Mac's elementary schools 50th Anniversary is today, Marc and I are also Brookwood Beavers. I volunteered to bring cupcakes since I would have to bring a treat for Mac. I decided to make chocolate cupcakes with green vanilla frosting (green is the school color). I headed off to Whole Foods after work yesterday to find that they had rearranged all the aisles and products. In my confused daze to try to find all my favorite products I stumbled upon the Gluten Free aisle. I couldn't find the Whole Foods 365 brand which is my favorite GF Chocolate Cake mix. I asked a young kid that worked there and he said they had gotten rid of many products but had also got in a lot of new products. So I started my frustrated search for a new chocolate cake mix. Why do they take GREAT products away?!?!?! Anyway, I wanted to find one that was close to the 365 brand. The 365 brand calls for buttermilk, obviously we can't have buttermilk but I replace that with canned coconut milk and it is delicious and moist. Then I found Gluten Free Pantry Decadent Chocolate Cake mix and the ingredients looked similar to the 365 brand. I could make the same modifications; soy butter instead of butter, soy chocolate pudding, Egg Replacer and applesauce instead of eggs, and canned coconut milk instead of buttermilk. OK this looked like it might work!
Needles to say I new it was going to be a long day. Got up at 530am for a run, worked all day, went to the grocery store, then would have to cook dinner, do homework with the boys, put them to bed, clean up the kitchen and then it would time to make cupcakes. When I went to grab the icing mix from Cherrybrook Kitchen, which I really like both the chocolate and vanilla (just add soy stick butter) I was excited to see an already prepared frosting under the same brand. The frosting mix is pretty easy but this was even better!
Skip forward about three hours….the boys were in bed after several stern ‘Get back in bed, no talking, no touching, no spitting, no standing up or moving!’ You have to cover all the bases. I started on the cupcakes and it all looked like it was going to be pretty close to the 365 brand cake mix. The 365 brand instructions read that after adding the last ingredient -buttermilk or in our case coconut milk, to beat on high for two minutes. This really gives it a rich, thick, mousse like texture. The Gluten Free Pantry brand did not say to do this but I did anyway. I turned out just like the 365 brand! I was very pleased with this new product and recommend to anyone. Now on to the frosting… that is a different story.
I opened up the prepared icing and was disappointed to find a gluey consistency with a not so pleasant flavor. I really like the frosting mix from this same brand, Cherrybrook Kitchen, both chocolate and vanilla. Luckily I had some of that same vanilla frosting mix that I had made a while back and froze my leftovers. I defrosted overnight and worked perfectly for my Green Brookwood Beaver Frosting. Happy 50th Brookwood!
In a Nut Shell
To save you from wasting $3.99 plus tax stick to the Cherrybrook Kitchen frosting mix for now, maybe they will improve the prepared frosting at some point.
A good chocolate cake mix in replace of the Whole Foods 365 is Gluten Free Pantry. Remember after you add the coconut milk beat on high for two mintues!!
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