Ok, I'm going to cover two topics here, which I think are interlinked..

I went for dinner last week with a group of friends, there were six of us in total and we headed over to Honest Burger.

(I'm just putting it out there - got nothing against those guys, they make some darn good burgers!)

When our orders arrived, the waiter called out "I've got one burger-gluten free bun".... that'll be mine then..

Then he said, "and I've got one more normal burger"....

Woah there, hold the phone....that makes me ?.....opposite of normal is, oh yes, abnormal?

I think my friend, that is slightly harsh. Some might say, well yeh, you're not the norm. But let's just copy and paste the definition of abnormal here shall we..

"deviating from what is normal or usual, typically in a way that is undesirable or worrying." - Thanks Oxford English.

Now don't get me wrong, I couldn't care less if someone thinks I'm not normal. I don't think my own husband thinks I am!

But then I got pondering...as it happens, I paid £1 extra for a gluten free bun and to be singled out as 'not normal'. Is that fair?

Which links in to my second topic nicely...we all know it or have walked past the gluten free aisle in the supermarket to find everything is more expensive, from your GF bread right down to your GF jelly sweets.

So essentially, I'm being charged more in life to be abnormal?

Exploiting those people for whom it's not a conscious decision to be 'trendy' but an necessity to not feel awful all the time.

I'm not, by the way, wheat-free just to be trendy. I wouldn't want to waste my money on that trend if I didn't have to!

But gluten free baking is literally 'a piece of cake' right? Well no -

Gluten free ingredients do cost more and it's a whole different ball game to baking with gluten.

But looking at the price difference which some cafés, bakeries and restaurants charge for their cakes - I just can't seem to justify it. The worst I've seen is around £20 difference between a vanilla sponge and an identical FreeFrom vanilla sponge. Same size, same buttercream, same decoration. Different flour. £20. I'm going to say it again, £20.

The Bakery Den is wheat-free only. Our cakes; all gluten free. We take in to consideration the price of ingredients we use and charge according to this and our time. We don't need to differentiate between the 'normal' cake price and the 'special' FreeFrom price, because to us, all of our WF cakes are normal.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to just sell my business to you. You can take it or leave it, but these are just the thoughts and perceptions of a gluten-free-er and baker.

And, there are some, what I like to call, gluten-free champions out there. I have a lot of time for Marks and Spencer, and the selection of food which also happens to be gluten-free which they sell.

So, just some thoughts for you to muse over.

Gluten-free-ers are not abnormal.

I am not normal, but for many, many different reasons haha.

Happy caking!

A little fox

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