I was pleased to bake, taste and review Food by Helen mixes . This brand was new to me, only recently spotted it on Twitter so was keen to find out more.
The brain child of Food by Helen is Helen O’Dowd a qualified nutritionist and food scientist.
I have been able to try the gluten free chocolate cup cake mix and the crumble mix and also sampled the seeds for cereal. In a later blog post I will bake and review Helen’s bread mix.
Firstly I decided to make an apple crumble using Helen’s mix. It was very simple to make the instructions were easy to follow.
The millet flour felt quite different to use, a slightly gritty texture. The butter rubbed in easily and I added to my cooked apple.
I pressed the crumble down lightly and popped in a pre heated oven
The crumble was a great success, it had a good crunch to the crumble. Something I struggle with when I make from scratch using gluten free flour.
I thought the crumble had a distinctive flavour quite different from my regular crumble, not sure I really liked it. My family on the other hand gave the crumble a big thumbs up they didn’t notice any difference with the flavour. They loved the texture and would buy again especially at the fair price of £1.99
Next I made the chocolate gluten free cup cakes
Once again the instructions were easy to follow, just add 4 eggs, butter and water. It was good to see butter suggested as the fat choice as opposed to vegetable oil or margarine. Sadly the first ingredient mentioned is sugar , higher even than the rice flour. Pleased to see Helen also does mention on the reverse of the packet that these are meant as a treat for a party or other special occasion, rather than an every day food.
I enjoy making cakes by hand so I didn’t take Helen’s advice to use a mixer, I was very pleased with the results.
The cakes were a real success. I followed the instructions to make the buttercream icing.The ingredients are not provided in the packet.
My testers the family thought they had a good texture and a strong chocolatey flavour. Possibly more adult cup cakes rather than for children. They loved the buttercream too. looks like a big thumbs up again for Helen’s cup cake mix. My family eat both gluten free and gluten filled cakes so make good Guinea pigs.
As someone living completely gluten free I would agree the cakes tasted light and had a deep chocolate flavour.
The mix costs £2.69 to this you need to add eggs, butter and icing sugar for the butter cream
Finally I tested out Helen’s Seeds for cereal a topping to add to cereal, porridge , yoghurt etc containing milled linseed with sesame. the one I tried had blueberry and cranberry added.
I tried mine sprinkled on yoghurt , it is a very fine powder and would be easily lost on top of granola. so great to add to children’s porridge etc
I think if you are looking to add more omega 3 and fibre to your diet this is an easy way. At a cost of £2.79
If you would like to follow Food by Helen she is on twitter here
I look forward to trying the bread mix very soon.
Fabulously Free From 
this is good Information, Hope we will read many other good things from you in future also. Regards
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I made scones using Helen’s scone mix. Being gluten dairy and yeast intolerant this is the first recipe that really tasted fantastic. I used Almond milk and oil instead of butter and butter milk, as advised by Helen’s recipe. My attempts at making scones are no longer necessary. Thank you Helen. Wicklow customer.