A few weeks ago, the Gluten Free Allergen Free Wellness Expo came to Charlotte. This is a great event and one of my favorite parts this year was meeting a new LOCAL bakery whose products are now hitting shelves nationwide. Woohoo! When I saw a box of Gluten-Free Cookies and Cream Cake Mix from Bumbalooza in my swag bag, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. This year, the day of the GFAF Expo was very the same day as my twins’ 9th birthday. Coincidentally, as of the morning of the expo and their birthday, I hadn’t actually made them a birthday cake yet… Oops.
Kiddos, how about a Cookies and Cream Birthday Cake? My daughter just about fell over – “Gluten free??” She was stunned. Yes, ma’am. Gluten free. The twins were an easy sell. Cookies and Cream Birthday Cake – coming right up.
And, for you, lovely readers, the great ladies at Bumbalooza are offering up a starter pack of two boxes of Bumbalooza mix to one winner from the entries below… Yay!
When I looked at the directions on the box, I noticed that one box only makes a dozen cupcakes or one 9 inch circular cake so I decided to stop by one of my favorite local stores here in Charlotte – Reid’s Fine Foods – and pick up a second box just to be on the safe side. After all was said and done, we would have been fine with just the one box of mix but I can’t say I was sad to have leftover birthday cake to enjoy with my coffee for the next couple of days!
I followed the directions pretty closely on the back of the box except for one easy substitution … instead of sour cream, I used local unsweetened yogurt. This cake came out exceptionally moist and delicious. My daughter helped me separate the eggs and then I folded the beaten whites into the cake batter. Baking the cookie crumbs to start the process was a delicious way to start off our baking adventures! Bumbalooza cakes are intended to be made with your little people. They even highlight the steps that are most kid-friendly. This cake takes a few more steps than your regular cake mix in a box but the end result is absolutely incredible.
While our cakes were cooking, my daughter made the brilliant suggestion to make a ganache instead of our usual frosting. (This girl has clearly been watching too much Food Network on her Kindle.) Whether you make cupcakes or a one or two layer cake, ganache will go really well with these flavors.
A ganache might be the simplest cake topping you could ever make … warm some heavy cream, melt some chocolate, stir. Unreal. We spread our ganache all over the first cake layer and then sprinkled cookie crumbs over top before adding our second layer of cake. We then covered the entire cake with ganache. Ganache everywhere. Our cake was the tiniest bit warm so our ganache spread so easily. We topped our ganache with a final generous sprinkle of cookie crumbs. This was a memorable birthday cake and we will definitely be making more cakes from Bumbalooza! Look for Bumbalooza cake and cookie mixes at Whole Foods or at local stores around town here in North Carolina or find them online. Enter below – there are a few ways to win!
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