Testing 1, 2, 3

Sprouts was having a sale on gluten free products, so I went a few days ago to stock up on a few things. I picked up two different cake mix brands to do some testing. I'm hoping to make Bella's birthday cake myself and save some money, but I wanted to test them out to see which one is best. Tonight, I tested Pamela's Vanilla Cake Mix with Cherrybrook Vanilla Frosting. Since I'm doing the theme of the party based on the Nick Jr. show :"Fresh Beat Band", I'm planning on making the inside of the cake various colors to represent the characters on the show. So, I decided to kill two birds with one stone and try out both in one swoop.

The cake was fairly easy to make -- exactly the same as a regular cake mix. To do the rainbow colors, I just had to divide the batter into 4 separate bowls and use food coloring to color the batter. Then, I just put in one color at a time and baked the cake. The frosting was so thick and difficult to spread. It felt like I was spreading honey across the cake. It was not an easy task. I'll have to try to remedy the situation for Bella's birthday. It was also a very translucent color...almost clear. So, there was really no point in dying the frosting like I had done.

The cake tasted really good and looked pretty cool with the colors. I deem this a success. I'm still going to try the other brand of cake mix next week to see which I like better. When I do that, I'll try out another frosting idea to see if I can get better results another way.

Baking -- Disaster or Success?

One of my very best friends also has Celiacs Disease. I invited her over to help me tackle the art of gluten free baking. I found this wonderful recipe for Pumpkin Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Icing on Gluten Free Goddess. Anyone who knows me is aware of my major pumpkin obsession. So, I decided these cupcakes were the best option for my first gluten free baking session.

Our first task was to locate the mountain of ingredients required to bake the cupcakes. First, we headed to Whole Foods.  It was so overwhelming. I couldn't locate a few of the ingredients and began to panic when I had no idea where else I could find them. My friend and I ran into a woman at the store who also had Celiacs. We talked to her for a while and she was extremely helpful. She suggested using Pamela's baking mix for the various flours, tapioca starch, and xantham gum. I wish I had gotten this woman's name. Not only did she save me a ridiculous amount of money, she also saved me time searching for ingredients I had never even heard of.

When we were done gathering supplies, we headed back to my house. Thankfully, Bells fell asleep in the car so it was a lot easier to cook without her getting angry she wasn't getting attention. The recipe for the cupcakes was very simple and easy to follow. We got those in the oven and then went on to make the icing. I got ahead of myself and didn't read the directions and just threw all the ingredients in together. Big mistake! Thankfully I had more of each ingredient so I could start over without too much fuss.

All in all, the process seemed fairly simple. I don't know how much gluten free baking I'll be doing -- everything is so insanely expensive. It seems easier to head to the gluten free bakery and just buy pre-made goodies. It was a fun experience, however, and the cupcakes turned out amazingly! If I didn't know before that they were gluten free, I never would have known the difference. Bells sure did love them!!!

They didn't look too pretty, but none of us seemed to mind.