ROUND II: Betty Crocker Gluten Free Challenge: CAKE MIXES
Gluten-FREE Cake Mixes vs. Gluten-FULL Super Moist Cake Mixes
The second round of the Betty Crocker Gluten Free Challenge, where gluten-eating friends and family compared the new Betty Crocker gluten-free baking mixes against the traditional gluten-filled Betty Crocker comparable mixes, is the taste-test for the CAKE MIXES!
There are two types of Betty Crocker Gluten Free Cake Mixes: Devil’s Food and Yellow. Since cupcakes are more fun – I decided to go that route, rather than a sheet or layered cake. After all, this was a fun day!
Thanks to Betty and her gang over at General Mills, walking down the baking aisle at your local grocer will soon become a cakewalk. Easy, effortless, readily available… and according to their website, affordable. If you see someone skipping down the baking aisle at your local grocer this summer, you can place a bet they’re on a gluten-free diet.
But – How do the gluten-free cake mixes compare in taste?
Let’s first start with the Devil’s Food:
The taste-testers could find “little to no” difference in the taste, texture (and look once they became un-blindfolded) between the gluten-FREE vs. gluten-FULL Devil’s Food Cake Mixes. Both were describe as being “chocolaty” and “moist”. No difference at all between the two. Good news for the gluten-free version!
I liked the gluten-free Devil’s Food Cake Mix. I think it tastes just like a chocolate cupcake should… sweet, chocolaty, moist, and soft. Perfect! Easy to make too.
The ingredients needed to make the gluten-free Devil’s Food Cake were: ½ teaspoon gluten-free vanilla, 2 eggs and 5 tablespoons butter (Note: there are instructions on the General Mills website explaining how to make the brownies if you want to substitute the butter) and 1 cup of low-fat buttermilk or low-fat yogurt (I used Stonyfield Farm). The package ingredients do include soy.
I think next time I may try to use vanilla low-fat yogurt – since the plain low-fat yogurt can be hard to track down in the dairy case – and I was forced to buy a huge container of it.
Next, let’s move onto the Yellow Cake Mix:
The taste-testers could find little to no difference in the look of the gluten-FREE vs. gluten-FULL Yellow Cake Mixes. However, they thought that the Gluten-FREE mix was not as “sweet” as the Gluten-FULL mix. They also thought that the gluten-FREE cupcake was crispier around the edges, which some thought was a good thing.
I personally loved the gluten-free Yellow Cake Mix! I think it tasted perfect… fluffy, a touch of vanilla, and just the perfect sweetness. I liked the crispy outside and spongy inside.
The ingredients needed to make the gluten-free Yellow Cake were: 1 teaspoon gluten-free vanilla, 2 eggs, ½ cup butter and ½ cup of milk. The package ingredients do include soy.
The gluten-free kids that tried these cupcakes LOVED them! Birthday parties will be a lot sweeter this summer when these mixes are available… =)
Basically, I think that General Mills takes the cake on these two Gluten-free Baking Mixes. Good Job!
Additional Notes:
All of the General Mills Gluten Free Dessert Mixes are made in a gluten free processing facility.
Tags: Betty Crocker gluten free baking mixes, Gluten free cake mixes
May 7th, 2009 at 11:40 am
This is SO exciting!!!
First of all, I love your quote of the day. I always read these e-mails and I can’t tell you how excited I am about the Betty Crocker mixes. I have YET to find a yummy gf brownie/cake mix that tastes the same….and we know Betty has the best test kitchens around! This is perfect in time for graduation, 4th of July etc… Thank you sooo much for testing these! 🙂
~Laura
May 30th, 2009 at 8:34 am
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June 14th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
I just found the Betty Crocker Gluten free cake mixes, cookies, and brownies at Price Chopper in Shrewsbury, Ma. My son is so excited about it. I will be making the cookies for him today. He had his choice of any one of the products.
Lori
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:52 am
What are the ingredients in the cake mixes themselves? My daughter cannot have gluten dairy or soy…so I hesitate buying something without seeing the ingredients list, which I cannot seem to find anywhere!
July 8th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Ingredients are Soy Protein (not counting soy lecithin) and Dairy Free…
Yellow Cake: Rice Flour, Potato Starch, Sugar, Potato Starch, Leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, monocalcium phosphate), Xanthan Gum, Salt.
Devils Food Cake: Sugar, Rice Flour, Potato Starch, Cocoa Processed wtih Alkali, Tapioca Starch, Leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, monocalcium phosphate), Salt, Guar Gum.
Chocolate Brownies: Sugar, Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips (sugar, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanilla), Cocoa Processed wtih Alkali, Rice Flour, Potato Starch, Corn Starch, Xanthan Gum, Salt.
Chocolate Chip Cookies: Rice Flour, Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips (sugar, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanilla), Brown Sugar, Sugar, Potato Starch, Potato Flour, Leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, monocalcium phosphate) Salt.
July 30th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
I would like to know what you used for icing. Store bought or home made? Thanks for doing a full set of detailed posts. There have been a few things that I have tried that were horrible and I wished that I had looked for someone else experience.
August 18th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Thanks TC for providing the full ingredients list; I can’t purchase this in my area so I was thinking about ordering online and testing it out. So, is soy in this mix along with the rice flour and other ingredients? I just wanted to make sure.