xo baking cupcake mix review

Being really short in ingredients, I have to admit that I didn't used the best things here. But hey, there's always another time right?

As a "baker", even thou I really love to spend time on baking, sometimes I just wish to make things a little bit easier with the help of baking kits out from the box. For your information, I am on a gluten free, dairy free and sometimes egg free (depending on the eggs) diet, having the opportunity to enjoy desserts in where I live is pretty much impossible unless I make them myself. I love to experiment with different kinds of gluten free flours, but I just can't get them all, so this is another good thing about gluten free baking mix. You can try out different flour combination without purchasing them all. 

Onto the product- this time I have chosen a gluten free chocolate cupcake kit from xobakingco. What caught my eyes is definitely the packaging. It's fun and colorful, plus those cupcakes on the box look like they are from heaven. Anyways, I got home, grabbed a punch of ingredients from the cabinet and start baking. 

Ingredients of the cupcake mix for your reference 

Cake mix (Pure Cane Sugar, Premium Cassava Flour, Cocoa Powder, Unmodified Potato Starch, Organic Coconut Flour, Baking Powder, Baking Soda, Sea Salt, Xanthan Gum, Organic Vanilla Flavor); 

Frosting Mix (Powdered Sugar (Pure Cane Sugar, Cornstarch), Cocoa Powder, Sea Salt, Organic Vanilla Flavor)

And these are the ingredients I've used

the cupcake mix of course

mazola oil

chocolate rice milk

natural vegetarian free range egg

olive oil spread

water

and that's all I need. I am actually pretty surprise and happy that you don't need to prepare that much ingredients for these cupcakes. (to be honest, these are all the stuff that my friends own at her place that are suitable for baking. If they require more stuff, I will be so sad that I have to cancel my baking afternoon). I've chosen chocolate flavoured rice milk because I want to enrich the chocolate flavour in the cakes. 

The process is really simple, you have all the instruction written very clearly on the box. So if you are not used to baking, I am sure you will be able to follow and make yourself some yummy treats as well. 

I baked mine for exactly 20 mins and let them just sit and cool down in the oven until I want to go and grab one for tasting. 20 mins is just right because they came out super soft and moist. So be sure to check on it to avoid over baking. OH THE TASTE! They're unbelievably delicious! They are soft, rich in taste and sweet. Trust me, if I serve them to you, you will not believe that these are gluten free. They are THAT good! 

Time for some review. Two downside of these cupcakes are first my choice to use olive spread for the frosting. I am off limit to any dairy products so I can't use butter. But stuff like olive spread or any other vegetable spread that came in a plastic container are just margarine. We've heard a lot of bad things about margarine, they are man-made, chemically processed and they can be even worst than butter. So next time if time allows, I will make my own butter or go get some other alternatives. (any recommendations?) 

The second downside of these cupcakes are the amount of sugar they have in the mix. I am not a fan of really sweet desserts, so these cupcakes are a little bit too sweet for me, especially the frosting. Plus if you believe that sugar is bad for you,  then this is not your type of dessert mix. They've used I believe lots of cane sugar, and because they are all mixed up with the flours and everything, you do not have the option to cut down the amount of sugar or replace them with something else. But apart from that, these are the yummiest gluten free cupcakes I've ever tasted so far in Hong Kong. 

Have you been making your own healthy yet super yummy treats? Or have you tried out anything from xobakingco? Share with me and comment below! xoxo