Review of Hannah's Gluten Free: Mixes & More

The location was very easy to find (ty Google maps) and sits inside an old shopping strip. The strip itself doesn't lend well to clean and crisp, but I do understand that is outside the control of the owner and this is not a complaint, just an observation. Inside however, while it was probably clean, the lack of updated paint and flooring may make others question the cleanliness. The front of the building housed 2 small tables, each seating 2-3 customers, a small confectioners chilling chest and checkout area. Inside the cases hosted about 10 different cupcake types, a few cookies, a few doughnuts, and a variety of prepackaged (their own personal packaging) of cinnamon rolls, and personal sized cobblers and cakes. *Note, pricing is not available any where and when asking the owner, she wasn't sure herself on a few items.

Everything within the case looked delicious but ceremonial small sizes. Cupcakes were $4 (maybe $4.50 each) and all standard size. The cookies were on the larger but thin side, and because they didn't peak our interest, I don't remember the price. Cinnamon rolls, which were advertised as leavened (simply put they used yeast) were cup saucer sized as well as a lemon Bundt cake (same size) were both sitting in dried puddles of what looks like a simple confectioners sugar drizzle. Both of these we're $6-7 each.

The owner was initially very kind, asking for us to Yelp a review to avg out negative Yelps by others who were offended when asked to return their gluten items to their cars. (Big thumbs up if this story hold true, I have yet to review other Yelp reviews posted)

I located the store using Allstate Rewards, which is a program through our insurance agency that rewards us for safe driving. I have used these rewards hundreds of times from local to out of state small businesses and fast food without ever having a major issue. We have run into a few times where the individual I presented them to was unaware of them did question it, but in the end had always accepted it. This reward was for 50% off a purchase with a maximum discount of $5. It was nothing amazing, but it got me in the door, which seems to be the whole point. I tend to use caution when finding coupons from non-reputable locations, but I do consider this form as reputable. Before I go further into our coupon adventure...

We ordered their top 5 cupcake flavors as recommended:. Triple Chocolate, Red velvet, Caramel Coffee, Banana Cream and Strawberry, as well as 2 cinnamon rolls. I also originally ordered a lemon Bundt cakes but ultimately decided against it for reasons later mentioned.

We chose to purchase our items and leave the store since there were no visibly available options for coffee, milk, water, etc to enjoy with our cupcakes. *I will not make this mistake again, TEST the product (even just 1 thing) before making multiple choices!

So why the lemon bundt cake left behind? When presenting the coupon, (which comes at a cost of points through Allstate) we're weren't just denied, but the drama to follow by the owner was incredibly off putting. While she claimed that they have no coupons and have no clue how that was out there (and perhaps that is possible) she had the audacity to first ask me to correct the issue with Allstate, this as a consumer is NOT in my control, however I did explain that perhaps her reaching out to Allstate would be beneficial. Even after I verified the location, business name and phone number were correct, she continued to speak at a high volume at how wrong I was (outside of staff, no other customers were present), this continued throughout out 3+ minute check out process (as they had to double check prices) and even while we walked out the door.

Here's a helpful hint to any business, if there is a coupon out there, especially for something as minor as $5, consider taking it. Because it was not accepted, I declined to purchase the lemon bundt cake that was $7. Now I do get that the cost to make items isn't free, the staff isn't free, the location, tools, etc aren't free either. But a negative review can have a greater impact than a mere $5.

Overall rating of actual experience from entering and leaving the location was very poor.

My daughter and friend couldn't wait to try these items, neither child has gluten sensitivity or Celiac, but are both use to it because that's how I cook and bake. So they are no strangers to the good and bad (especially my own flops). My daughter and i chose to split the triple chocolate and her friend had the caramel coffee (which we did get two of those so we could try as well).

*I won't pretend to be able to distinguish individual flavors from each other or deconstruct the finished product down to their actual ingredient list, but I will try to be as accurate as possible to texture and flavor.

Triple Chocolate Cupcake:

The cupcake was not moist however not so dry it reminded me of bread crumbs. Initially I felt as if I were eating a kitchen sponge with grains of grit. The flavor itself was not remarkable, in fact didn't even taste like chocolate. The icing was a deep brown color and visually pleasing. Unfortunately, I'm still questioning if this didn't just come out of a can.

The four remaining cupcakes were tried later in the evening at our hotel, each cut into ¼ sections for my daughter and myself. (Her friend had since gone home)

Coffee Caramel Cupcake:

This cupcake was moist and the coffee flavor in the cake itself was fantastically strong (which is a plus to me). As the coffee flavor hit with a punch it didn't linger, thus allowing for a chance to taste the cake itself. My best guess is, this is the same batter used for the triple chocolate cupcake, with the same unfortunate stages. The icing itself was light and airy and flavorful. When trying both the cake and icing together however was a texture nightmare and a fight between artificial flavors.

Strawberry Cupcake:

Beautiful strawberry colored cupcake topped with white icing. Cutting it screamed that a moist cupcake was to come! The icing itself was dry and crunchy, but perhaps it was meant to be that way. While the cake itself was the most moist one encountered, the artificial flavoring overpowered the ability to focus on how well constructed this batter actually was. The icing was vanilla, that's it, nothing more, and I don't know how to make vanilla icing more exciting to review.

The following we're the top sellers:

Banana Cream Cupcake:

The cupcake itself was dry and dense, but not as dense as an actual banana bread. There was no actual flavor present in the cake itself, not even the slightest hint of vanilla. If you're looking for a delivery method that will not affect flavors of other items, this would be it. The icing was an intense hit of artificial banana flavoring, sickly sweet with a kick of chemical taste. On top of the icing were crunchy something's, unfortunately I was not able to identify for sure. It was a weird texture combination but didn't affect taste or flavor, thus finding it rather harmless. Icing and cake together provided a better balance which lessened the artificial flavor, but for someone like me who LOVES banana-most-anything, I couldn't get past the fakeness of it.

Red Velvel Cupcake:

1st off, red velvet is a hard one, gluten free or not, so the fact they had it available piqued my interest. The cupcake was a beautiful intense red color topped with a modest white icing. For me personally, I liked this presentation because it's the cake itself that is the centerpiece. I'll address the icing first, unfortunately where a good buttercream or even pushing the limits with a cream cheese based icing would have complimented this piece, it was topped with the same unremarkable icing from the strawberry cupcakes. But then again, maybe this was the time for the cake to speak for itself! Oh and speak it did!!! I'm going to assume this was the standard chocolate batter base used in the triple chocolate and coffee leaving the texture no different. The kicker was the color, how did they managed such a feat? Now this is one I do now how they did it, because I have in the past made the same good awful mistake with red...way too much gel coloring. If you've never used too much gel, I don't think I can adequately explain how horrible the taste is. A cupcake, a perfectly cooked steak, a piece of 5 day old trash will all result in the same flavor when using too much gel, and none of them are good.

So what remained of each of the cupcakes after our tasting...well that is the sad part. We did each finish our quarter portion off all the flavors except the red velvet, one bite of that was enough. The remaining half of the others hit the trash, this was not money well spent.

So what about the cinnamon rolls you may ask? While we were saving these for breakfast, they haven't even left their bag/containers. We spent the next remaining hours in a small hotel room without gas masks, while trying to expel large amounts of gas build up from what I'm no convinced was a gross over use of bean based flours. (Even today I'm not back to pretesting size)

As an individual with celiac, when I travel I do carry various sized pants with me for the 'oh damn my gut is expanding from gas build up’, but nothing prepared me (or my bean and carb loving daughter) for this experience, even my shirts aren't fitting around my buddha belly. With 8 more days on the road, neither of us are willing to chance it again for a cinnamon roll.

While I can understand an old building, deal with prices not listed, and even a coupon not honored, a prideful (to the point of obnoxious) owner, Hannah's Bakery still had a chance at redemption with their products. But alas, that ended up being the biggest failure of them all.

Maybe this is the best that Texas has to offer and maybe this is what they consider good, but Dear residents of and surrounding Mesquite TX, there is a world out there you have yet to see, it's full of flavor that even your gluten counterparts would walk away loving.