Have you set out to bake a tasty cake, cookies or pie only to have said item not turn out like it was supposed to? I have had many baking failures in my life, gluten-free and not gluten-free. As I have grown older, I have learned many tricks of the trade and have had many more successes than failures once I purchased an inexpensive oven thermometer. Turns out my oven temperature was not what I set it to be.
Now that I have that all straightened, out I rarely have issues. Notice I said “rarely”. Sunday morning I began to pre-heat my oven in preparation for some cupcakes made with the new Katz gluten-free Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix. Originally I wanted to make a cake with the mix, but my cake pans were smaller than the package called for, so I decided to play it safe and make exactly what the packaged described…24 cupcakes.
I was concerned when the timer went off and the cupcakes were inverted. I went back over the package instructions and I had done exactly as the package said. I checked the oven temperature and it was right at 350 degrees. I have never had this happen before.
I was most concerned that I now needed to find something else to make, as we had company coming over for dinner! Then I asked some Facebook friends how to salvage the cupcakes, as they tasted good, they just looked funny. After many fantastic ideas, I decided on filling the cupcakes with frosting or cream cheese, as those options didn’t require me to go back to the store. I made 2 different versions:
Chocolate cupcakes filled with chocolate chocolate chip frosting and peanut butter chips on top
Chocolate cupcakes filled with GO VEGGIE Strawberry Cream Cheese Alternative and dark chocolate chips on top
I felt much better about my disaster after Hannah and I dressed the cupcakes up. I told my guests that dessert didn’t quite turn out as I had anticipated, but I did the best with what I had. Fortunately for me, our guests were family. Aside from the cupcakes sticking to the wrappers, they were divine! Everyone enjoyed them and they had a fudgy, chewy texture, more like a brownie than a cupcake. The addition of the frosting, cream cheese and chips really worked out well!
Have you had any baking disasters since starting the gluten-free diet?
Have you made the Katz gluten-free Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix? Did it turn out okay for you? The reviews online were all good, so I am really curious as to what happened with mine.
What a great impromptu solution, I need to remember that! I have not tried that baking mix. However, it seems whenever I make snickerdoodles, they rise in the oven and then fall right when I take them out. When I used to make them with the gluten, they never fell. I am not sure what I need to adjust to prevent that from happening. They still taste the same though =)
Anne,
Though it has been a while since I have made them, the recipe I use works well, though they are a little crispier than the version my mom used to make.
Kim
I tried many times, when I first went GF, to make homemade GF bread–it never worked! Something always went wrong! It would either overflow, or not raise at all! But when someone recommended Udi’s GF bread, I tried it and never went back! But some GF cookie/cake/baking mixes I have tried, have turned out slightly “grainy”–maybe it’s an old mix!:)