I'm new to this board, and Mary K(who has been very kind!) suggested that I post some of my baking successes. Here goes:
Rum cake - I baked a rum cake in my chrysanthemum pan that I thought was awesome. Use the traditional pound cake recipe - yellow cake mix, sm. pudding mix, 4 eggs, 1/2 oil, 1 cup water - but in this case I substituted 1/2 cup dark rum for 1/2 of the water. I put about a half cup of chopped pecans in bottom of pan, too. The glaze was great, too - 1/2 cup butter, 1/4 cup water, 1 cup sugar boiled on stove for 5 minutes, then add 1/2 cup dark rum after removing from heat. I poured the glaze all over the cake - down sides and the middle tube, and let it soak up the glaze while it cooled. This cake is very boozey - and I like that, but some of my guests would have preferred the booze flavor not so strong. For certain guests I will make this recipe with half the booze.
Does anyone here like to doctor up quick bread mixes? I used 2 pillsbury mixes for my dinner today. For the cranberry mix, I used orange juice instead of water and added the zest from about half an orange. I also took a pumpkin mix, used milk instead of water, added 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice, about 3/4 cup chopped pecans and 1/2 cup golden raisins.

Hi Donna,

Your cake sounds perfect for this time of the year. I've just bought the holiday tree pan and was thinking of making a rum cake in it so your timing couldn't be better! Since I'll be taking this cake into work I may cut back on the rum a bit in the glaze. Thanks for your review.

Sadie

Hello Donna and welcome to the board,

It is a great and very helpful group! I think some occassionally get a little upset at my chattiness but what can I say I am just that way.

I have doctored a few of the quick mix breads and/or muffins. I like to add sour cream or even cream cheese to the cranberry quick bread. I have added crushed drained pineapple to a pumpkin one. And oh once I added dried cranberries, more dates and of course more nuts to a date one. If I am in a hurry and a pinch for time and need a hurry up gift to add to a basket during the holidays I will doctor up one.

Okay better get busy. Welcome again and thanks for passing on your hints. Brenda

I, too, have used these with some success. The pillsbury baking site has/had a number of good sounding recipes using them - many were from the BO I think.

Back about 4 years ago I had bought quite a few boxes thinking I would experiment with recipe/entries for the Pillsbury BO. Well I got busy and didn't get to it. So when Quaker Oats had a contest (that year you had to use at least so much Quaker Oats and so much honey) - I decided it was a good time to try something.

I made a coffee cake I called HONEY-OF-A-CHOCOLATE BANANA COFFEE CAKE - it used BOTH a box of Banana quick bread mix and a box of choco chip swirl quick bread and coffee cake mix! I made it in a 9 x 13 pan and it was VERY good. Didn't REALLY expect it to do so well - mainly with it using 2 products of another sponsor. So I was very pleasantly surprised when it won a 2nd prize in the easy bread/muffin category! ($250). And it sure did help me use up some of the boxes I had on hand! If anyone wants me to post the recipe, I'd be happy to. I THINK it would be allowable on this site --- as it is MY version.