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A Piece of Cake Bakery

27 Sep

As you probably know by now, Gluten Free by the Sea is always happy to showcase Plymouth based companies doing great things in the gluten free world.  The latest company I have discovered is a brand new company, A Piece of Cake Bakery.  A Piece of Cake Bakery is an exclusively gluten free bakery founded by Louise Pen-Collings RD.  Louise is a registered dietitian and has decided to set up her own gluten free cupcake company after her experience of helping coeliacs through her work.  As a coeliac it’s heartening to hear of someone being inspired in this way.

The company officially launched this week and I noticed there was an introductory offer of four cupcakes for five pounds.  Eating four chocolate cupcakes sounded like extremely hard work, but as a dedicated blogger I thought I’d struggle through and polish some off so I could tell you all about them 😉  Louise hand delivered these and it was lovely to meet her.  The cupcakes arrived beautifully presented in a nice presentation box.

After eating so much tiny gluten free food, I was struck by the size of the cupcakes.  They were slightly larger than a regular cupcake and I certainly didn’t feel short changed on this occasion.  The frosting was beautifully piped and equally delicious.  The cake itself had a real home made taste, and I mean that in a very complimentary way.  Overall I really enjoyed these and I had one just before I wrote this blog post, actually that’s a lie as I had two.  They were calling me from the kitchen, “eat me!”.  Louise also informs me that these can be frozen with no issues, though I suspect not many will get as far as trying that.

It’s also good to hear that Louise has been taking advice from Coeliac UK to ensure these cakes are suitable for coeliacs.  These treats are currently on sale at Langage Farm Coffee Shop, in Ridgeway, Plympton and also at Plymouth Greengrocer in the Chaplins car park also at Plympton.  I am of course a regular visitor to Plymouth Greengrocer so will no doubt be picking these up on a regular basis in future.  A Piece of Cake Bakery will shortly launch a website at http://www.a-piece-of-cake-bakery.com/ but for now you can keep up through Facebook and Twitter.  I wish Louise every success with her new venture.

UPDATE 01/05/13: Sadly I must pass on the news that A Piece of Cake Bakery is no longer trading.  Louise has taken on a full time job for another company, and so no longer has time to commit to A Piece of Cake.  She will however continue to supply fruit cake to Bistro One.  Louise has asked me to pass on her thanks to everyone who supported her while the company was trading.

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One Year GF Anniversary at Bistro One

23 Sep

I’d decided some time ago that I would celebrate being gluten free for one year with a meal out.  It may seem like an odd thing to celebrate to some,  but the past year has been tough and things are finally looking up so it seemed like a milestone worth marking.  I’d recently had a great gluten free breakfast at Bistro One in Plymouth, and a well timed Groupon offer made Bistro One an easy choice for the venue.

Owner Stephen Barrett is a wine expert, and the meal started with a mini wine tasting.  This was a new experience for me and something I really enjoyed.  Stephen very clearly knows his stuff and was able to talk us through bringing out the subtle flavours of the wines in a way that I (not really a wine drinker) had never experienced.  It’s always a very personal experience eating at Bistro One, and Stephen will detail the origins of both the wine and food throughout.  If you are a wine connoisseur then it’s probably worth visiting for the wine alone.

Moving onto the food, Bistro One is extremely accommodating for both people on a gluten free diet and vegetarians (like my wife Abby).  Dishes are labelled GF where there is a gluten free option available.  Standard dishes are made gluten free where possible, and gluten free pasta is available as standard.  To start I had garlic bread which as most people with coeliac disease will tell you is a rare treat.  This was delicious and I thoroughly enjoyed.

Onto the main and I was immediately attracted to the pasta and meatballs.  Meatballs have always been a favourite of mine, and so often are made with wheat flour.  In this case they were made with polenta for all so they were gluten free.  Made with pork, beef and veal they were absolutely delicious and again I thoroughly enjoyed.  The veal was sourced in Cornwall and all ingredients are locally sourced and sustainable where possible.

For dessert there was an option for gluten free warm double chocolate brownie, served with vanilla pod ice-cream.  This again was delicious and I really love the combination of warm and cold in a dessert.  A great end to the meal, though I would have liked to see a bit more brownie if I’m honest.

Overall a fantastic meal and really good value with the Groupon offer.  Some really great gluten free choices and it was really nice to be able to eat some things that are usually simply not an option.  Abby was very happy with the vegetarian options too, and being able to order off menu (as she always does!).  I’d recommend a visit and we’ll certainly be going back again.

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Gluten free cake from Plymouth’s Sweet Devotion

15 Sep

A few months ago I spotted a picture of some glorious looking cake pops in my Twitter stream from a new Plymouth company called Sweet Devotion.  When I see things like this I always see an opportunity to champion the gluten free cause, so I sent a Tweet back asking if they had any plans for gluten free options.  To my surprise I received a reply from Jane of Sweet Devotion saying that they were already making gluten free options as her husband was gluten intolerant!  I’ve been keeping in close contact ever since and have been looking forward to the full launch of the company.

Sweet Devotion primarily offer a range of extremely attractive sweet treats aimed at weddings and parties, such as cake pops, cake push pops and some beautiful topiary.  Of course as a coeliac I take the opportunity for good gluten free cake wherever  I can get it, and I am also always keen to support a local business.

Following a tongue-in-cheek offer I was lucky enough to be able to taste a sample of the gluten free cake pops.  I have to say I really enjoyed these, and the dense chocolate cake covered in white chocolate was really satisfying.  I have to confess I demolished both in one sitting.  I also passed one on to a coeliac friend who also said they were lovely.

I was impressed enough that as soon as local orders became possible I ordered some cake push pops to try.  Being able to choose both the cake flavour and the frosting flavour was great and I went for red velvet with vanilla frosting, and lemon with lemon curd (I LOVE lemon dessert!).  While the push pop mechanism was not something I really needed while eating at home, the presentation was exceptional.  I offered my wife one and she declined as she was trying to have a healthy week following our London trip.  However she did accept a bite of the red velvet cake.  This was followed by a smile and the words “oh my god!” and her demolishing the rest of the push pop in about 5 seconds.  Abby said this was the best gluten free cake she had tasted so far and I was equally excited when I tried it.  It was good to have something a bit different to the usual gluten free offerings and I concur with my wife’s opinion.  The layering of cake and frosting made this really moist and delicious.  The lemon was equally good, though the red velvet was so good I may now be a convert!

Sweet Devotion were kind enough to give me a sample hot chocolate stirrer with my order and I really enjoyed this too.  I am probably behind the times but this was a new thing for me and I really enjoyed it.  The hot chocolate had a lovely flavour and it was really nice not to have all the lumps and sediment that you can get from a powdered variety.

The good news is you can now buy these treats UK wide from the Sweeet Devotion website.  Overall I’ve been really impressed with the quality of the products, though from a personal point of view it may be nice to see a more everyday shape option too.  Having said that, it is possible that could lead me to getting very fat indeed!  I have now met Jane and Kat who are behind Sweet Devotion a couple of times, they are lovely ladies and I wish them every success with their new venture.  Sweet Devotion also produce gluten containing versions of their products, so take care to make sure you pick the gluten free versions when ordering.  Thanks also to Sweet Devotion for letting me use some of their Facebook and Twitter images.

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