Before becoming a mum just-add-an-egg baking kits weren’t something I knew anything about – it wasn’t a supermarket shelf I was familiar with because I preferred to bake everything from scratch.

Although BB and I often bake ourselves and weigh out all the ingredients, I do find baking kits a god send for emergency I-forgot-to-make-promised-preschool-leavers-party cupcakes to times when I can’t face or don’t have time for a complete kitchen clean afterwards, and a ‘controlled’ mess is much more preferable.

The only problem is those ready mixes often aren’t very healthy, and full of added ingredients that wouldn’t be there if you made the cupcakes or brownies yourself. So when Budgens asked me to review their new line of cake mixes it was refreshing to find a gluten-free brand which also uses wholemeal flower and natural ingredients.

Cookie Crumbles is a range of baking kits including everything from granola energy bars to sunny oat & raisin cookie mix. We tried out ‘awesome’ gluten-free brownie mix and blueberry & vanilla muffin mix, and both were so easy (and mess-free) to put together.

The brownie mix simply requires the addition of butter and eggs, while the muffins needed eggs and oil (and muffin cases). BB seems to love baking with a baking kit as much as getting out all the individual ingredients, so I didn’t feel I was ‘faking’ it or taking the easy option.

At £4.50 each the mixes certainly aren’t the cheapest on offer, but you know they’re made from decent, natural ingredients and you’re going to get good quality cakes at the end of it.

Just the job for easy cakes, muffins and brownies for the school holidays. And aforementioned emergency I-forgot-to-make-promised-preschool-leavers-party cupcakes.