Namaste Spice Cake–Giveaway
We live in the semi-homemade generation where almost no meal is made entirely from scratch. The ability to take a bit from your pantry and a few fresh ingredients to turn into meals – or treats- is fantastic and easy. I save a little cash in my grocery budget and can wow Hunni and my friends with my “home made” dinners and desserts.
Namaste Foods was kind enough to send me some samples of their gluten free products as I begin this gluten free adventure. Being me, I didn’t make the products simply as stated…although I’m sure they would have tasted great. I had to tweak them, just a bit.
The gluten free spice cake mix caught my eye the second I opened the box.
Spice cake is not for the weak of heart. You have to be creative when working with spice cake. The package had a few suggestions to, teehee, spice it up. Perhaps a nice gluten free apple spice cake or a gingerbread version but I my mind kept fluttering back to this summer and the ginger and pear preserves I canned with friends.
I had the perfect combo of the two Namaste Foods creation suggestions…
Gluten Free Spiced Ginger Pear Cake
I diced up one firm pear and threw it into the skillet on medium with some fresh grated ginger a pinch of sugar and some water. No exact measurements here. Reminded me of grandmas cooking.
Meanwhile I added all the other ingredients and mix to the good old Kitchen Aid. On the package Namaste Foods offered suggestions to use egg whites and apple sauce for a lower fat cake. Bonus…they included how these substitutions changed nutrition info.
Perfect ! Now I didn’t have to be a math geek and guess – or look up – the substitutions and configure the nutrition info while they baked…so I knew how many I could eat within my Weight Watchers Points Plus, of course. Plus it made the cake super moist.
Of course you have to taste the batter (I used pasteurized egg whited 
)…normal spice cake to me. Not dry and gritty that I’ve heard gluten free baking can be. I added the caramelized pear mixture to beat before deciding my method of baking.
Normal cake gluten free cake mixes only make a dozen cupcakes or one 9 in cake. Namaste Foods can make two 9 inch cake rounds. I opted for 12 very full cupcakes – okay, I over filled a bit on the first attempt – plus 4 jumbo muffins. That’s a HUGE deal because gluten free mixes can cost a pretty penny. The cost per serving here is actually less than most mixes which means more cake for me! I’ll take that deal.
Thirty minutes in the oven and we were dying to try them. They smelled fantastic. Even Leo and Peanut were sniffing the air and licking their lips. They tried to be muffin thieves but Hunni and I weren’t having any of that. I had to hide the leftovers from Hunni too because he was going to eat them all.
Hunni preferred his straight up with some powdered sugar while mine was added to oatmeal, after I had one fresh out of the oven, of course.
The rest were hidden frozen for later. A bit of time in the microwave – 30 seconds for regular, 1 minute for jumbos – and they were ready to go. Score! Portion control and easy snacks.
I’ve always loved doctoring up cake mixes and the Namaste Foods gluten free mix was just as easy.
Guess what?…You can have some too.
Don’t worry if you aren’t gluten-free…Hunni would have eaten them all if I didn’t hide them.
Due to shipping costs this giveaway is only open to US and Canadian residents.
The Namaste Foods Give Away bag includes:
A Namaste Grocery Tote , 3 Namaste Foods Products, Copy of their Simple Pleasures Cookbook, Copy of Living Without Magazine, & Assorted Recipe Cards.
To enter:
- Leave a comment telling me your favorite kind of cake.
Extra Entries:
- Check our the Namaste Foods Website and tell me the product you’d most like to try.
- Like It All Changes on Facebook and leave me a comment telling me you’ve done so.
Give away ends at Midnight on Tuesday February 8. Good Luck!
*FTC note: Namaste Foods sent the products for free but the rambling and eating was my own…with a bit of help from Hunni.
It All Changes 
I tried Betty Crocker gluten-free cake mix, and it left a bit to be desired. Now I can’t wait to try a Namaste mix and winning one would be even better – thanks for offering the giveaway! Your gingered pear cupcakes sound absolutely delicious, but since I’ve never tried pear cupcakes I suppose my favorite is strawberry.
ooh, favorite kind of cake? It would have to be my mom’s homemade chocolate cake with homemade icing.
i’d love to try their pasta mixes and blondies. Yum!
and I like ya on FB 🙂
I looove me some red velvet cake with cream cheese icing!
The pizza crust mix looks yummy! Nothing is better than homemade pizza!
oh, and I like you! (On FB and other ways too!)
Yum! This looks delicious. I love Kahlua cake, which I make every year on my mom’s birthday.
and I’d love to try their brownie mix
Your spice cupcakes sound so good! My favorite cake I think is chocolate cake with ginger and cinnamon – spicy but sweet, and super delicious! No frosting needed, it’s so good!
I would like to try their blondies – as much as I love my chocolate spice cake, I’m totally a vanilla-over-chocolate girl!
i think carrot cake with cream cheese frosting is my favorite kind of cake! 🙂
i’d love to try their toffee vanilla frosting mix.
i “liked” you on facebook!
my favorite cake? yes.
i can’t decide! probably something with coconut.
i’d love to try their sugar-free Muffin Mix – i love that it’s naturally sweetened!
Hola! My favorite cake is not even a cake at all, really…
I LOVE Banana Split Cake. It has no “cake” in it. It is banana, pineapple, cherries, cool whip…. I have no idea what all is in it. This is a cake I refuse to learn to make at this point in time because it is a special cake my aunt makes for Christmas and my birthday, Twice a year. I think if I learned to make it, it would take some of the specialness away!
My favourite kind of cake is chocolate fudge! Yummy!
I would love to try Namaste’s Pizza Crust Mix!
I liked you on Facebook! (erin d)
those look delicious! My favorite is angel food cake!
i LOVED cheesecake. 🙂 thats usually my weakness. and chocolate 🙂
i LOVE cheesecake. 🙂 thats usually my weakness. and chocolate 🙂
All of their pasta mixes sound delicious!
My favorite kind of cake? I don’t have one, I love them all! I am team cake all the way 🙂
I love baking and I’m living with a roommate who is gfree. It’s hard to not cross contaminate with her so I just don’t bake much anymore. Plus we both joined wwplus for the new year.
I love choc clake that I can play around with… but now I want to try this spice cake.
sounds fantastic. thanks.
Favorite cake? Tough call, but I did make a Butterscotch Whiskey cake for my friend’s birthday this year that was amazing! I think it’s a toss-up between that, a warm spice cake (perfect, eh?) and a chocolate cake with mint chocolate chip filling. Yeah, I just love cake. 🙂
As for the Namaste food I’d like to try… All of them really. I’m just starting to work in more gluten-free foods into my and my family’s diet. My son was recently diagnosed with Asperger’s and I understand that gluten free products can help with that. It’s tough with the small grocery budget we have, but he’s worth it. 🙂 If I had to pick one, it would be the Mac & Cheese as that’s my son’s favorite meal, followed by pizza.
So glad I found your blog! I’m now following on twitter and facebook. 🙂
I love pumpkin cake… AND spice cake, red velvet, and really good carrot cake
It’s horrible for me but I LOVE german chocolate with that sticky coconut caramel frosting!!
I’d love to give their vanilla cake a try! My birthday’s coming up, perfect!!
My favorite kind of cake is strawberry cake! Or cheesecake. 🙂 Hmm..maybe strawberry cheesecake? Who can choose?!
I think I’d like to try the Pasta Pisavera!
I must say… My favorite would be a carrot cake with cream cheese icing!! That is the ultimate for me!
Your ginger pear cupcakes look awesome. My favorite type of cake – Hmmm…Lemon poppy-seed and of course carrot cake w/o nuts due to an allergy. Thanks for offering the give away I would love to try the bread mix and the the biscuits – yummy!
I liked you on FB – thanks for the contest!
I just discovered Namste products this Christmas when I ran out of G.F. four and needed to make cookies. I used Namste Perfect Flour Blend my cookies turned out great! Even better then the G.F. mix I’d been whipping up myself. My 10 year old wanted a vanilla cake for his birthday, in the past I’ve tried Bob’s red mill, Arrow mill, Pamala’s and a few others, they all taste like corn meal. I crossed my fingers and I used Nameste Perfect Flour Blend it tasted great! So now I have a happy kido with a G.F. vanilla cake, with raspberry filling made my mom. When kids have to go G.F. its not fun but handy products such as Namaste keep things tastey.
Hmmm! My favorite cake?! Pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting or anything with chocolate and mint! I really would like to try their pastas! Especially the taco pasta! I liked you in facebook too! It is nice to find other people with allergy issues! I don’t feel so alone anymore!
You know all the products look great when you’ve been really restricted for a really long time!
Thank you we’re going to add your pear cupcakes to the list of the different cupcakes I’m going to make for my daughter’s first birthday! I’ve been gf for almost 7 years now and Namaste’s cake mixes are awesome. I’d like to try their pastas soon. When I got married two years ago in Savannah, everywhere we went to for our wedding cake hadn’t even heard of gf stuff. So after subjecting my husband to-be and co-workers to many many test gf chocolate cakes, I ended up making my wedding cake w Namaste, a chocolate cake w raspberry mousse filling! It didn’t look great, since I’m not a baker, but it was tasty, was exactly what I wanted and I could enjoy my wedding cake w/ my husband!
My favorite kind of cake is confetti cake! and anything chocolate of course.
my favorite kind of cake is chocolate with chocolate frosting! yum.
Since butterbrickle cake mix no longer exists, my favorite is a warm Vanilla bean cake with lemon glaze
Angel food cake!