Let Them Eat Cake!

It's Wednesday so you are hopefully over the self-loathing that Tuesday brings post bank holiday. The BBQs, booze and ice-creams are by now a distant memory and you are ready again for your next sugar rush. If you are not still struggling with the stretchy pants then you are more than ready for the following temptations....

Antoinette's Bakery is tucked away on Kevin Street, next to Boojum Burritos, and serves up all manner of delicious gluten free cakes. It seems almost every cafe and bakery in town in now serving up gluten free cakes, they're hard to avoid. And while I'm not sure what gluten ever did to be driven out of Dublin city, the gluten-free cakes in Antoinette's are for the most part really delicious. It is great to see a bakery dedicated to gluten-free baking that can cater to all the coeliacs (and non-coeliacs) of Dublin without compromising on flavour. Even if you're not worried about wheat, you should really pay this place a visit.

The inside of Antoinette's is really cool and the staff are extremely friendly. So friendly in fact that they leave suncream out for you if you want to lash some on before re-emerging into the tropical heat that we're currently experiencing. Obviously my attention was immediately drawn to the big glass display unit of cakes and as I tried to figure out what to order. I suffer from both food regret and food envy so these decisions are not taken lightly. I decided to buy three cakes, just to be sure. They had a whole load of things but I'm a bit sick of plain cupcakes, don't like donuts and cookies didn't feel indulgent enough for the day that was in it, so I decided to get two brownies and a carrot cake. I headed back to the office to undertake the jammy job of "cake tasting".

First up was the peanut butter brownie, it was really good. I'm not 100% sure what it's made of but it was kind of dense so maybe ground almonds. It was really moist, filling and the peanut butter gave it that extra layer of flavour (and calories) that would finish you off nicely. This was my favourite of the three.

I got a second brownie so decided to try that next. I know it sounds a bit boring to get two chocolate brownies but the second one was vegan so I was really curious, and I wasn't prepared to forgo the peanut one. I'm definitely not vegan but I thought that if they could manage to make a decent vegan brownie, then they must be pretty good bakers indeed. Honestly I was expecting to really dislike it, but it was divine! It again was really moist and chocolatey and it had a layer of soft chocolate frosting and a bit of shredded coconut sprinkled on top. It really didn't feel like it was lacking anything at all, if you weren't told you definitely wouldn't guess that it was vegan.

Last but not least (at this point I feel the need to tell you I was sharing the cakes, I didn't eat three on my own) I tried their carrot cake. Carrot cake is my favourite cake, it's why God created carrots. I was really looking forward to this but honestly I was really disappointed. It was really dry and everyone knows it's a cardinal sin for carrot cake to be dry. I wasn't 100% sold on the icing either, I like the gooey, sloppy cream cheese icing but theirs was a bit stiff and dry. Basically, don't get the carrot cake.

Most of the cakes cost between €2.50 to €3.50 each which I didn't think was the worst as gluten free cakes often use more expensive ingredients. All in all I was really impressed with the first two cakes I tried, I'd definitely be back again for another brownie. I really want to try their ginger bread, lavender cake, almond marmalade slices and lime courgette cake too. I've seen pictures of them on their Facebook page but they didn't have them when I popped in, it's just as well though as I was already having a pretty gluttonous afternoon. Antoinette's is absolutely worth checking out and if you have any kind of allergies or intolerances then they'll more than likely have something to suit you.