WHEN Marie Antoinette famously uttered "Let them eat cake," she spared little thought for the glutensensitive among her subjects.
Of course, the comment itself was hardly indicative of a compassionate nature, given that the spoiled queen reportedly said it in response to news that the French populace was starving. Still, for those who suffered from intestinal upset and bloating after eating baked goods made with flour, an offer of cake wouldn't have been helpful.
Here on the North Shore, however, we have no such issue. Thanks to Jenny Breckon and her Sweet Tooth Cakery, we can all eat cake.
Breckon was working part time as a cake decorator in 2006 when she found out she had celiac disease. She gave up the gig, and spent plenty of time hunting down the few gluten-free baked goods she could find.
"They were disgusting. I couldn't eat any of it," she says.
She began creating her own recipes for cakes, cookies, treats and bread. A friend pointed out that there was a market for her goods among others who were facing similar issues with wheat.
In 2007, she took on three clients for gluten-free wedding cakes. The following year, she made 12 of them. The business soon took off, and after fiddling with her recipes for five years, then selling her treats at local farmers' markets, Breckon opened her own 100-per-cent gluten-free bakery in early 2011.
The results of her recipe-tweaking are delicious, and not just for those who can't have gluten. I rolled in to the eastof-Seymour bakery recently and loaded up on some savoury sandwiches and sweet treats, and they were a hit with my entire wheat-eating family.
The vegan baguettes upon which our juicy chicken, crisp lettuce and creamy Brie was layered were ever-soslightly more crumbly than the typical loaf, but they had a delicious nutty flavour that loaned the usually light sandwich a hearty character.
I dithered over the treats. There were sweet loaves, including banana chocolate chunk, ginger molasses, lemon poppy seed and a vegan streusel coffee loaf. Cookies, biscotti, pies, tarts, cheesecake, muffins and pastries were all tempting. I could have ordered a wedding cake, but that seemed excessive. (Marie Antoinette I am not.)
In the end, I took an enormous and darkly decadent chewy brownie - a best-seller in the shop; and my own favourite: two of Breckon's cupcakes.
Lighter, and less toothachingly sweet than most on the market, these whimsical cakes are topped with a cloud of dairy-free buttercream icing. The flavours rotate, but you'll usually find chocolate, vanilla, red velvet, ginger spice, carrot, lemon and coconut cupcakes.
So good . . . and so gluten-free. Now go, eat cake.
My bill for two sandwiches, a brownie and two cupcakes totalled $27.95 - not cheap, but goods made for special diets never are.
The Sweet Tooth Cakery is at 2055 Old Dollarton Rd., North Vancouver; 604971-5223/sweettoothcakery. ca.
