When it comes to baking with the girls, I love using ready-to-use cake mixes. It's already hard enough keeping mess to a minimum and disasters at bay without adding lots of messy and probably inaccurate weighing and measuring into the procedure. When we were sent some Hale & Hearty Chocolate Cake Mix to review, they were very enthusiastic.
Knowing the drill, without me saying a word, they ran off to get their aprons on and wash their hands and started getting out bowls and spoons. I told Sophie to get an egg out of the fridge, then turned to the back of the box and noticed on the instructions that this mix needs FOUR eggs and 200g of butter. Oops, a quick trip to the corner shop was called for as I wasn't expecting that so we only had three eggs in the fridge !
As soon as I had the missing ingredients, the girls were off ! I barely had to intervene as it was so simple. You just empty the cake mix in a bowl, add the butter and eggs and mix. You can use a mixer but where's the fun in that ? the girls had a go each mixing it in with a wooden spoon.
While it was cooking in the oven (for 50-60 minutes at gas mark 4), me and Sophie tackled the washing up - but not before Juliette had a sneaky lick of the bowl ! Yes, I know it's got raw egg in it but generations of kids, including me, have licked the bowls and it never did them any harm !
As we'd received some brilliant edible decorations from Silver Spoon (see here and here), we decided to ice and decorate the cake when it had cooled. I wondered if the girls would notice any difference in taste or texture between this gluten-free cake mix and the ones we usually use. It is gluten-free, wheat-free, soya-free, GMO-free and organic. Its flour is a mix of tapioca flour, wholemeal rice flour, wholemeal quinoa flour, carob seed flower and chick pea flour. So would they notice the difference ?
I think those faces say it all. They gobbled up their slice and asked for more. Nobody, not even my husband, was any the wiser that it wasn't normal cake mix, so that's really good news for anyone who needs a gluten-free or wheat-free alternative that is big on taste.
star rating : 4.5/5
RRP : £2.99
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