starbucks valencia orange cake - gluten-free!

alright everyone, here it is: the gluten-free cake promised by starbucks. for the record, the spring st. soho starbucks was out of them when i wandered over at 11:00. my valiant coworker and i trekked on in the rain to soho's number 2 starbucks on broadway and broome. victory! the cake was proudly displayed in the pastry shelf. at $1.95, it seemed like starbucks was dishing out bargains. ahem. i mean, valencia orange cakes.

it seems that this gluten-free cake stemmed from what i will call starbucks' grassroots marketing attempt. the site provides a forum for customer feedback where one of the hot topics became gluten-free offerings. the site introduced a voting option and it seems that this spread around the gluten-free community like wildfire!

the ingredients are pretty simple: eggs, orange pulp, almonds, sugar, orange peel, gluten-free baking powder, and orange oil. at 290 calories, 140 calories from fat and 16g of fat, this is certainly not any healthy alternative. HOWEVER, i am hoping that since almonds are one of the main ingredients, this is the type of fat you can feel good about. riiiight....the cake does come individually wrapped "for gluten-free goodness" as declared on the package. "you wouldn't even know it's gluten-free!" i exclaimed, overtaken by the cute cake's moist and spongy texture. "yes, yes you would," sighed my valiant coworker. we agreed that the cake had a texture rather corn bread like (not necessarily in a bad way) but after my initial excitement wore off, i was slightly disappointed by the cake's lack of flavor. the moral of the story here is that i'm not expecting everyone to go crazy over this cake but it's pretty awesome that this is a readily available starbucks product.