Let me preface this post by saying that I don’t consider a cupcake “true food”, strictly speaking. However, food plays a variety of roles in our lives, and one of those is celebratory. Our family doesn’t celebrate very often, for instance Friday is not a cause for dessert in our house. That being said, when we do choose to festively indulge, I aim for high quality ingredients and to truly enjoy what I’m eating, guilt free. I have no time for food shaming, mom shaming, or any other shaming the world has lined up for me out there. Please enjoy this review of Simple Mills Vanilla Cupcake & Cake Mix. (This post is not sponsored, but the link for the mix is an affiliate link. If you purchase the mix through this link, I may get a small kickback.)

As a mom of a toddler with one on the way, I don’t always have time or energy to make gluten free dairy free cupcakes. This is especially true when it is a special occasion and I am already making a nice dinner, several sides, and a special dessert for my husband. Enter: Simple Mills Vanilla Cupcake & Cake Mix.

This was the case this weekend, which happens to be our anniversary. He LOVES Boston Cream Pie, and when we first started dating many moons ago, I discovered that it is much cuter in cupcake form. I haven’t made them in several years, but I thought I’d bring them back as a special treat this weekend. I wasn’t up for a total gluten-free dairy-free makeover (one day, I promise!) before the big day, so I went with my old stand-by wheat flour and heavy cream recipe for the husband and decided to hit the easy button for Ella’s treat.

I have used this box mix on several occasions when I don’t have the time or energy as a mama to make them from scratch. It is a huge plus that I can bring them to a family gathering without anyone knowing they’re allergen friendly. Gluten free products have come a long way in the past ten years. (I did some gluten free baking research with Texas A&M while I was there studying nutrition, so I like to think I did my part in furthering the cause.)

I love that the base is almond flour, lending itself a lower glycemic index than the typical GF/DF cupcake recipe. They were moist and the vanilla flavor was not too overpowering (which I feared, seeing as how you add a Tablespoon to the mix). Ella loves them, and eats them icing first, as one does. I took these out a minute before the least time listed, and they were perfect.

The ingredients, as listed, are: almond flour, organic coconut sugar, arrowroot, organic coconut flour, baking soda, and sea salt. I feel good that there aren’t any ingredients I have to google to determine what they’re for.

I topped these with just a smear of the Simple Mills Vanilla frosting, which is delightful. It’s light and has a whipped consistency. The frosting also has a pleasantly short ingredient list. It contains organic palm shortening, organic powdered sugar, organic coconut oil, organic tapioca, vanilla extract, sea salt, organic rosemary extract (for freshness), and monk fruit extract.

The cupcakes were a hit, and will be my go to when I need a little help getting all of the pieces in my life in line. I plan on freezing most of them to be able to provide Ella with a GF DF treat when there won’t be one available. For those of you wondering whether or not I should just have her opt out of dessert, seeing as it’s unnecessary and loaded with sugar, I believe the isolation and deprivation of not being able to eat the cake at birthday parties is more detrimental than the sugar content. I think it’s important for my kiddo with food allergies to be able to participate in festivities. Thanks for creating a great product Simple Mills!