Hi guys! I have a MOB that is coming for a tasting for her daughter who lives out of town. She has a disease (cant remember the name of it) but she is not allowed to have anything with gluten in it.
I searched the recipes on here, and some call for the xanthan gum, but when I look it up to find out what it is, it says it has gluten in it? How can it be used as a gluten free product if it has gluten in it? Or is it one of those scientific things that its on the same food chain as gluten but not really?!
I want to make her a cake she can actually taste but not get the woman sick in the process!!! Any help I would appreciate it!!

Xantham gum does not contain gluten. Gluten makes the product "stretchy" (if that makes sense) and xantham gum acts in the same manner. You could also use guar gum to achieve the same thing. HTH

(My son is on a gluten/casein free diet and we have used xantham gum with no probs!)

Ceshell has done a test on gluten free cakes here is a thread she responded to recently - hope this helps:
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-614875-gluten.html

I noticed that my supermarket carries a gluten free cake mix from a major company, but I can't remember which one.

what I do remember is that one box was $3.39!

vtcake -

The box mix is a Betty Crocker mix. And for gluten free $3.39 is a steal!!! You can easily spend 6-7 bucks on one gf mix!!!

Thanks guys! I will try that!

Cherrybrook Kitchens makes gluten free mixes. I can find them at Target. The mixes are also dairy, egg, nut free. So, I'm not sure what's in them I haven't tried the cake mixes, but the brownie one is very good. They also make icing mix incase you need that as well.

My husband is a celiac, so I've been cooking gluten-free for 5 years now!

Keep in mind that you need to pay attention not only to the ingredients you use, but your equipment. The tiniest hint of flour can provoke a reaction and cause intestinal damage. Use well-scrubbed equipment (or better yet, new equipment) in a flour-free environment and definitely nothing that has potentially absorbed flour, like wood.

On the good side, a gluten reaction isn't fatal, but it can cause a person to feel debilitatingly ill for a few hours and increases the risk of cancer.

I have used Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free chocolate cake mix. It tastes great for a flour free cake but I don't recall if it was firm enough to stand up to heavy decorating. Most gluten-free products are crumbly in comparison to products made with wheat. Good luck!

Just a thought... but if only the MOB and not the bride or guests have celiac disease it seems like an awful lot of trouble and expense to make "special dietary restricted" tasting cakes....

(If the MOB doesn't like the celiac cake, that's no reflection on your regular offerings..... And guests without celiac disease might not realize the cake is celiac friendly and just think it's a bit "different"....)

It would make more sense for the MOB to bring a friend to taste your regular line of cakes... Unless the entire wedding cake is going to be celiac friendly. In which case, the MOB must be informed that the cost per slice is going to run substantially more!!!

And be sure to include the price of any new pans, and other equipment you need to purchase to insure there's no flour/gluten contamination.

Good luck.