Mom's Munchies

My little niece recently became both gluten and dairy free (definitely not by choice!).  As she takes after me (and really, most of my family), she has quite the sweet tooth, and this instantly became the hardest part of adapting: finding decent gluten-free and vegan desserts, that she would eat, AND that the rest of us might be willing to eat her discards.  Although I generally don't think vegan and gluten-free dessert items are particularly good, I always enjoy trying new things, which brought me to this brand, Mom's Munchies. 

"Real Ingredients. Amazing Taste. It's That Simple."

Mom's Munchies is much like other brands of its nature, founded by a woman who was diagnosed celiac, couldn't find any tasty treats, and thus, created her own.  They make cookies, bars, bites, and some cakes, and can be found in Whole Foods and other speciality stores.

Chocolate Truffle Cake.

"A decadent, healthy treat made with nutritious ingredients. A layer of nutty crust with a creamy melt-in-our-mouth truffle center, topped with 99% dark chocolate ganache."

While these look, and sound, decadent, they are really quite healthy, made from cashew butter, unsweetened almond milk, and almond meal as the first 3 ingredients, with walnuts and organic coconut oil rounding them out, definitely not what you normally think of as ingredients in cake nor truffle.  They are sweetened with agave, and yes, have cocoa, but otherwise, are a considerably more healthy option.  That said, they aren't a low fat health food by any means, which you'd expect given the nuts and coconut oil.  A single very small cake is 340 calories / 28g fat, and each small cake is considered 2 servings (e.g. 1/2 piece is a serving - which is a bit ridiculous given how small they are).

Anyway.  How were they?  Bleh.  These tasted far, far too healthy to me.  

The base layer almost looked like a nutty brownie.  The main body looked like a creamy mousse. The top a decadent ganache.  It looked so good!  

But ... although there was some chocolate obviously, I mostly tasted fairly bitter cashew butter and almond, with coconut oil leaving a coating and aftertaste in the mouth.  I tried each layer individually, valiantly trying to find one layer that tasted decent, but every single one let me down considerably.  There was no getting past the strong bitter and nut dominance.  So, decent textures, great look, very poor taste, at least for me.  Even whipped cream and fresh fruit couldn't save this for me. *.