Sweeteners

Om nom nom nom! Me Cookie Monster, and me LOVE cookies! Me gonna tell ya 'bout dese super-duper cookie mixes me use to make yummy cookies for me family. We all try to keep da sugar low, 'cause, well, we gobble too much sometimes, hehe! Dese cookies? BIG hit every time!Dis time, me pay super close attention to what me add to da mix, so you can make 'em too! Me grab da yellow cake mix to make chocolate chip cookies. Om nom! First, me take half cup (dat’s 4 tablespoons, me count on me paws) of Kerry Gold butter, soften it up nice, and mix it in. Stir stir stir till it’s all happy and even. Den, me crack one eggy and mix it till it looks like gooey, yummy cookie dough. Oh boy! Next, me toss in one-fourth cup of Lily’s Milk Chocolate chips—nom nom nom! Me roll dem into tablespoon-size cookie balls, plop ‘em on parchment, and pop ‘em in da freezer for five minutes so dey don’t spread like crazy in da oven.Den, into da oven dey go at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes. Me peek at ‘em to make sure dey don’t get too toasty—sometimes me tweak da time a teensy bit. When dey cool, me family—kids, mom, dad, and Cookie Monster—DEVOUR dem! Crunch crunch!Final thought: Are dese Grandma’s famous chocolate chip cookies? Nope! But do dey taste like a super yummy treat from da old days without all da sugar? OH YEAH, YOU BET! Om nom nom nom!

First, let me address the negative reviews regarding value. I am a Keto recipe developer, and I know full well the amount of investment needed to create a Keto pantry in order to do your own baking. We are talking in the hundreds of dollars to have a full complement of flour and sweetener substitutes at hand. I have been adapting traditional recipes into low carb/Keto recipes for several years, so I have had the time needed to slowly build up my arsenal. Also, I am retired, and I have the time to do my baking from scratch if I want to. For those of you who are working and trying to stick to a low carb/Keto lifestyle, helps like ready-made mixes are a true blessing. And for those who do not have hundreds of dollars to shell out buying all of the necessary pantry items for low carb baking, these mixes make it possible for you to still enjoy a treat and stick to your diet plan and your budget.Now to the cake itself... There are oodles of different carrot cake recipes. Just take a look on Pinterest or any search engine and you'll see that. This mix gives you a solid base from which you can take your cake in any direction that your family tradition or your personal preferences dictate. When I purchased the mix, I read all of the reviews (as I also do when looking at recipes on Keto blogger sites). I took the comments and suggestions of those readers and incorporated them into the cake when I made it. These are the steps I took to get a 5 star cake:1. To address the potential issue of dryness, I used 1/2 butter and 1/2 solid coconut oil melted together. This little trick adds more moisture to a cake, but still gives you that buttery home-baked goodness.2. Someone mentioned the cake was crumbly, so I added 1/4 tsp. glucomannon powder (or guar gum) to make it hold together better.3. Comments that there was not enough carrot flavor resulted in me shredding a few baby carrots and adding that to the mix.4. Someone added raisins, which are high sugar, thus not really good for Keto, but a few added to the cake doesn't hurt your net carbs that much. Add some.5. Added a couple of tablespoons of dried shredded coconut for texture. Chopped nuts could be added instead.6. For the comment that the cake does not rise much, I added 1/2 tsp. baking powder, and the cake rose perfectly. My cake turned out delicious!7. As to flavor, when I tasted the batter, it had the perfect amount of sweetness and spice for what I like. Obviously some people want things sweeter. If that's you, add a bit more sweetener. The same with the spices. I did not add any, but if I wanted to take the cake in a different flavor direction, it would be easy to do with spices or flavor oils.My extra tip: To get a taller cake, I used a 4x6 glass dish for baking, and added 10 minutes to the bake time. For me, this is now an 8 serving cake. This trick yields a cake thick enough to split if you want a frosting layer in the middle.For those who commented on too many added ingredients, let me just say that it is totally apparent that none of you have ever made a low carb cake before. That is a standard amount of eggs and butter/oil to use in a recipe that uses coconut flour. It is very thirsty stuff!Bottom line: This is an excellent cake mix to have on hand for those times when you are either out of some of your basic ingredients, or just don't feel like getting them all out of the cupboard. The base batter is neutral enough that you could take this cake in a lot of directions. Use it as a base for a spice cake or a pumpkin cake. I plan to keep a few of these on hand in my pantry.

I have tried a few keto, or sugar free desserts before, but didn't like the aftertaste. This one was really good that it fooled my son, who never likes the artificial tastes. I made up some low cal, cream cheese icing and it was gone quick!

I've ordered this multiple times, so I'm obviously enjoying this mix. I try to maintain a low carb diet and love carrot cake. I add a grated carrot, baking powder and nuts. It works!

I’ve been GF for 12 years so I’m very used to food that doesn’t taste the greatest. These are like eating a very lemon flavored dish sponge. I love lemon too and these were just way off.

Made this as a 9 inch round cake (per the instructions). Not impressed with texture or flavor. I couldn't smell any lemon when I opened the package, so I added both lemon zest and lemon extract..... and that gave this just the very slightest hint of lemon flavor. I imagine without my additions, it would have had no flavor whatsoever. And while I didn't expect a "typical" cake texture, I didn't expect it to be so dense. It had a very "cornbread" mouth feel, and was somewhat dry. I almost feel like I wasted eggs and butter baking this, not to mention money. Maybe I should have skipped the added lemon and served this with stew....Keto and dessert are still difficult to combine successfully, I know this, but I cannot give this more than 3 stars. An "A for effort" kind of rating.***UPDATE*** After being refrigerated overnight, the cake is somewhat less dry, and the lemon flavor has become more noticeable. So it tastes a little better and has a slightly improved (less like cornbread) mouth feel. With the added lemon extract and zest, and several hours of refrigeration, I'd still only give this 3.5 stars, and wouldn't purchase again.