• Bloglovin
  • E-mail
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

The Happy Coeliac

Don't let the gluten get you down!

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Shop
    • Gluten-free Bites: Backyard BBQ
    • Gluten-Free Baking at Christmas
    • A Gluten-free Dinner Party
  • Recipes
    • Baking
    • Breakfast
    • Dinner
    • Dessert
    • Snacks
  • Reviews
    • Brand Spotlight
    • Product reviews
    • Restaurant reviews
    • Recipe reviews
  • Travel
    • All
    • Amsterdam
    • New York
    • Prague
    • Reykjavik
  • Community
    • Living gluten-free
    • News
    • Ranting
  • Contact Me

Review: Honeybuns Gorgeously Gluten-free Cake Mix

September 24, 2013 By The Happy Coeliac 5 Comments

I’m generally a big fan of Honeybuns products, so I was intrigued when they announced that they were bringing out their own cake mix. Packaged in a cute little tube, the mix is decidedly different from other products on the market.

honeybuns cake mix

Typically, gluten-free cake mixes will contain a blend of flours including potato, rice, maize or buckwheat, sometimes tapioca. The Honeybuns mix is made from sorghum flour and ground almond, which will give the cake rather a different texture. In my opinion it is always worth using more expensive flours, unless you are serving cake to people you hate. And why would you do that? Don’t get me wrong, using the other flours can give you a very good cake (such as the delicious ones from Incognito Cakes) if you have a good recipe and use high quality butter/eggs. But there’s something about ground almonds in cakes that just calls out to a primal side of me or something πŸ˜‰

They included recipe suggestions in the tube, but I decided to go for a chocolate cake of my own styling. Along with the butter and eggs to make up the cake, I melted some chocolate into the batter. It didn’t seem to do much harm.

I decided on a layer cake and make up some buttercream to go in the middle. Despite my obsession with buttercream, I thought it would be a bit much to then coat the entire thing with more buttercream, so I left it naked.

honeybuns chocolate cake gluten-free

However, I’m not very good at leaving things alone and before the cake left the house it had blueberries and icing sugar on it. πŸ˜‰

I made up the cake for a trip that me and my mum were taking to the Malvern Hills. We stayed at Gilbert’s End Farm, a beautiful B&B that offers a gluten-free breakfast. I can highly recommend it to anyone in the area – the owner was incredibly friendly and it was so peaceful there – a perfect antidote to the noise and pollution of London.

The evening we got there was beautiful, and we had a wonderful picnic in the sunshine.

sam with champagne

Research shows picnics improve 150% with champagne.

There’s something really wonderful about scoffing food outside, and now in the depths of September I’m starting to get a little nostalgic for summer.

But the cake – OH! the cake! It was gorgeous!

honeybuns gluten free cake

It was very moist and very rich.

close up of honeybuns gluten free cake

So rich in fact that we ate about a quarter of it and left it in our coolbag for the next day. Or so we thought.

This is buddy, the resident dog at Gilbert’s End Farm.

buddy the dog

During our picnic he edged closer and closer to us, until his nose was just on the edge of our picnic blanket. Not wanting to spoil another person’s dog, we did the responsible thing and refused to give him any of it.

The next day, after we got back from a pleasant day’s wandering around, we thought it would be a great time for some more cake. This is what we faced when we opened the coolbag:

half-eaten cake

We were confused – how did it get so smushed up just sitting in the bag? Then we realised that most of the cake was gone – not just smushed – and there was slobber on the bag where the zip hadn’t been closed fully.

Yes, sweet innocent Buddy had snuck into our room when it was being cleaned, and through a slightly open zip demolished almost the entire Honeybuns cake!

BAD DOG!

bad dog

His punishment shall be… TUMMY TICKLES!

Still at least it shows that he has exceptionally good taste in cake…

Related posts:

No related posts.

Filed Under: Product reviews, Reviews Tagged With: cake mix, chocolate cake, Honeybuns

« Product review: Cake mixes from Incognito Cakes
Review: Glebe Farm Bread & Scone Mixes »

Comments

  1. Pig in the Kitchen says

    September 25, 2013 at 6:38 pm

    As the owner of a Brittany spaniel, I can confirm that they are sneaky, greedy beasts and will scoff anything within range πŸ™‚ I love the retro packaging for the cake, but must quibble with your stat about picnics and champagne. My last informal study showed a percentage rise in satisfaction of at least 300%. Granted my study hasn’t yet been peer reviewed but still… πŸ˜‰
    Pig x

    Reply
    • The Happy Coeliac says

      September 25, 2013 at 8:16 pm

      Haha! Maybe it depends on the type of champagne drunk? Or the quantity? More research needed!

      Reply
  2. Eve & Faye says

    October 8, 2013 at 5:28 pm

    Haha – what a cutie Buddy is! That cake sounds delicious though πŸ™‚ and love the sound of that B&B – I haven’t stayed in a hotel and had breakfast in it for years πŸ™

    Faye x
    Sugar Spun Sisters – A blog about cosmetics, clothes & coeliac disease

    Reply
  3. Alison Mott says

    October 18, 2013 at 9:46 am

    Hi – the cake looks delicious and it’s true, ground almonds make all the difference to the texture and taste of a gluten free cake. Unfortunately our daughter’s boyfriend is allergic to almonds (though seems to be ok with other nut products) – so I wondered if you knew of an ingredient with similar magical properties we could use in recipes instead?

    And on another note – and I’m aware I won’t be popular saying this! – as someone who loves cake and is finding the transition to a cake-poor diet very hard to bear (ie I’m generally mardy about it!), in your place I’d have been very cross with that dog indeed! I know, I know, get a grip woman, it’s only cake ….

    Reply
    • The Happy Coeliac says

      October 18, 2013 at 11:37 am

      Hi Alison – have you tried using ground hazelnuts? I think in terms of texture the properties are similar.

      If you’re feeling down about lack of cake, try this recipe – it’s my favourite πŸ™‚

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Celebrate summer with a BBQ!

Gluten-free Bites: Backyard BBQ

Never miss a post!

Sign up for updates and get new posts straight to your inbox

About Me

Hi, I'm Sam, a Brit living in Haarlem, the Netherlands. I was diagnosed with coeliac disease in 2011, after which I started blogging as a way to help me cope with the massive lifestyle change that a gluten-free diet commands. Now I develop recipes, write cookbooks and try to enjoy life! Read More…

  • Bloglovin
  • E-mail
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Featured Products

  • Gluten-free Baking at Christmas (eBook) £3.49
  • Gluten-free bites: Backyard BBQ by Samantha Stein (The Happy Coeliac) Gluten-free Bites: Backyard BBQ £2.49
  • Gluten-free Baking at Christmas by The Happy Coeliac Gluten-free Baking at Christmas £6.99

Last chance for orders before Christmas & a low-carb update

Gluten free Baking at Christmas

Chestnut gnocchi with browned butter and sage sauce

Chestnut Gnocchi

Raspberry skyr cheesecake bites

Low-carb raspberry skyr cheesecake bites

Two weeks on a low-carb, high-fat diet

A low carb, high fat meal.

Singapore satay chicken with peanut dipping sauce

Singapore Satay Chicken

Gluten-free in Reykjavik, Iceland

Gluten-free in Reykjavik

Best of the Allergy & Free From Show 2015

Allergy Show haul

My new book, “Gluten-free Bites: Backyard BBQ” available from the Kindle Store now!

Quinoa Salad with feta and garden herbs

McDonald’s extends gluten-free availability to 50 branches across the Netherlands

McDonald's Gluten-free Big Mac

“So, like, how sensitive ARE you?”

Picture of women sitting down hunched over

Latest tweets

  • Just now
  • Go to my Twitter page

Blog networks I belong to

The Happy Coeliac
Foodies100 Index of UK Food Blogs
Foodies100

mytaste.co.uk

About Me

Samantha develops gluten-free and low-carb recipes, and writes about health, nutrition, fitness and psychology. Read More…

Like this blog?

Stay up to date by subscribing to my newsletter

Popular recipes

Gluten-free chocolate chip cookies
Gluten-free pork and cabbage dumplings
Gluten-free lebkuchen
Quinoa breakfast muffins
Gluten-free scones

More recipes

Β© 2015 The Happy Coeliac
 Β· Powered by Wordpress, Genesis Framework & Foodie Pro