Gluten-Free: For the Love of Betty Crocker

Betty Crocker® has come out with a few new gluten-free products which I just have to rave about (even though I am not getting paid to do so.) However, if anyone from Betty Crocker® reads this, they are welcome to send some free samples our way.

This past week we celebrated my son’s tenth birthday. We had the birthday party at our local gym which has a kid’s facility with a large play room, bounce house, various games like Foosball and basketball, a large climbing structure with slides, and a few interactive computer games on large screens. Needless to say, this is a wonderland for kids, and all twenty of them had a really fun time. For the party I baked two Betty Crocker® gluten-free devil’s food cakes and made a double decker cake with homemade butter cream frosting. (It looked like an Oreo® before I frosted the top of it. ) And this Betty Crocker® cake was amazing! Translation: it didn’t taste like it was gluten-free. My husband and Madame Deal’s husband confessed to eating two slices of cake each. The leftover cake didn’t last more than a day in our house after the party. Sadly it has lasted longer on our bodies- but it was definitely worth it.

Honestly, if I had not announced that the cake was gluten-free I don’t think that anyone would have known. I thought it was that good. And I have made decadent chocolate cake from scratch in my pre gluten-free days so I have an idea about how chocolate cake should taste. One of the most difficult things about eating gluten-free is being able to find desserts and breads that taste as good as I remember the real deal tasting, and are easy to make or buy without being extraordinarily expensive. Betty Crocker ® has a four new gluten-free baking products: Gluten Free Yellow Cake mix, Gluten-Free Cookie Mix, Gluten-Free Brownie mix and Gluten-Free Devil’s Food Cake mix. And these mixes can be used to make a variety of desserts. I have posted some gluten-free recipes that use Betty Crocker® mixes on Pinterest which you can find at https://pinterest.com/gfKatherine/.

After the birthday party I went out and purchased the other three gluten-free Betty Crocker® mixes. I made the brownies and my husband (the brownie connoisseur) gave the brownies high marks. I enjoyed them too. I plan to make a pineapple upside down cake with the yellow cake mix, and perhaps send some chocolate chip cookies to school with my son in the near future. I like to read packages, and look at ingredients, so while I was reviewing the packages I discovered the following statement about why and how the Betty Crocker® team decided to create these gluten-free mixes. Reading it really made me emotional and so I wanted to share it. Here is the statement written on each of the Betty Crocker® Gluten-Free mix packages:

“Why go gluten free? Not long ago, two of our co-workers found themselves in the gluten-free world. Linc was diagnosed with Celiac disease, and Colleen’s family switched to the diet for her son’s well being.

Their experiences opened our eyes to the challenges families face following the diet. It’s hard to be different, especially when it affects sweet moments with friends and family. No one wants to miss sharing a birthday cake or see their child have to turn down a homemade cookie from a buddy after a game.

We hope we can help by bringing you these mixes for gluten-free desserts that look and taste like the treats you’ve been longing to share. Finally, Betty Crocker® Gluten Free – The Betty Crocker® Baking Team”

So, if you have gluten-free family members, or friends, and want to include them in your birthday celebrations with cake, or other baked goods that they can eat, and you want it to be easy to make, you have a very easy option with the Betty Crocker®gluten-free cake, cookie and brownie mixes. In my store these products were also easy to find; they were included on the shelf with all the other cake mixes.

During the last few months I have built up a repertoire of foods, and a way of eating that has started to make being gluten free not as big an issue as it was initially. Stay tuned for all of my discoveries and tips!

Next week I will write about the gluten-free items I am going to prepare for Thanksgiving at my home, and point you to lots of gluten-free ideas for your Thanksgiving menus. I have already started to post some Thanksgiving recipes on my Pinterest boards which you can find at https://pinterest.com/gfKatherine/.

Katherine: I am a Stay at Home Mom. I have been married to my husband for 11 years and have a son who just turned 10. I have recently been diagnosed with Celiac Disease and have started cooking gluten-free for my family, which has been an enormous adventure and learning experience and I am eager to share all of my discoveries and tips with other families. Our family is not only gluten free; we are also living with autism. My son has autism and seizure disorder, and we have been very involved with the use of applied behavioral analysis teaching at his wonderful school, and at home, since he was two.

– Katherine writes a weekly column about gluten-free information for MadameDeals.

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