Trader Joe's Spring Cupcake Mix

The taste

Usually when you buy most grocery store cupcake mixes it calls for eggs, water, and oil. Trader Joe's asks for egg whites, water, and butter. There are a few benefits here. First, the egg whites keep this feather-light. Next, the butter adds just a smidge more natural flavor than a neutral oil would.

That being said out of the oven and cooled these were a real treat. They were light and tender. The cupcakes had a mild vanilla flavor to them. Nothing overly assertive.

The frosting came together really easily. As an added bonus, if you are making this with a child it was fun to watch the powder turn from a very faint green into a nice spring green. The spirulina used to color the frosting didn't have any taste to it. It just ended up being vanilla-tasting icing as well. Nothing fancy here. Just a pleasant buttercream icing.

The only bummer is that you'll need some type of piping tip to make this pretty as that wasn't included. If you don't have a pastry bag then just grab a ziplock bag and cut a small piece of one of the corners off as a workaround.

The only thing I found odd about these were the robins' eggs that were included. When I've had robins eggs they were usually malted milk balls which I find strangely delicious. That wasn't the case here. Instead of the light and crispy center, Trader Joe's robins' eggs had caramel in the center. Very unexpected when you don't read the ingredients first.

And unfortunately, I think the gummy caramel centers didn't work together with this. They were just alright separately. Visually they looked adorable but overall just didn't make for a great bite when all three elements were combined.

Once I removed them from the cupcake I tried, I thought Trader Joe's Spring Cupcake Mix was pretty good for the price. Especially to not have to buy multiple products to get the job done.

Directions

The directions were on point for this box. So preheat your oven to 350F. And the directions call for egg whites instead of the whole egg.

Add your cake mix, melted butter, egg whites, and water, and give it a good stir until thoroughly combined.

Mix it together and you get a batter that looks like this:

And into the oven at 350F for 20 minutes.

And while the cupcakes are baking you can make the icing:

Mix and only use enough milk to make it the right consistency:

And once the cupcakes are cool, then you can frost them. Unfortunately, there is no tip included. If you want to pipe the icing, you can use a zip lock bag and cut a corner out of it. If you want to grass tip you can purchase it here on Amazon.

I didn't have the grass tip, so I improvised with what I had.

The packaging

There are 3 bags in the box: One for the cake, the frosting, and the candies. There is no excess packaging noted.

The Bottom Line

Don't forget to share your thoughts by going to the "user review" at the bottom of the box (click on the number of stars you believe this product deserves) and leave a comment below.