I have been contemplating for quite some time on what to bring as a “thank you” gift for the nurses whenever I go into labor. Is that a common thing for new moms to do? I have no idea, but I read it on one of my forums and thought it was a great idea. After all, I love when guests bring gifts for me when I work as a flight attendant. Candies and coffee gift cards are the way to my heart!
Homemade cupcakes would have been a little too hard to transport with all of my hospital bags because the frosting would get smushed, but I still wanted to create individual treats that would be easy to eat. That’s where Pillsbury’s cake mixes come in. They save me so much time and helped me make something homemade in a snatch! 
No one could even tell that these started off with a box. That’s how easy it is to make something at home. I plan on whipping up a batch whenever labor starts. They’ll take no longer than 30 minutes to whip up from start to finish and then we could head to the hospital whenever I’m ready.
There are so many things you can do with boxed cake mix. Don’t let regular cupcakes limit your imagination! With a streusel/crumb topping, my boxed cake mix turned into coffee cake muffins. These are the perfect gift for nurses because it’s a quick pick me up for any time of the day. 
They can grab one, eat it on the go, and then throw away the wrapper. Besides, who doesn’t want coffee cake 24:7?
It will also be a great memory for the future because I can easily repeat this recipe with my daughter when she’s older and tell her the story of how I made them when I was going into labor with her. Labor muffins! The thought of that just makes my heart melt. I can’t wait to share these memories with my children.
Pillsbury’s Purely Simple Cake Mix has easily climbed its way to the top of my list of favorite cake mixes. It tastes like it was made from scratch, has no preservatives, and no bleached flour. Only the best for the best!
With this recipe, I got 19 coffee cake muffins. I also was very generous with the streusel/crumb mixture. It might seem like a lot, but don’t worry, it’s not! You can never have enough crumb topping.
To find out more about Pillsbury, you can also follow them here:
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Ingredients
- 1 package Pillsbury™ Purely Simple™ White Cake & Cupcake Mix (17 oz)
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup plain greek yogurt
- ¼ cup butter, melted
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 2 ts cinnamon
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup sugar
- pinch of salt
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 cup cold butter, cut into cubes
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Line two muffin pans with cupcake liners (I got 19 muffins from this).
- For the cake mixture, mix the cake mix, egg, greek yogurt, butter, vanilla, and cinnamon together until just combined. The batter will be thick. Set aside.
- Now make the crumb mixture in another bowl. Use your hands to mix together the flour, both sugars, salt, cinnamon, and butter until crumbly.
- Place about a tablespoon of dough into the bottom of each muffin pan. Sprinkle some of the crumb mixture on top. Repeat the process with another layer of dough and crumb mixture.
- Bake for 16-18 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.
Wow, hope that you had a long labor, because these took WAY longer than 30 minutes to “whip up”. The process of filling the tins was at least 20 minutes alone. The batter is so thick that it doesn’t flow into the tin. I used a tablespoon-sized scoop to make it easier and even. The batter was in a ball. If you wanted them to even out, then you would have had to spread the batter in each one. Times this by 2. Also, preparing the ingredients takes a while. Cutting the butter into the sugar and flour until it was crumbly took at least 10 minutes. I got 22 muffins. The texture and taste were good, but I wouldn’t consider these a quick thing to bake. Start to finish it took me about an hour and 5 minutes, and I’m an experienced baker.
FWIW, I made cookies to bring to my labor. I made them in advance and froze them. I took them to the hospital thinking that we’d have them as a snack during labor. I didn’t know that I wouldn’t feel like eating anything. So, most of them were left after the labor, and we shared them with the nurses and visitors. They were Toll House cookies for my son, and I repeated the tradition with my daughter (oatmeal chocolate chip) and second daughter (oatmeal raisin). I make them on their birthdays every year (well, my son has “aged out” – I’ll only make them on request once you get to be 21).
It took me less than 10 min to put it together lol.