Product Review: Hodgson Mill Gluten Free Yellow Cake Mix

Posted on | March 9, 2012 | 1 Comment

This is another product from Hodgson Mill. After trying their other products I was interested to see how this gluten free yellow mix stacks up. I purchased this cake mix on sale for $2.99 from my local Harmon’s grocery store.

I prepared this mix by creaming a 1/2 c. softened butter. Then I added the cake mix, blended, and added 2 eggs, 1 c buttermilk, 1 t vanilla extract, and 1/2 t almond extract. I was thrown off because the instructions indicated that the batter should be thick, but mine wasn’t. It was actually quite thin.

I poured the batter into twelve cupcake tins, and baked them for 20 minutes in a 350 degree oven. I took them out of the oven and let them cool completely. When I removed the lined cupcakes from the tin, little chunks of my cupcakes tops crumbled off. When I took the cupcake out of the wrapper bits of the cupcake also stuck to it. Frosting these cupcakes would have been very difficult.

I took a bite out of the cupcake and noticed that it didn’t taste like a cupcake. It tasted like a sweetened corn bread! It even had the same grainy texture as cornbread with no springiness, sponginess or lightness that many good yellow cakes usually have. There was also a strange, slight aftertaste. I was not thrilled with this cake mix.

I offered this cupcake to another GF eater and gluten eater to try, and neither like the cupcake at all. In fact, the gluten eater took one bite, then promptly spit it out in the trash! They commented that this cupcake was very dense and heavy; sugary, but not sweet, and quite frankly, didn’t taste like a cake at all. I ended up throwing away most of these cupcakes. At least they weren’t expensive!

Rating: 1 1/2 stars

Pros: easy to prepare, decent price

Cons: grainy texture, cornbread taste, chunks stick to liner, dense

Review submitted by Kristina

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Ingredients: brown rice flour, sugar, tapioca starch, cornstarch, baking soda, xanthan gum, flake salt, baking powder

Nutritional Snapshot: 160 calories, 0g fat, 38g carbohydrates, 15g sugar, 2g protein

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Think you’ll have better luck with this mix?

It may be purchased through the Hodgson Mill website, or in bulk from amazon.com: