I thought it turned out really well.

I added the Cream Cheese Ready to Serve Frosting. Here’s the result:

Looks pretty, and yummy, right? I thought the frosting was pretty good. I’m generally not a fan of pre-made frosting. I thought the frosting tasted yummy, but I wished it had more of a cream cheese flavor. I felt like when you were eating the cake, you couldn’t really tell that the frosting was cream cheese frosting. This is probably a good thing for some people, but I tend to like my cream cheese frosting with a strong cream cheese taste. I still thought it was good frosting, however.

My fiancé really liked the cake and frosting. Normally when I bake a cake, we have to give some to friends, because we just can’t eat it all. My fiancé devoured this cake. It was gone quicker than almost anything else I’ve baked, so that has to say something, right? He loved it.

The Raspberry Cake and Cupcake Filling was something I was really excited to try out. Here’s a picture of the filling outside of the box.

The filling is super easy to use, you just spread it on a cake, or put it in a cupcake. You can also use it as an ice cream topper. I used it as a cupcake filling. I made some lemon cupcakes. I waited until they cooled, and then made holes in the center of them. I then took the Raspberry Filling, and cut a hole in the corner of it, and squeezed it in to the cupcake. Super easy!

Here’s the cupcake with the filling added:

I then just put my own frosting on top, to cover up the filling. It turned out great! The filling has a really strong raspberry flavor, and isn’t too sweet. The package was big enough for two dozen cupcakes, and I still had extra left over. It was a really great addition to the cupcakes, and is definitely a product that I would get again!

Overall, I definitely liked these baking items. The Duff Goldman by Gartner Studios products I tried turned out really well, and were well liked. They’re also at great prices. The Raspberry Filling is only $3.99, the Cream Cheese Frosting is only $2.89. They’re definitely worth a try!

Buy it: You can buy the products seen here at Michaels and select Walmart and Target stores, and also on the Duff Goldman by Gartner Studios Website.
Connect: You can connect with Duff Goldman by Gartner Studios on their Facebook and Twitter.

Win it: One lucky reader will get to win the items above, a Duff Goldman by Gartner Studios Red Velvet Cake Mix, a Cream Cheese Ready to Serve Frosting, and a Raspberry Cake and Cupcake Filling. The giveaway is open US residents and ends May 11, 2013 at 11:59 PM EST.

To enter, just fill out the Giveaway Tools form below. Good luck!

Micaela