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Gluten-Free, Anyone?
Recently it was my dear sister’s birthday, another memorable year under her belt. Hooray!
She was recently advised by her doctors that it would be in her best interest to have a gluten-free diet.
I have heard about gluten-free foods for a while now. A few years ago, one of my closest friends was also advised by her doctors to make an attempt to switch to this diet. However, at the time, for whatever reason, I did not investigate this. WHAT IS GLUTEN-FREE?
I learned that gluten-free means foods that do not contain wheat (with the exception of kamut and spelt), barley, rye, malt, and triticale, and it seems that the best way to get any gluten-free cakes (especially good ones) is to make it oneself! Even then, from what I glimpsed online, making a good gluten-free cake is not an easy feat.
As a surprise, I was going to get my sister a gluten-free cake. Since gluten-free has been around for a few years now, this should be a simple task. At least that is what I thought. So I planned to get one the day before her birthday…
I started with the usual ‘health’ venues, you know, the bakeshops and supermarkets that are known to be on the cutting edge of eating healthy. I first contacted the Le Pain Quotidien because I read somewhere that this bakery has gluten-free baked goods. But as luck would have it, they do carry gluten-free baked goods but no cakes. WHAT?!!
Then I called Whole Foods Market and Crumbs Bake Shop. Still no luck. Not only that, everyone that I spoke with up to this point seemed annoyed that I would even dare to ask about this!
At this point, I went to the trusted Google in the hopes of some pointers. I was shocked that there are only a few bakeries that have gluten-free cakes and that they are all out of the way.
Hearing my exasperation, my loving husband gave me much praise while urging me to cease the torture for he cannot bear to see me suffer much longer.
Then, just as I was about to give up and willing to declare utter failure, Balducci’s popped in my head. I really had to muster up the courage to give them a try at this point. I told myself that if they do not have anything that I will stop the search and give much more time in the future for other events involving gluten-free foods.
There must be a God because my luck changed with my last ditch effort with Balducci’s in Westport, CT! Not only did I get a gluten-free cake, I also had an incredibly professional, patient, and attentive person on the other end who went the extra mile by doing everything he could to find out the ingredients of the cake to ensure that it was truly gluten-free. This is true customer service, thank you SO much Balducci’s!!! This “Chocolate Decadence Cake” is perfect – it is six inches (just big enough so that everyone can have a slice and be finished that night). Almost everyone loved it, and most importantly, it is gluten-free!
Success at last! However, this begs the question: In this day and age of the supposed popularity of gluten-free, why is it still a challenge finding a variety of tasty and reasonably priced gluten-free cakes???
To be continued...
Let us know what you think!
She was recently advised by her doctors that it would be in her best interest to have a gluten-free diet.
I have heard about gluten-free foods for a while now. A few years ago, one of my closest friends was also advised by her doctors to make an attempt to switch to this diet. However, at the time, for whatever reason, I did not investigate this. WHAT IS GLUTEN-FREE?
I learned that gluten-free means foods that do not contain wheat (with the exception of kamut and spelt), barley, rye, malt, and triticale, and it seems that the best way to get any gluten-free cakes (especially good ones) is to make it oneself! Even then, from what I glimpsed online, making a good gluten-free cake is not an easy feat.
As a surprise, I was going to get my sister a gluten-free cake. Since gluten-free has been around for a few years now, this should be a simple task. At least that is what I thought. So I planned to get one the day before her birthday…
I started with the usual ‘health’ venues, you know, the bakeshops and supermarkets that are known to be on the cutting edge of eating healthy. I first contacted the Le Pain Quotidien because I read somewhere that this bakery has gluten-free baked goods. But as luck would have it, they do carry gluten-free baked goods but no cakes. WHAT?!!
Then I called Whole Foods Market and Crumbs Bake Shop. Still no luck. Not only that, everyone that I spoke with up to this point seemed annoyed that I would even dare to ask about this!
At this point, I went to the trusted Google in the hopes of some pointers. I was shocked that there are only a few bakeries that have gluten-free cakes and that they are all out of the way.
Hearing my exasperation, my loving husband gave me much praise while urging me to cease the torture for he cannot bear to see me suffer much longer.
Then, just as I was about to give up and willing to declare utter failure, Balducci’s popped in my head. I really had to muster up the courage to give them a try at this point. I told myself that if they do not have anything that I will stop the search and give much more time in the future for other events involving gluten-free foods.
There must be a God because my luck changed with my last ditch effort with Balducci’s in Westport, CT! Not only did I get a gluten-free cake, I also had an incredibly professional, patient, and attentive person on the other end who went the extra mile by doing everything he could to find out the ingredients of the cake to ensure that it was truly gluten-free. This is true customer service, thank you SO much Balducci’s!!! This “Chocolate Decadence Cake” is perfect – it is six inches (just big enough so that everyone can have a slice and be finished that night). Almost everyone loved it, and most importantly, it is gluten-free!
Success at last! However, this begs the question: In this day and age of the supposed popularity of gluten-free, why is it still a challenge finding a variety of tasty and reasonably priced gluten-free cakes???
To be continued...
Let us know what you think!