Gluten Free Encinitas

This is what the perfect sandwich looks like.  It is a hot turkey panini on gluten free rosemary ciabatta bread, with colby jack cheese, tomatoes, and avocado.   Heaven.

I had a day to myself in San Diego, California, to do anything I wanted without kids or husband in tow.  So what did I do?  I googled "gluten free cupcakes in San Diego" which led me to the 2good2B Gluten Free Bakery in Encinitas (on the coast, just north of San Diego).  Encinitas is a beach town, the kind that is laid back and full of surfers, not the kind that is full of expensive people wearing expensive bathing suits that can't get wet.  I really loved the vibe there, but more than that, I loved the gluten free bakery.

I had the aforementioned sandwich for lunch, then bought a box of cupcakes and brownies to take back to the hotel.  Over the course of the next two days, I tasted them all.

Brownie with Walnuts -- very rich chocolate taste, hint of mocha which gave it some complexity.  Great texture.

Lemon Cupcake -- Vanilla cupcake with yummy lemon cream filling, and a vanilla frosting. All of the cupcakes had too much frosting.  I lopped off about half of the frosting.  

Chocolate Cupcake -- less interesting than the others, but still good.  Chocolate frosting was very rich.

Carrot Cupcake -- my favorite, tender cake with lots of spice-y goodness.  Too much vanilla frosting, but it accented the cake very well.  

Turtle Cupcake -- the same as the chocolate cupcake, but with a caramel nut sauce dribbled over the top.  The sauce was excellent, but there wasn't enough of it to compete with the enormous amount of chocolate icing.  I separated the cupcake into three sections -- cake, bulk of the chocolate frosting, and the top of chocolate frosting with all the caramel sauce on it -- and got rid of the middle part.  The cake with the caramel sauce and just a little chocolate frosting was divine.  

I was so in love with this place that I stopped there on Sunday on my way to the airport so I could buy some loaves to take home.  While I was there, my hubby convinced me that I really needed another sandwich (even though I had just eaten a huge breakfast less than 2 hours before).  He was absolutely right.  Man, that second sandwich was just as good as the first.  I'm going to be having dreams about that sandwich.  Mmmmm.

We brought home a loaf of rosemary bread for Mom (Cathy) and a baguette, which I took with me to my women's group as my contribution toward breakfast on Monday.  It was a big hit with everyone.  

Sandy