Product Review: Bake Me Happy Cream-Filled Spongies

Product: Bake Me Happy Cream-Filled Spongies – $2.25

Ah, Columbus, Ohio.  What a strange place to find so much gluten-free goodness.  But, let’s be completely honest…I find so many gluten-free goodies there.  And one of my primary sources for this is the Raisin Rack, which my friend Jenn, introduced me to once upon a time.  Since then, this store has become a staple as far as stops go when I’m in town (others include the gluten-free crepe place and the gluten-free bakery).

On my most recent visit for a fun weekend with my friend, our final stop before heading back to her house was…Raisin Rack.  My budget was a bit tighter, so I was only given an allowance of 10 food items to try this time.  And after walking around the gluten-free section about 20 times, I started to put in my choices.

At the end of one of the one of the aisles, there was this cooler…and inside were some fun desserts, snacks, treats…whatever. And the ones that really, really caught my attention was these little cylindrical cakes filled with a marshmallow cream.

And…if you see where I’m going…you’ll know that this can only mean…

GLUTEN FREE TWINKIES!

Except Twinkies are trademarked and all that jazz.

So, a local gluten free kitchen created their own take on the Hostess treat…

Cream-Filled Spongies!

Don’t you just love that?  Spongies.  HA!  Just saying it is fun. I bought two of them…one for me and one for my roommate, and we stocked them in my freezer upon transporting frozen stuff in dried ice…all the way back to the Louisville area.  They stayed in the freezer up until tonight…

Because I really just wanted a simple dessert tonight.  And this was as easy as putting these in the fridge the night before to let them thaw to perfection.  I let them sit on the counter, by the way, while I cooked and ate dinner…so they were about to room temperature when it was time to feast on dessert.

Before I get into what I thought of the Bake Me Happy Cream-Filled Spongies…let me tell you a little about Bake Me Happy.

Bake Me Happy is a gluten-free kitchen that believes that dessert should always be delightful.  In 2006, Wendy was self-diagnosed with a gluten intolerance and immediately felt relief from a life of digestive issues.  The problem she was encountering was that her food choices were lacking in flavor and texture…and her choices of what she could eat were limited.  So, Wendy began her foray into the world of gluten-free cooking and baking…eventually taking an immersion course at the acclaimed Culinary Institute of America and began to test recipes out on unsuspecting friends.  When her friends and family, who were not even gluten intolerant, began asking for treats for their parties, she knew she was onto something and that her baked goods were ready for the public.  And so, Bake Me Happy is the bakery that Wendy and Letha, her partner in gluten-free crime, opened.  This bakery is commited to making every bite the most decadent gluten free treat anyone has had since sliced bread.  If you have a craving, enjoy a baked good that won’t crumble to dust and leave you feeling like there is no pleasure in food.  Because Wendy has to eat gluten-free, she understands why good food is important and works hard to perfect her recipes.

And so…out of one of these recipes came…Bake Me Happy’s Gluten-Free Cream-Filled Spongies.

And these little cream-filled treats had to make their way home with me.  And tonight…after a stressful day…I really wanted something different and fun for dessert.  The Spongies were the perfect option.  After consuming dinner (I made black bean tostadas) and cleaning up the kitchen…dessert was on.  The Spongies had come to room temperature for the most part…only a slight chill from the fridge remained.  So, I opened up the package, gave one to my roommate and then did the same for myself.

I ate mine standing up in the kitchen.

The Bake Me Gluten Free Cream-Filled Spongies look just like Twinkies.  So…nostalgia happiness.  I know some people who would turn up their nose at the thought of eating a Twinkie of any sort.  But not me.  Not when most of these regular goodies that are the norm for anyone aren’t for me.  Twinkies are a dime a dozen…until you’re gluten-free.  Then…they are a special treat.

The Bake Me Gluten Free Cream-Filled Spongies are golden snack cakes filled with a whipped marshmallow cream.  Yep.  Just like a Twinkie.  And so…I first examined the little cake of cream-filled goodness.  It was soft and spongy like a Twinkie…shaped like a Twinkie…and the filling was piped in through three holes in the bottom.  I took one bite…

The Spongies cake was soft, but slightly gritty.  It had a great flavor to it…that rich buttery flavor that these snack cakes are known for…but the star was definitely the cream that was to fill the treat itself.  Sadly, the three holes were the only places the cream made it.  it was not piped throughout the entire cake itself…but in three little sections.  Which, is a bit of a disappointment.  The best part of the Twinkie is the cream.  Well, that part was true for the Spongies too.  The marshmallow cream was AWESOME.  The flavor and texture was fantastic.  I was disappointed that there wasn’t more of it.  Seriously.  It was lacking in cream.  The cake to cream ratio was WAY off.  But the cream that was there, I wanted to savor and enjoy…forever.  And I couldn’t…because there wasn’t enough of it.  The grittiness of the cake was a little off-putting, but when teamed with the cream, it worked.  But they had to be eaten together.  It was a bit of a let-down.

Let’s talk about the ingredients that go into Bake Me Happy Cream-Filled Spongies.  The cake portion of these treats are made from a gluten-free flour mix (white rice flour, cornstarch, sweet rice flour) butter (sweet cream, natural flavoring) sugar, eggs, whole milk, baking powder (cornstarch, bicarbonate of soda, sodium aluminum sulfate, monocalcium phosphate, vanilla bean paste (sugar, water, vanilla extract, vanilla beans, gum tragacanth (a natural thickener)), salt, and xanthan gum.  The cream filling is made from butter, marshmallow cream (corn syrup, sugar, egg whites and vanilla bean paste [sugar, water, vanilla extract, vanilla beans, gum tragacanth (a natural thickener)]}, confectioner’s sugar (sugar, cornstarch), organic shortening (100% organic expeller pressed palm oil), vanilla bean paste (sugar, water, vanilla extract, vanilla beans, gum tragacanth (a natural thickener)).  This product is produced in a gluten-free facility.

As for nutrition, a serving of Bake Me Happy Cream-Filled Spogies is 1 cake (48 grams).  This serving will dish up 180 calories, 8 grams fat, 4.5 grams saturated fat, 0 grams trans fat, 45 mg cholesterol, 105 mg sodium, 26 grams carbohydrates, 0 grams fiber, 15 grams sugars, and 1 gram of protein.  Not filling…but it’s a dessert and should just be the icing on the cake…or the filling in the sponge-cake as is the case here.  HA!!

I didn’t dislike the Bake Me Happy Cream-Filled Spongies.  I just felt a little…cheated by them.  The cake was definitely not up to standard…but the cream was some of the best I have ever tasted.  So, there is the quandary.  I’m not done with the goodies from Bake Me Happy.  Not one bit.  But I think the cream filling in the Spongies needs a bit more room to shine like the awesome fluffy goodness that it is.  That being said…there are other goodies from Bake Me Happy that I’m dying to try.  I might have to go by the bakery itself next time I find myself in Columbus!