My friend Mrs Smith was in town from the South last week. On her list of “things to do in Seattle” was “take a ferry somewhere”, so we went to Whidbey Island. The day was absolutely beautiful: sunny and hot for Seattle (mid 70’s). We wandered around Langley for a bit and had lunch at Useless Bay Coffee Company, which turned out to be very vegetarian friendly (for me) and gluten free friendly (for Mrs Smith). At the Whidbey Island visitor’s center, we picked up a flyer for Whidbey Cupcakes, so with high hopes of gluten free goodness, we went there for dessert.
Unfortunately for Mrs Smith, the cupcake cafe had run out of their Choochokam cupcake, a gluten free Ghiardelli chocolate cake topped with Madagascar vanilla and organic chocolate butter cream, so she ate some M&M’s while I had my cupcake.
Unfortunately for me, I might have chosen the wrong cupcake. I decided on the Double Bluff: a Ghiardelli chocolate butter cake topped with a caramel butter cream frosting and garnished with black Hawaiian sea salt, caramel drizzle, and a Dove caramel candy. The frosting was quite delicious. It had the silky texture of a meringue butter cream and the sea salt added a nice salty contrast and a little crunch. The cake, however, was not so delicious: it was very dry and crumbly. I was disappointed. I’ll try a different flavor if I’m ever in the area again…