The Much-Anticipated Castle Cake
My daughter has been asking for a castle cake for her birthday since shortly after her third birthday party was over. Finally, her fourth birthday came around this month and she was so excited to have a castle cake. My mom’s hobby is cake decorating so she flew down from Seattle for a long weekend to celebrate and decorate the much-anticipated castle cake for us. Behold, the castle cake!
I was in charge of baking the cake ahead of my mom’s arrival for the decorating. I decided to try out two different gluten free chocolate cake mixes (with a bit of doctoring to increase the moisture and enhance the flavor). The two I chose to try were Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake Mix
The Bob’s cake baked with a rounded top that had to be cut off to create the flat top of the cake. It also had the recognizable flavor of garbanzo bean flour, which is not my favorite. The instructions call for 1/2 cup butter, 1 cup milk, 1 Tbsp. lemon juice, 2 large eggs, 1/3 cup hot water, and 2 tsp. vanilla extract. Instead, I used 1 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder, 3/4 cup sour cream, 1/2 cup oil, 3 eggs, 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract, and 1 tsp. salt.
The Namaste cakes rose properly but baked much flatter, not creating a dome on top like the Bob’s did. The Namaste mix does not have garbanzo bean flour and instead relies on sweet rice flour. This improves the flavor, in my opinion, but it does have a more grainy texture due to the rice flour. The instructions call for 3 eggs, 2/3 cup oil, and 1 1/2 cups of water. Instead of that, I used 3 eggs, 2/3 cup oil, 1 cup milk and 1/2 cup plain yogurt. I also added 1 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract, and 1 tsp. salt.
While I would recommend either one of the mixes to someone who wanted to use a cake mix, I definitely preferred the Namaste mix. I’m just not a big fan of garbanzo bean flour. That was the only issue I had with the Bob’s mix. If the flavor of garbanzo bean flour doesn’t bother you, then either mix would be a fine choice.
What a beautiful cake! I don’t like garbanzo bean flour either, so I’ve avoided tryig the Bob’s mix. I’ve had good success with the Namaste products I’ve tried – can’t remember if I’ve tried their cake mix. I appreciate you taking the time to review the mixes and pass along your opinions.
Your cake is gorgeous! Your daughter must have been beside herself with excitement. It’s so wonderful that now our GF family members can have just as much fun with companies like Bob’s and Namaste. I’ve never tried the Namaste mix, but I do like Bob’s. I can usually handle any kind of gf flour if it’s masked with chocolate.
The cake is gorgeous. You and your Mom did a great job! Because I’m trying to loose 40 lbs before my 40th birthday, I’m tinkering with the thought of a gluten free diet. Stopping by from SITS.
Blessings~
Alethea
I’m beside myself looking at this gorgeous cake! You and your mom did an incredible job! What are the tall narrow towers made from? Can you post some of your mom’s tips?
my daughter’s 5th birthday is coming up!
-Dana
The towers are made from the tubes that laminating plastic comes on (like this: http://tinypic.com/r/1ghjbt/6). The tubes were covered with fondant and printed with a fondant roller. Each tower is topped with an upside-down ice cream cone and a ball of pink fondant (that my daughter made!). I’m glad you like it!
Thank you!
What a beautiful cake! You should be super proud of yourself! That is awesome
Thanks for linking up at our Gluten Free Fridays party! I have tweeted and pinned your entry to our Gluten Free Fridays board on Pinterest!
Thanks for linking back to the Gluten Free Fridays post!
We had a ton of great looking entries for our Namaste sponsored party last week! Stop by this week to check out the winner that was randomly selected!
Cindy from vegetarianmamma.com