Recipe: Betty Crocker Gluten-Free Vanilla Berry Cupcakes, Nut-Free

I’m wheat intolerant and have been wheat-free for over 13 years. (This is not an allergy, not celiac disease, just a preference but I stick to it and it makes my tum feel better.) Over the past decade plus, I have tried several gluten-free vanilla cake mixes and they have been pretty much meh. But I thought maybe it was time to try one again. 

I picked up the General Mills Betty Crocker Vanilla Gluten-Free mix and looked at it side by side with General Mills Bisquick: the same ingredients in different proportions. 

As I use GF Bisquick practically every week, I felt good about trying this mix.

I made the cupcakes according to the directions.

I added 1-3 slivers of strawberries to the batter in the cupcake molds and one blueberry each. You do not want to over crowd cupcake batter with fruit or you will get a soggy, uncooked mess. 

Slightly soggy but just about okay

But add just a touch of fruit and you have a pop of lovely fresh flavor and they keep the cupcakes moist.  I also made some just plain vanilla as a control.

When I baked them they felt very heavy, dense and looked pale but smelled like vanilla cupcakes. 

So, I carried on. I made traditional buttercream frosting, recipe from the Dominos Sugar box and here. I frosted the plain ones plain and the berry ones with some sliced berries on top. All pretty and nice.

I gave them to three testers: one tester with celiac disease who eats gluten-free and two people with no dietary restrictions. Everyone RAVED! The berries, the texture, the vanilla, all yummy and gobbled up! I popped a few in the freezer the same day I made them to see how they would freeze and they were perfect – like pound cake, I even ate a few un-thawed and they were delish! But when thawed, they were also very tasty.

So upshot: score all around, Betty Crocker!

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