Baking with Betty 2010

This past week I was super fortunate to be in attendance at the Baking with Betty event, sponsored by General Mills in Minneapolis. It was so very wonderful! 

My entire trip was paid for by General Mills...how thoughtful!

I was one of 30 bloggers invited to the event. It was so fun to be able to chat with other blogging gals. Let me just say...there was never a lack of conversation. We had a lot to say to each other. There were four bloggers from Utah invited including Laura from RealMomKitchen, Jessica from UtahDealDiva, and Deborah from Taste and Tell. Other bloggers include Megan from MegansMunchies, Amanda from I Am Baker, and Julie from Joy's Hope. It was a fabulous group of gals. Really inspiring. I felt very honored to have been chosen.

Monday night we went on a fun boat cruise. They served dinner right on the boat and we got  to see some beautiful, 

BEA.U.TI.FUL. 

real estate along the lake.

The next day was spent at the General Mills Headquarters...were a lot of fun art can be seen. Check out these Cheerios! Right in the middle of a little rock garden. Wow, who would have thought.

I thought this quote was especially insightful.

These are they. 

The fine, famous, well thought of....

Betty Crocker Test Kitchens!

Wow. Seriously. I had to keep pinching myself.

The fine folks at General Mills had a full day planned for us. They told us a lot of fun background,

history if you will,

about good old Betty Crocker.

It turns out that she is a business...not a real person.

I know, I know. Try and hold your tears in. It's true.

Back in the early 1900's General Mills developed her persona to answer the questions homemakers were sending in to their company.

She became a way for the company to help homemakers learn to cook, and cook WELL.

Back in the 1930's and 40's Betty Crocker had her own radio program. When I mentioned this to my own dear Grandma she said that she can remember her own mother talking about Betty Crocker and the great advice she gave about cooking. 

Pretty fun!

General Mills is still very interested in helping homemakers learn more about cooking. We spent the day in the Betty Crocker Test Kitchens making all kinds of yummy things.

Yummy, EASY (so easy) recipes that I will be sharing with you very soon. If you have read my blog for any amount of time at all, you know I am a huge fan of a good cake mix. The possibilities are really endless. With just a few added ingredients you can have something FABULOUS in a short amount of time.

Just look at a few of the fabulous things we made! 

In the process of fabulousness....

Considering the fabulous....

Look no further....these are the fabulous.

...and the CUTE fabulous.....

...and the beautiful fabulous!

We made all of these recipes with Betty Crocker Products.  

The 8 different pictures of Betty Crocker. Is it just me, or does she get younger looking the older she gets? 

Betty Crocker wanna-be.
Thanks for the fun trip General Mills. I loved it a lot!