King Arthur gluten-free yellow cake mix a lucky find

Recent journeys testing boxed baking mixes landed me on another new-to-me product: King Arthur Flour’s Gluten Free Classic Yellow Cake Mix ($6.99).

Before I tell this story, a qualifier: Since I am just like you, any product I mention in this column is always discovered by me at the places where I shop. No product appears because the manufacturer sent me a free sample. No. I pay for and am not reimbursed for any mentioned product. Okay.

This new-to-me yellow cake mix discovery happened when I wandered down the box mixes aisle and noticed a product I’d never seen before. I’m a sucker for anything chocolate, so this no-chocolate cake was an unusual find.

So far, my experience with gluten-free mixes has been positive. What I figured out was that since gluten-free mixes do not contain any wheat flour, the lack of gluten (a protein) makes the results very tender; nearly melt-in-your-mouth tender.

King Arthur’s Gluten-Free Brownies (a story shared in a recent column) were a simple stir together. Making cake, even from a mix, turns out to be a different story.

This mix’s instructions were a little more complicated than some, suggesting that an electric mixer, either stand or hand, was needed.

My 5-quart KitchenAid mixer weighs in at around 25 pounds. These days, lifting it out of the cabinet and up onto my counter was a task. Minor issue. Next time I’ll use my hand mixer.

This yellow cake mix required additional ingredients: butter, vegetable oil, eggs, and milk. I used organic butter, extra-virgin olive oil, eggs from a local farm and organic whole milk. With organic ingredients getting more expensive, my use of those products may soon be curtailed.

The process for making this batter is very much like making a scratch cake batter. I needed to beat the butter and oil together to create as many air bubbles as possible, which in turn gives more lift to my cake. That is not possible stirring with a spoon.

Instead of using canola or soybean oils, I went with extra-virgin olive oil. If you think that imparts an olive oil flavor, it does not. In fact, my olive oil imparts a buttery note, which is why I pop popcorn in olive oil.

My local eggs have deep orange yolks, which made my yellow cake have a rich, deep yellow color. The instructions don’t specify which milk to use. I went with whole milk, which is now believed to be the healthiest; so long, skim.

Once the batter was mixed, I transferred it to my favorite non-stick, already buttered, Bundt pan.

The box’s instructions suggested baking for 45 to 48 minutes. Mine took 45 minutes.

How was it? Excellent, with a definite, authentic vanilla flavor, and it nearly melted in my mouth. The cake itself seemed firmer than I expected, more like a pound cake. And to get my chocolate fix, I topped it with some Haagen Dazs Chocolate, Chocolate Chip ice cream. Wow, what a treat.

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If you buy the cake mix and make it the way I did, here’s the nutritional analysis for 12 servings. The package’s analysis is for 14 servings.

Nutrition values per serving: 318 calories (34% from fat), 12 g fat (6 g saturated fat), 47.4 g carbohydrates (47.4 net carbs), 26.5 g sugars, 0 g fiber, 3.8 g protein, 92 mg cholesterol, 322 mg sodium.

• Don Mauer welcomes questions, comments and recipe makeover requests. Write to him at 1leanwizard@gmail.com.