Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Sprinkles Gluten-Free Cupcakes

I once waited in line for an hour and a half for Sprinkles cupcakes when I was still consuming Gluten filled products. I absolutely love love love their Red Velvet cupcake. The cake is so moist, soft and full with a nice balance of flavor.  It's topped with a firm cream cheese frosting that is just the right sweetness and creamyness to make a delightful treat.

When I found out Sprinkles was opening shop in Chicago, I had to check it out. Just like in LA, there was a line out the door but at least the wait wasn't an hour long.  I think the line has more to do with the inefficieny of moving customers through rather than a sheer popularity issue.  It took no less than five minutes to order, get the cupcakes packed out and pay before we could squeeze our way through the exit.

I was hopeful that the Gluten Free cupcake offered daily in Red Velvet would taste similar to their regular gluten cupcake.  Sadly, it was a dissappointment.  Although there's a cute "G" that marks the cupcake rather than their traditional button topper, the cake itself did not deliver on taste.

That sour/pungent aftertaste that you get with many gluten-free foods was clearly discernable in this cupcake.  There is the super-moist texture of the cake and the same cream cheese frosting as the original full-gluten sibling, but the Red Velvet flavor was masked by the nasty-ness of the trademark "gluten-free" after taste.  I was also hoping that other flavor varieties might be offered alongside the Red Velvet but in a world of gluten-eating people, there's only space for one cupcake flavor in the Sprinkles shop.

Bottom line: try it if you want, but don't expect it to taste like the real thing.

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