I get very excited when parcels arrive. Usually they have the word “Amazon” plastered all over the packaging, and I know exactly what I will find inside because of course, I just so happened to have ordered the books, DVD’s or whatever. Exciting in a 7 out of 10 sort of way, which is good, but nowhere near the 10 out of 10 excitement score that I feel when I receive a mystery package with no clues to what’s hidden inside.

The postman recently delivered such a parcel, and what made me a rather happy bunny was that it contained a selection of delicious gluten free bakes from a favourite bakery of mine called Honeybuns Bakery. A lovely bonus was to find that they had also included a canister of their cornbread mix for me to try.

The mix is attractively packaged and comes with clear and easy to follow instructions printed on the container. It comes complete with a recipe sheet so that you can try making pancakes, muffins or croutons. The cornbread mix itself contains polenta, sorghum flour, tapioca flour, gluten-free baking powder, raising agents E450I E500 E516, vegetable oil, cracked black pepper and sea salt.

I had decided to make a batch of greek inspired muffins. I had already chopped black olives and sun-dried tomatoes. Crumbled feta cheese and found some dried oregano to add to the mix. I love all of these ingredients and combined, they are just amazing!

Following the instructions was very easy. Pop the mix in a bowl, break in three eggs and whisk. Pour in 200g of melted butter and a few tablespoons of milk. Whisk again. Stir in the olives etc and hey voila…ready to pop into the muffin cases. That took less than ten minutes. Easy peasy!

The recipe said that the batter would fill 12 cases, and that’s exactly what I got. A quick 18 minutes in the oven and out they came, risen, golden and smelling fantastic!

My taste testers were my lovely colleagues at the school where I work. We love our baked goodies and within no time at all of the muffins were gone. The feed back I got was great. Everyone thought that they were just delicious. Of course, no decent baker would dream of producing something and not trying it for themselves so I made sure that I saved one just for me.The muffins were moist and light with a good texture. The mix’s seasoning was spot on and they were definitely very yummy and totally moorish.

The mix retails at £4.99. Yes, that is a little pricey and I wouldn’t use it on a regular basis, but I think that it would make a perfect little gift for anyone. I don’t have a problem with gluten, but I do enjoy eating baked goods that contain polenta as an alternative to those made with wheat flour, so, hint hint, I would be made up to find one, or two of the Honeybuns cornbread mixes in my Christmas stocking. But hey.. why wait for Christmas; there’s always birthdays, Easter, Mother’s Day, and no particular reason days of the year!

So thank you Honeybuns, that was a very definite 10 out of 10 surprise!

(I was not paid to review this product and received the mix as a gift from Honeybuns Bakery)