Last night, my daughters and I attended a gluten free cupcake tasting at Gigi's Cupcakes on East Colonial Drive. The cupcakery is located in the Colonial Plaza Marketcenter, a short distance from Fashion Square Mall.
Gigi's Cupcakes recently launched a new Gluten Free Every Day menu with three gluten free cupcakes offered every day. The Orlando store also offers the triple chocolate torte cupcake every day, which is flourless.
The Gigi's on Colonial bakes their gluten free cupcakes fresh every morning before any gluten-filled products are made, and they are baked in darker wrappers to differentiate them from gluten-filled cupcakes. They are stored on the top shelf of the display case to prevent cross contamination. The gluten free flour blend they use contains ingredients like rice flour, tapioca starch, potato starch, and guar gum. Update - I recently learned that Gigi's uses Bloomfield Farms Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Mix.
Gigi's has a pretty typical disclaimer, like most restaurants do, to protect themselves from liability. Even though they have had no negative feedback from customers who have celiac, each person must make their own determination whether they feel comfortable eating cupcakes made in a shared kitchen, where there is the potential for cross contamination.
Last night, Gigi's had gluten free mini cupcakes for us to sample. I tried the Midnight Magic (chocolate cake with dark chocolate chips, topped with a chocolate buttercream frosting and chocolate chips), Miss Princess (white cake baked with fresh strawberries, topped with a cream cheese frosting, pink sugar crystals, and a pink fondant crown), Wedding Cake (white cake topped with vanilla buttercream frosting, and sprinkled with white nonpareils), and the Triple Chocolate Torte (rich, dark chocolate cake with a brownie texture, baked without flour, topped with a chocolate ganache rose and powdered sugar).
My favorite might have been the Miss Princess, but I also loved the Midnight Magic, and the Triple Chocolate Torte. They were moist and flavorful, and their frostings weren't overly sweet, like most cupcakeries. The Wedding Cake, Gigi's best seller, was a little too plain for my taste.
Other gluten free cupcake flavors include the Birthday Surprise (white cake with fluffy, pink buttercream frosting and colorful sprinkles), White Midnight Magic (chocolate cake with dark chocolate chips, topped with a white cream cheese frosting and chocolate chips), Strawberry Shortcake (white cake baked with fresh strawberries, topped with a strawberry buttercream frosting and red sugar crystals), Lemon Dream Supreme (lemon cake with lemon buttercream frosting and a candied lemon slice), and Chocolate Salted Caramel (chocolate cake filled with caramel, topped with caramel frosting and dipped in ganache, with a pinch of sea salt on top).
Gigi's offers three levels of frosting for their cupcakes - the rosette, pedestal, and Gigi's signature swirl. If I was special ordering traditional size cupcakes, I would definitely be choosing the rosette, because I believe that less is more when it comes to frosting.
Gigi's also makes gluten free banana nut chocolate chip, blueberry streusel swirl, and pumpkin white chocolate bread. The gluten free breads are made every day, and the selection varies by store. If you want a particular flavor, you can special order it.
My family has actually stopped in at Gigi's Cupcakes before, and had some of their full size cupcakes. You can read my previous review here, but keep in mind that the information is outdated.
There were some other bloggers at the event that can eat gluten, so they were called on to taste test the gluten free and gluten filled cupcakes. They all enjoyed the gluten free cupcakes, and sometimes even preferred them over the gluten-filled ones.
Gluten free mini cupcakes are only available by special order, which you can place by calling 407-893-9846. I enjoyed the mini cupcakes I sampled so much, I am already trying to figure out what special event I will be ordering them for.
As far as price goes, Gigi's does not charge more for its gluten free cupcakes, unlike other local cupcakeries.
I was invited to the gluten free cupcake tasting event at Gigi's Cupcakes last night, where I enjoyed some complimentary cupcakes, but all of the opinions contained in this review are entirely my own.
What are your favorite gluten free cupcakes at Gigi's Cupcakes?
0 comments:
Post a Comment