Thank You Teachers (and Icing in a Tube)! And my 1st Giveaway!

This week was Teacher Appreciation Week (I know, shouldn't every week be teacher appreciation week?). Parents of my son's elementary school were asked to show their gratitude by bringing in some food for a teacher luncheon. Kindergarten was in charge of dessert. Sigh. Couldn't Kindergarten be in charge of bringing in a killer bouillabaisse or tagine? That I could do. Bake? Not so much.

As luck would have it, I was the lucky recipient of these to try:

From the makers of dessert decorating icons Betty Crocker and Cake Mate, Signature Brands recently launched a new line of easy-squeeze decorating icing. There is Oreo Ultimate Icing made with real Oreos and S'mores Dessert Icing made with genuine Hershey's cocoa. The squeezable pouch is supposed to make it easy for anyone (even me) to pipe icing on a treat.

So I decided to bake chocolate cupcakes from scratch topped with these bad boys for my son's teachers. I had my boys help bake the cupcake using the chocolate cupcake recipe from our Flour cookbook. Thanks to Joanne Chang's easy-to-follow recipes, it was surprisingly fun and not too difficult. The boys and I could not help ourselves from having little tastes of the batter off the whisk. God was it good.

Next I had my Kindergartner help frost the cupcakes. He had no problems with the squeezable pouch (or eating straight icing for that matter).

The verdict? They were pretty tasty. I kept on thinking I was eating the creme filling of an Oreo. And who can deny that stuff is good?

No. They don't come close to a butter cream frosting from scratch from the likes of Mix Bakery or Party Favors. But if you're short on time or lack the baking chops like me, these are convenient and the kids love them.

***The giveaway is now closed.

Congrats Kelly and happy baking!***

>>Now for the fun part: my very first GIVEAWAY! Signature Brands is offering one lucky umommy reader a chance to win this:

Included in this gift pack: ingredients and recipe cards to make S'mores Whoopie Pies and OREO Brownie Bites, cupcake liners, frosting tips, a wooden spoon and a spatula.

To enter, leave a comment on what you would make with this icing by Friday, May 13th at 11:59pm EST. A winner will be selected at random by Random.org. Good luck!

Disclosure: I was not compensated for this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I was given Signature Brand Icing in exchange for sharing information with my readers. Opinions are my own.