I felt that I haven't baked something for months, so when I was on my own on Saturday afternoon I thought I would look through my baking cupboard to see what I could find to make, for a cake baked from scratch they were pretty bare. But there was plenty of packet mixes, one of which that I've never tried is the WOW cake carrot cake. So I dug this one out and gave it a go!

To make this cake you need eggs, butter and three carrots. The mix does say to use margarine but I much prefer butter to bake with so I substituted this. Very simply cream the butter and the mix together until smooth, then add the eggs and combine. Finally grate 3 carrots into the bowl and fold them into it. This mix wasn't hard to combine and I didn't feel like I was mixing for hours so it was great! Although the mix gave the impression that you should put the mix into one baking tin, I always bake these kind of things in our sandwich tins as a carrot cake isn't complete without cream cheese icing and I am awful at cutting a cake in half! These went into the oven at gas mark 3/4 for half an hour and came out beautifully risen!

Once cooled and iced I tried this cake out on 5 of my gluten eating friends and family. I initially did not tell them it was gluten free and I was told it's the best cake I have ever baked. Once I revealed my free from secret, they could not believe it. Not a crumb was wasted and they even asked if I could bake it again! If anything I am a little disappointed I only bought one to try as I would happily try the others now! I found the sponge consistency was very moist, light and airy. The flavours were spicy and nutmeg-y with a freshness from the carrot which had seemed to absorb the spice, making an outstandingly professional flavour easy to achieve. The cream cheese icing that I decided to add really finished this bake perfectly and of course you can use dairy free alternatives to create a similar affect.

Being packaged in a tin, it feels like this mix should be able to be bought in refill packs too, this would be something I would do! As this is something that I enjoy about the Honeybuns mix because it creates a nice display on a shelf but minimises packaging waste.

Overall, from baking to devouring, this mix was brilliant and I would use it again! Everything was so simple and just worked, plus once baked it tasted fantastic too!

Hannah x