• Home
  • Recipes
    • Baking & Sweets
      • Bread
      • Brownies and Bars
      • Cakes & Cupcakes
      • Candy
      • Cheesecake
      • Cookies
      • Desserts
      • Ice Cream
      • Muffins
      • No Bake
      • Pie
      • Pops
    • Meals
      • Appetizers
      • Breakfast
      • Lunches
      • Main Dishes
      • Side Dish
      • Drinks
    • Ingredients
      • Beef
      • Chicken
      • Pasta
      • Pork
      • Vegetables
    • Pets
  • About
    • Life
      • Travel
      • Pets
      • House & Home
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Home
  • Recipes
    • Baking & Sweets
      • Bread
      • Brownies and Bars
      • Cakes & Cupcakes
      • Candy
      • Cheesecake
      • Cookies
      • Desserts
      • Ice Cream
      • Muffins
      • No Bake
      • Pie
      • Pops
    • Meals
      • Appetizers
      • Breakfast
      • Lunches
      • Main Dishes
      • Side Dish
      • Drinks
    • Ingredients
      • Beef
      • Chicken
      • Pasta
      • Pork
      • Vegetables
    • Pets
  • About
    • Life
      • Travel
      • Pets
      • House & Home
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
↑

Love From The Oven

Delicious Recipes For Easy Meals, Desserts, Cookies, Cakes, Breads, Brownies And More!

Categories

search

[post_category before="" sep=" &"]

Visiting Duncan Hines – Part One

This weekend I was incredibly lucky to be able to attend an event hosted by Duncan Hines.

With the recent launch of their amazing new product, Frosting Creations , Duncan Hines challenged their customers to come up with unique recipes using the twelve flavors in the Frosting Creations line up.

The 12 Grand Prize winners in the Frosting Creations Recipe Challenge, along with three lucky bloggers – Shelly from Cookies & Cups, Doug from Hoosier Homemade and myself, attended a special Winners Weekend at the state of the art Duncan Hines Test Kitchen in Parsippany, NJ.

It was a fantastic experience that allowed the winners and bloggers to get to know the creative team at Duncan Hines, to tour the facility and a to spend a day learning from the Duncan Hines Corporate Pastry Chef, Joe DiPaolo. I will be sharing the experience over a few blog posts as there is so much to share that I’m not sure I can pack it all into one post.

We started the weekend with a beautiful dinner at Delicious Heights in Bedminster, NJ. The contest winners, bloggers and Duncan Hines staff had a chance to mix and mingle, get to know each other and enjoy a delicious dinner followed by an amazing desert created by Chef Joe. The brownie, peanut butter and chocolate mousse creation was so good that he promised to share the recipe with us as well as show us how to create it.


Getting ready to enjoy dessert with contest winners Toni & Lisa and Duncan Hines Corporate Pastry Chef Joe DiPaolo.

The next morning we arrived at the Duncan Hines Test Kitchen and the red carpet was rolled out for us. Literally.

The Duncan Hines test kitchen is amazing. Due to the fact that they do research and development at this location, cameras were limited inside of the building. But let me tell you, I could LIVE here. It felt like a warm and wonderful home away from home wrapped into a professional state of the art facility. It is beautiful, creative and inspiring, with fresh and modern designs, incredible attention to detail and an atmosphere that no doubt inspires much creativity and collaboration.

After getting inside and suited up in our aprons, it was time to learn more about the staff at Duncan Hines and about Frosting Creations. We also learned more about Pinnacle Foods, the parent group for Duncan Hines. Pinnacle Foods is also home to brands such as Aunt Jemima, Bird’s Eye, Armour, Comstock-Wilderness, Hungry Man, Lender’s, Vlasic, Open Pit, Log Cabin, Van de Kamp’s, Mrs. Paul’s, C&W, Snyder’s Of Berlin and more.

Mary Ellen told us about the research and development that went into Frosting Creations and gave us a look at the first version of the Frosting Creations Flavor Packets.

The walls in this room were all covered in white boards – a fun and functional touch. As they say, the writing is on the walls. They gave everyone a chance to leave their mark and share some ideas for new flavors in the Frosting Creations line up.

I made sure to include my daughter’s flavor requests, which had been previously discussed with her classmates (I think she may be holding her own focus groups). Chef Joe gave her ideas a thumbs up. She was not about to miss this opportunity to her her opinion heard.

After a tour of the facility, we had a chance to experience first hand how focus groups are run, how flavors are selected and how consumer panels share their feedback with the brand. And then it was time to head into the kitchen.

Chef Joe spent the next few hours showing us many of his amazing tips and tricks. It’s unbelievable how much valuable information he packed into the time that we had with him.

With so much information, I’ve decided to break this trip up into three separate blog posts. In my next post I will share some of the techniques that Chef Joe taught us, and then wrap up by sharing the recipes created by the winners in the Frosting Creations Recipe Challenge. I have to say a huge thank you to everyone at Duncan Hines, Pinnacle Foods and RBB Public Relations for making this wonderful event happen and for including Love From The Oven!

About author Christi Johnstone of Love From The Oven

Christi is the baker, cook, blogger, food photographer, recipe developer and sprinkle lover behind Love From The Oven. As a busy mom, it's important to Christi that her recipes are family-friendly and picky eater approved. In addition to running Love From The Oven, Christi is the author of The My Little Pony Baking Book and Smart Cookie, and the co-author of Peeps-A-Licious.
Interested in working with Christi? please contact her by email.
This post may contain affiliate links, please see our disclosure policy.

Home » Baking & Sweets » Cakes & Cupcakes » Visiting Duncan Hines – Part One

#LoveFromTheOven Cakes & Cupcakes
June 3, 2012 by LOVE FROM THE OVEN

Comments

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  1. Averie @ Averie Cooks says

    June 3, 2012 at 6:06 pm

    I would have LOVED to go to something like this…I didn’t even know the contest was happening. I would love to meet both you and Shelly one day!! And of course, the Duncan Hines people, too 🙂

    Reply
  2. LauraE says

    June 3, 2012 at 9:05 pm

    How exciting! I have been following your blog for the last year, you have come up with the neatest idea, I am glad they picked you and can’t wait to see how this trip inspired your creativity.

    Reply
  3. Jeannie Bee says

    June 4, 2012 at 3:42 am

    Christi, not only did you just write a great beginning, you take amazing pictures that captured our enthusiasm as well as Chef Joe’s too! Hope we all get to have a reunion. It was nice being able to get to know you a little better at the airport, and now that I see you with your family on here it becomes even more precious.

    Reply
  4. Sarah @ Miss CandiQuik says

    June 4, 2012 at 7:12 am

    Wow – that’s awesome. What a unique and great opportunity! Can’t wait to see the other posts.

    Reply
  5. Nancy says

    June 4, 2012 at 5:03 pm

    I’m new to your blog and live in Morris Plains (right next to Parsippany)….and didn’t even know Duncan Hines had a test kitchen so close by! Looking forward to your next posts…

    Reply
  6. Debra Kapellakis says

    June 5, 2012 at 12:01 am

    That looks like fun! Good job on getting your daughters ideas to the Chef! 😀

    Reply
  7. Sue @ Cakeballs, cookies and more says

    June 6, 2012 at 8:44 am

    oh that sounds like heaven! I would never want to leave!

    Reply
  8. Lauri says

    June 6, 2012 at 2:41 pm

    Wow, that would be so much fun to visit DH. I love all of their products and I have always wanted to see inside how big companies create their new ideas. The white boards were a great idea!

    Reply
  9. Mima says

    June 7, 2012 at 4:23 am

    Wow that seems cool !!
    I would love been there :O)

    Reply
  10. Casey says

    June 8, 2012 at 4:46 pm

    What an awesome event!! That would be like my heaven 🙂

    Reply
Hi, I'm Christi I love sharing easy & delicious recipes that your family & friends will love. I'm a mom, cookbook author...Read More

TRY MY FAVORITE RECIPES

  • Free Cookies e-Cookbook
  • Cookie Recipes
  • Cake Recipes
  • Main Dish Recipes
  • Bread Recipes
  • Breakfast Recipes
  • Side Dish Recipes

MY COOKBOOKS

Copyright ©2021, Love From The Oven.
Design by Pixel Me Designs