Sunday, February 22, 2015

Erin McKenna's Bakery NYC - Disney Springs

If you have missed BabyCakes, you will be happy to know that Erin McKenna's Bakery NYC opened today in Disney Springs.  It is located near Raglan Road, one of my favorite restaurants for gluten free dining at Disney World.  


Everything at Erin McKenna's Bakery NYC is gluten, dairy, egg, soy, and refined sugar free.  Their baked goods are certified kosher, parve, and vegan, and are sweetened with unprocessed, evaporated cane juice, or agave nectar.   


Erin McKenna's Bakery NYC does use coconut oil, and Bob's Red Mill flours (brown rice flour or a garbanzo/fava bean mix), which are packaged on the same equipment as soy, and hazelnut and almond flours.  None of their vendors use peanuts on their equipment, so their baked goods are safe for people with peanut allergies.



Erin McKenna, author of BabyCakes, BabyCakes Covers the Classics, and Bread & Butter, was on hand for the grand opening of her new bakery, which also has stores in New York City and Los Angeles.   


The first display case we came to was filled with an array of gluten free cupcakes. 


Today, they had banana, vanilla, vanilla with lemon, blondie, and agave-sweetened chocolate.  


They also had french toastie cupcakes, an old favorite of mine from their BabyCakes days.


If you buy cupcakes, be sure to keep them cool or refrigerated, which can be hard to do when you are walking around Orlando in the summer.  


My daughter Emma chose a mocha brownie cupcake, which she said was her favorite treat out of all the baked goods we tried.  


Erin told me it is a larger version of the mini brownie cupcake I had a few weeks ago and loved.  Today, they were also selling a brownie cupcake with mint frosting.  The mini brownie cupcakes are available at the BoardWalk Bakery, Landscape of Flavors at Disney's Art of Animation Resort, Everything Pop at Disney's Pop Century Resort, The Mara at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge, and the Beach Club Marketplace at Disney's Beach Club Resort.  


My daughter Katie chose a brownie square, which was her favorite sweet treat of the day.  I tried the brownie square and the mocha brownie cupcake, and was really impressed with both of them.  


We also bought cinnamon sugar toastie, a caramel apple scone, coffee cake, and a second mocha brownie cupcake.  The cinnamon sugar toastie, which had some kind of berry in it, was amazing, and I will be ordering it again when we return.  The caramel apple scone was good, but not as sweet as I expected.  The coffee cake was as moist as the rest of our baked goods, and had me wishing I had bought a piece of the chocolate crumb cake as well.  


We came home with a piece of focaccia, which was sampled as soon as we walked in the door.  It was definitely some of the best gluten free bread I have had since my celiac diagnosis almost 7 years ago.  It was moist, not crumbly, and had a subtle taste of rosemary.  I might be visiting Erin McKenna's Bakery again later this week, so I can buy more of this incredible bread, and put it to the freezer test.  I would love to be able to defrost a couple of pieces of focaccia when I make pasta, or make a Caprese panini with it.  


I regretted not coming home with bagels, which I loved back in the days of BabyCakes.  They are great toasted and served with whipped butter.  


Erin McKenna's Bakery NYC was also selling cinnamon rolls, lemon teacake, chocolate chip cookies, banana and banana chocolate chip loaves, and vegetable biscuits.  


Cinnamon sugar (my favorite), chocolate dipped, salted caramel, vanilla sprinkle, samoa, and cookies & cream donuts were available as well.  


February 26, 2015 Update



I bought some plain bagels at Erin McKenna's Bakery NYC at Disney Springs today.  I froze some, and made garlic bread with the others.  I don't recommend them for garlic bread, because they are a little bit sweet, but they are very good toasted with some whipped butter.  The bagels have a great texture, taste, and chew.  


I also purchased some mini brownies, lemon teacake, and cinnamon sugar toastie.  I really liked the lemon teacake and the mini brownies, but the cinnamon sugar toastie is still my favorite.  My daughters devoured half of my lemon teacake, and told me they thought it was delicious.  


At Erin McKenna's Bakery, you can also purchase chocolate chip cookie and vanilla cake mixes.  


April 13, 2015 Update

Yesterday, my daughters and I stopped at Erin McKenna's Bakery NYC in Disney Springs to pick up some baked goods.  Sadly, most of what we purchased was not up to the quality it was on opening day.  My girls liked their mocha brownie cupcakes, but the mini brownies and focaccia were very dry.  I finally purchased a slice of the chocolate crumb cake.  The cake itself was super moist and chocolaty, but some of the crumb on top was dry.  


August 15, 2015 Update

Erin McKenna's Bakery in Disney Springs completely redeemed itself today.  My girls loved their mocha brownie cupcakes, which we allowed to come to room temperature and ate at home.  


My husband and I both liked the chocolate raspberry tea cake, which was nice and moist, though I would have preferred it without the raspberries.  


The focaccia we bought was also very good.   


The highlight of this visit though was the cinnamon roll I bought.  It is the best treat I have ever had at Erin McKenna's Bakery.  It reminded me of the cinnamon sugar pie crust rolls my mom used to make with the extra pie crust she had after making a pie.  It was so flavorful, and slightly flaky, with a moist center that tasted like lightly cooked pie crust.  


I didn't try the Bakery Sink (a mix of baked goods like donuts and cupcakes in a cup) or the waffles yesterday, but I have heard they are good.  One of my blog readers told me to ask for the waffle bites with powdered/cinnamon sugar on them, with agave syrup on the side.


March 12, 2016 Update



Last month, I special ordered some Mardi Gras donuts to pick up the day after Fat Tuesday.  My daughters and I agreed that they were some of the best baked goods we have ever had from Erin McKenna's Bakery.  I especially loved the crunch of the sprinkles on top of the donuts.


We also brought home a few cinnamon rolls.  We ended up freezing everything we did not eat that day.  Baked goods from Erin McKenna's are best fresh, but they do freeze pretty well, especially the bagels.

The tea cakes and toasties at Erin McKenna's Bakery NYC - Disney Springs are consistently good.  The brownie cupcakes with mocha frosting are always a hit with my whole family too.  I prefer them at room temperature, so let them warm up a bit before eating them, but keep the ones you plan on saving for later in the refrigerator.  I also recommend the donuts and bagels, which have been great every time I have tried them.  Many of my blog readers love the thin mints, but I haven't purchased them, because I don't care for mint.  When they are cooked well, the focaccia and cinnamon rolls are amazing, but at times, Erin McKenna's Bakery has struggled with consistency.  

Erin McKenna's Bakery does offer a 10% discount to annual passholders.  You can read more about Erin McKenna's Bakery NYC - Disney Springs, and see where their products are available at Disney World on their website here.  

You can read my review of the soft serve at Erin McKenna's here.  

What are your favorite gluten free baked goods at Erin McKenna's Bakery NYC?  


1 comments:

  1. Went there today with my son as we both have Celiac's disease and we had heard about how good the cupcakes were. We got the brownie cupcake and mint cupcake. Both were very dense and the frosting left a lot to be desired so at 4.95 a cupcake we won't be back. It upsets me to pay that much for something and its a huge disappointment.

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