So for Christmas this year I wanted my gluten-free daughter to try my husband’s favorite cake.It’s a yellow cake with chocolate pudding frosting.My husband only gets to eat this cake on his birthday, when I take the time to make it for him.But this year I found a gluten-free vanilla cake mix and thought I would give it a try.My daughter likes cake and she likes pudding, why wouldn’t she like them together?
We’ll get to the details on the finished product in a minute, but first let me give you the recipe, which is extremely simple.
I bought a Gluten Free Pantry Vanilla Cake Mix for this experiment.The only other main things you need are Instant Jello Chocolate Pudding mix (and the milk to go with it).First you bake the cake according to the directions on the cake mix box.While it’s cooling, mix up the pudding and allow it to set—only briefly! Poke holes in the cake and then pour the pudding into the holes and onto the cake like frosting.This is why you don’t want the pudding to set too long, it still needs to be pourable, not scoopable.Then pop it into the refrigerator until you’re ready to eat it!
So back to my experiment.On Christmas Eve, I made the cake in a small pan.It seemed to not be done as quickly as the directions said it would.It was gummy in the middle when the timer went off.I had to bake it for about five additional minutes.It looked spongy and fresh when it came out of the oven.I let it cool and did the “pudding thing” on top and put it in the refrigerator.
Fast forward 24 hours when we actually ate the cake.Dry as a bone.Don’t get me wrong.The cake actually had flavor and the pudding helped moisten it once you started chewing. But it wasn’t a soft cake any more.My mom asked me if I baked it too long, I told her no, knowing that the interior of the cake wasn’t done when it should have been.But maybe the extra baking did it in.
So what did my daughter think of it?Well I didn’t give it to her.With as picky as she is, she’d never try a “good” version of the cake after trying a poor version of it.My sister-in-law and my dad gave me some feedback though.They said it was good with the pudding, but also either ice cream or whipped cream would help moisten it up as well.
If you want to try this dessert with your own yellow (or vanilla) cake recipe (or even Gluten Free Pantry’s mix), please do!Let me know if your cake turns out better and how you did it differently.This post has nothing to do with the cake mix I used, I’m sure if we would have eaten the cake right away with the pudding on it, it would have been much better.Meanwhile, I need to keep the experimentation going so I can find out the perfect way to make it – so my daughter can finally try her dad’s favorite treat.
Tags: birthday, cake, challenge, Christmas, dry, pudding, vanilla
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:41 pm
We have a white cake mix that you can add a little vanilla to that will bake like Betty Crocker.
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:15 pm
One thing I have learned is that gluten-free baked goods stiffen up when they are cold (for sure) or even room-temperature (sometimes). You are right that the cake would probably have been good right when you made it.