You can definitely do better.. Pamela's mixes and Betty Crocker Gluten free cake mixes are amazing!!! Gluten free pantry has good stuff too

I've used both the yellow and the chocolate Hodgson's Mill (http://www.hodgsonmillstore.com/en/Gluten-Free-Chocolate-Cake-Mix/71518-02135-001_Group-1.aspx) and everyone liked it.

We tried the Betty Crocker GF mix and found it salty.

I agree with others, make it yourself.

For my Birthdays I make my own-using GF king Arthur cake mix...probably the best tasting cake mix I've ever had, GF or no...actually plan on using that mix to make my wedding cake in November...their muffins, brownie and cookie mixes are also very excellent

Unlike Momof8, I actually can't stand Betty Crocker's GF mixes, they tasted like cardboard and had the texture of corn bread (which was really weird)...also the cookies were so hard that I had to throw a pan away, even after a week of soaking, cause they were stuck on so bad...but that's just my own personal opinion, if you try them and like them then more power to you! ^_^

Happy Birthday!

I'm a cake decorator and I do some GF cakes, but there isn't a big market here so mostly I make them for myself once in a while. Hate the BC mixes, blech. The cookies are average but the cakes just aren't that good. Namaste is my fav. King Arthur mixes and the premade flour blends are always good. Pamela's and Bob's Red Mill are good too. Beware that GF will never rise as much as a gluten cake, so if you might use 2 layers for a typical gluten cake, you might need 3 to get the same height in a GF cake. Unfortunately that drives the cost up, too.

If you make your own follow the rule of 3s and have 3 different types of flour, NEVER just one. If you look at a GF product and it has only rice flour, put it down and walk away!

Also just from my own experience, the less you eat gluten, the less you will notice the taste difference. When I first started GF I couldn't believe how bad the frozen bread was. Now it's not so bad (still not great, my homemade is much better). Now 3 years in, I don't remember the taste of gluten as much, so in comparison, the GF isn't so bad. It will get better in time.

Hello Happy Birthday

You can go to Bobs Mill and get a fantastic chocolate or vanilla cake mix.
They are moist and well needless to say bad for the diet. Use your favorite frosting. you can get them at walmart, natural food stores, wegmans. etc

Jo

Not a fan of the BC mixes. I really like Namaste though.

Personally, I make my own. It's just easier, cheaper, and my cakes (to quote my son's cub scout leader :laugh:) are awesome. My Dad even likes them!

Get good flour replacement (like Better Batter). Nothing with nut flour, sorghum or the like. It should be brown rice, sweet rice flour, something in that vicinity (I make my own with organic brown rice flour, potato starch and tapioca flour). Don't forget the xantham gum or guar gum (I always use xanthan). You need less xanthan gum in cakes than you do breads. About a teaspoon per cup of flour.

I use my flour replacement, and just sub it for a regular recipe in my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook. My cakes are always moist, fluffy, and yummy :happy:

Betty Crocker mixes are OK, but there are definitely better ones. Home made is best though I've had plenty of disasters, too!
Like the above post, I don't like sorghum in my baked goods - it really upsets my stomach - however ALMOND MEAL / ALMOND FLOUR or HAZELNUT meal/flour is FANTASTIC in cakes and cookies!! I was taught many delicious cookie and cake recipes in Austria and Sweden using nut flours - scrumptious and nutritious (for sweets)!

Most shortening is very unhealthy. Coconut oil, ghee (casein free though not dairy free) and even olive oil are all good alternatives, though the olive oil takes some getting used to.

I'm sorry you had such a disappointing experience on your birthday. Gluten free baking is such an unpredictable adventure! Good luck on finding or making baked goods that you love! and Happy birthday!

I make all of my own cakes from scratch. I have found amazing bundt cake recipes (cinnamon, lemon, and chocolate chip). I have a really good yellow cake I also found on the internet. I use that one to make birthday iced cakes, strawberry shortcake, a peach-whipped topping cake, etc. I also found a carrot cake recipe somewhere that my family tells me is amazing, but I wouldn't know because I refuse to eat carrot cake. Recently I made an applesauce cake for my dad's birthday with a cinnamon cream cheese icing, which got rave reviews from everyone. Since I started baking my GF cakes, I have to bake for everyone's birthdays, not just so that my kids will have something to eat, but everyone loves them more than gluten cakes. My oldest niece begged me to make her cake for her 12th birthday party, and I felt so honored. She loves everything I bake, and she is not gluten free.

So search the blogs out there! There are some really amazing cakes if you take the time to search them out. I find that the ones from the blogs are always better than the ones on "recipe" websites.

I havent tried any cake mixes yet, but I did try a name brand gluten free chocolate chip cookie mix and didnt like it very much. The taste was a little odd, and the texture was so dry and crumbly it was hard to eat them, they fell apart in my hands and I ended up eating the crumbs off the plate with a spoon. And gluten free mixes are very expensive. So is gluten free bread, 6.00 or more for a very small loaf. I tried 2 brands that were totally without flavor at all, and 1 that tasted fairly good, but had that same crumble texture. I tried making toast with it and it all fell into pieces in the toaster, and sandwiches fall apart in your hands when you bite into them. I have just given up ever having any bread or baked good completely, they are not worth the added price. After 5 months of eating gluten free I find I dont even miss them anymore. I found 2 kinds of crackers that are ok, but again, very costly compared to regular saltines, and 1 brand of penne pasta that I like. Otherwise I just do without and eat other things. I make what I call sandwich rolls, I roll some turkey or chicken deli meat around an avocado slice and then roll a slice of cheese around the outside and eat it just like that. And I try to just have rice or potatoes and forget about pasta.

I make gluten free cupcakes that are DELICIOUS and moist. I couldn't really tell the difference between normal cupcakes that had cream filling and those.

I plan on trying cakes soon too!

Ugh! I'm worried about this too with my birthday coming up (okay, I'll be whiney about it: I don't wanna make my own cake, I wanna have a cake from a bakery!) I'm going to go to a place nearby work that does GF baked goods and give them a try (a pre-test I guess you could say.) My first GF cupcake will always (probably) be the best, I was in Washington (state) last year for a training class, my hotel was near a mall so I walked over to wander around for some exercise and found a cupcake shop called Pinkabella's I was getting ready to walk by when I saw the sign that they had GF. I had THE BEST chocolate cupcake with salted caramel frosting, I couldn't even tell that it was GF (granted it had been a long time since I'd had any cake/cupcake) I was so disappointed to find out that they don't ship....

An update from me, the bakery I tried was okay, but not great, so will keep looking and have to say I discovered an interesting thing while I was there. I got a vanilla and a chocolate cupcake (I'm not a fan of chocolate, but was craving it that day) and I like the taste and texture of the chocolate better than the vanilla. My mom made cupcakes for me with the BC GF chocolate mix and I thought they were pretty good, my dad even liked them!
So, I say: keep trying the bakeries, the boxed mixes, and your own mixes, you'll find something you like.

I think the moral is, there are some tasty options. It does take a bit of experimenting, either with mixes or from scratch. I've tried a lot of winners and a few that were "meh." Our family, personally, really like the Betty Crocker mixes, but I know a friend made one and even though she bakes a lot, she WAY overcooked it and it came out with that weird texture someone else mentioned. Whenever I've made them they've been great. Also, people have very different tastes for the different flours. My hubby REALLY dislikes teff, for example.

Don't be afraid to experiment, and don't be discouraged if one is a disappointment. And frankly, yeah, the ones from bakeries we've tried have NOT been good. Which is also too bad because someone else got them and they were so excited and you're like, "gee, um, thanks." *gag*

We have a wonderful bakery that makes gluten free, vegan and soya free cakes and are amazing. I dont buy very often as I will eat a whole cake - the chocolate one is fantastic especially if you wack it in the microwave for a minute.

Big fan of the BC cake mixes myself.
One the things I miss most is my aunt's Lemon pound cake.

So I took the BC white cake mix and made myself a lemon variant that my family really enjoys.
I zest one lemon into the mix, and then instead of the 2/3 cup of water I use the juice of 2 lemons and soda water to bring it to 2/3 cup.

I went with soda water because my complain with most GF baked goods is that they tend to be very dense because they lack the structure provided by the gluten. I was shooting for something similar to tempura where you use something with carbonation to make a lighter batter for deep frying. It seems to work well for me.

I have done it with vanilla frosty and also with lemon frosting. Both are very yummy and don't tend to last long at my house.
The real issue is fitting into my daily calorie goals.

Sounds really good, I may have to try this, have been in a citrus mode lately....

I was going to say Bob's red mill too. Their chocolate cake is to die for!!!! my family even loved it better then the regular store mixes