Product: Gluten-Free Pantry Old Fashioned Cake & Cookie Mix – $3.99+
I wasn’t aware until just a moment ago that Gluten-Free Pantry is owned by Glutino. Go figure. It’s no wonder this product was stunning and amazing. Glutino has become one of the companies I can rely on for delicious, amazing, gluten-free goodies. I just normally equate them to crackers and cookies and snack-type things.
But in the line of Gluten-Free Pantry items, which has a wide range of baking mixes from cakes to muffins to brownies and so on…Glutino shows that the stereotypical belief that gluten-free means heavy and dense is just a rumor. Trust me…until my pan mishap, I had a light, fluffy, amazingly perfect gluten-free cake…which I had intended to layer and coat in a whipped chocolate frosting made from Cool Whip.
But the baking gods had a sense of humor that day…or really wanted to see me cry. Because when I went to invert the cake layers from the 9-inch round pans…they didn’t come out so easy. Half of the cake remained in the pan, the rest…crumbled and fell apart onto my plate. I may have cried…a little. But there is no crying in baking…or so I’m told.
My roommate was the first to even try the cake. I was too busy being upset and pissed off that the layers didn’t come out of the pans as they should have. This was no fault of the mix…but probably a poorly floured pan (my own fault). Trying to make me happy, Cathy came over to where the pieces of cake were laying on my plate and grabbed a pinch of it to taste. She immediately grabbed another, and exclaimed how really light and moist it was. I was making a Gluten-Free Orange Layer Cake, so I flavored the cake with orange zest and freshly squeezed orange juice from said oranges I got the zest from. After her rave reviews, I took a few deep breaths and grabbed a small piece.
She was right. Absolutely amazing. One of the best, softest, moistest cakes I had baked up from a mix since going gluten-free. I was beyond impressed. And yet…here it lay in broken layers. What was a girl to do?
After some Google-fu and a little encouragement from Facebook friends, I sent the roomie out to the store to grab some vegan cream cheese and some Baker’s chocolate. Upon her return, I had thrown the broken layers into a large bowl and had broken them down more by hand. With the addition of the cream cheese, I was now ready to rock and roll some cake balls. With some help from the roomie, we rolled out 48 cake balls. Afterwards, I melted down the Baker’s chocolate (16 ounces worth) and began to coat each cake ball in the chocolate. Cathy then sprinkled half of them with chopped hazelnuts and the other half with chopped walnuts.
The cake mix was saved. Thankfully. Because it would have been sad to have to get rid of this amazing cake because of a fluke in the spraying and flouring (I used gluten-free rice flour) of the pan. Honestly…this cake was made to be raved about. I only wish I could have had it as I intended to make it…but there will be other opportunities. And, I can promise you, more Gluten-Free Pantry mixes will find their way into my pantry. I was beyond impressed.
Interesting part of this mix, as well, is that you can either make cake or cookies with it. So…two for one…take your pick…run with it. For me…it was all about the cake this weekend. And while it didn’t work out as planned, none of this fantastic, light, moist cake went to waste. It’s just in a different form. Still just as delicious as when I pulled it from the oven.
Gluten-Free Pantry…you’re always welcome in my kitchen. I am inspired, amazed, and truly in awe.
The Celiathlete 