Cupcake Mix on Trial

I work with children on the Autism Spectrum, and we are careful what we feed them. Many of them are allergic to tree nuts, casein, and gluten, so we often go the vegan route when preparing snacks for them. Recently we made cupcakes for a celebration we had with their families, experimenting with the Namaste Vanilla Cake Mix and Cliff's Best Gulten-Free Brownie Mix. As always, my long-standing advice is to make all your food from scratch, but it's nice to have an emergency backup just in case you need a gluten-free or vegan dessert in short notice.

In the end, the vanilla cupcakes the boys had grabbed ended up in the trash. Very disappointing, but oh well. Now we know. The vanilla cupcakes tasted more like bran muffins while the chocolate cupcakes could've passed as any of their regular white-flour cupcake friends. Even though Cliff's are a brownie mix, their consistency is more like cake, so they worked great as cupcakes.

WARNING: Sugar depletes the body of minerals because of its acidity. To regain pH balance, our bodies pull minerals from our bones and teeth to neutralize the acid in our systems. Be wise and eat sugar in moderation.