Betty Crocker Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake

I’ve been wanting to try the new Betty Crocker gluten-free mixes since they came out last fall. These products are easy to find in mainstream grocery stores (in my grocery store they sit on the shelf right next to the traditional cake mixes) and are less expensive than many of their gluten-free cousins (but less cost-effective when you consider that one box only makes a single layer cake).

I decided to try the chocolate cake.

The package suggests that you add one cup of water, one stick of butter, and three eggs to the mix. Instead I used:

¾ cup water
1 stick of Earth Balance shortening
½ cup flax seed eggs (the equivalent of two eggs)
¼ cup applesauce (the equivalent of one egg)

I found that instead of the 43-48 minutes suggested for baking that I only needed 35 minutes – significantly less baking time. I topped it with my own vanilla glaze.

Here was the result:

The mix is based on rice flour, potato starch, and tapioca starch – a pretty standard gluten-free combination – but compared to other gluten-free chocolate cakes, I found this one to be very grainy. However, if you need to avoid xantham gum this is a good choice as it uses guar gum instead.

Have you tried the gluten-free Betty Crocker mixes yet? What do you think?