Does you little bunny suffer from a food allergy? You’ll want to try a new Montreal pastry shop where he/she can point to, and scarf, any of the sweets beautifully displayed in immaculate cases, as you watch with your mind at rest. For once.
© Monique Simone Photography
© Monique Simone Photography
The story behind Petit Lapin, the new foodie-destination-to-be in trendy Westmount, started out inauspiciously enough, when Viviane Nguyen organized a “Cake Smash” birthday party for her tiny tot (if you are unfamiliar with the formula, visit this Pinterest board where pint-sized Terminators, euh, terminate their birthday offering).
What should have been a sweet memory turned into drama when Viviane’s son went bright red all over just from touching the cake, never mind eating it. The following tests confirmed what the bewildered parents suspected: while there was no family history of allergy whatsoever, their little treasure suffered from no less than 30 food allergies… and counting.
For her son’s next birthday, mom decided to try her hand at baking the pièce de résistance: an allergen free cake. She taught herself everything there was to know about the great big world of substitutes like vegan butter, chickpea flour, you name it. Then she tested all on her ever so willing toddler. Who’s going to say no to endless cake, I ask you? Petit Lapin (translation: Little rabbit), with its pink, blue and green cotton-candy décor, became the natural next step.
On the menu, you will find multiple variations of “miniature pastry” declined in the same range of flavours:
• chocolate, lemon, strawberry, matcha and coconut macarons, the last one declared the best by my own son who attended his second media launch in as many weeks, one of the perks of having a foodwriting mom;
• madeleines which won over the other moms in attendance;
• cupcakes, with chocolate-coconut the best-selling flavour already;
• doughnuts;
• and cream puffs.
All Petit Lapin sweets are free of the 10 highest-incidence allergens, i.e. milk, eggs, soy, wheat and gluten, peanuts, nuts, sesame seeds, sulfites, etc. Ingredients used are both organic and vegan, which may be a Montreal first (I don’t know since I’m allergy-free myself)?
In other words, a must-visit address for anyone suffering from allergy and/or for parents who are planning a kid party with an allergy sufferer in attendance, haven’t we all been there…
Where? When? How? How much?
Where: Petit Lapin Pastry Shop
Address: 342A Victoria, Westmount, H3Z 2M8 (between Sherbrooke and Sainte-Catherine)
Phone: 514-507-4077
Prices: from $2.50 to $3.95 each and $21.50 to $43.45 per dozen depending on your choice
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