As a keen baker I’m always fairly sceptical about baking a cake from a packet. It kind of feels like cheating.
Though when my turn to bake the monthly work cake rolled around I kinda freaked out. Some of the team don’t eat dairy and others can’t have gluten. What the hell am I supposed to cook?
Not knowing exactly what’s in all my baking ingredients in the pantry, I was hesitant to make anything from scratch. Instead I opted for this nifty little pack from Well & Good.
The box says it’s dairy and gluten free, and it can even be made vegan with a quick tweak, meaning everyone at work can eat it (even Tina who is fasting for Greek Easter. Hi Tina!).

The method is all laid out clearly on the back of the pack and it lets you know what you'll need in addition to the sachets in the box. Because I was following the vegan instructions for me it was a few tablespoons of chia seeds, good old margarine (which is made from vegetable oil) and some tap water.
I decided to make two cakes and layered them so that everyone at work would maybe assume I made it from scratch. Shhhh.
I got started by pre-heating my oven and greased and lined a spring form baking tin, to make turning the cake out much easier.
In other very important baking news, The Crown has just solved a major issue about scones and now we finally know whether the cream or the jam goes on first. Post continues after audio.
Then in a large bowl I emptied the packs of pre-labelled cake mix, added in my pre-soaked chia seeds (to substitute for eggs) and some margarine. Then I set my mix master to high and mixed that batter up for a few minutes.