Putting this right out there, we don’t have a public phone number. Due to the excessive amount of requests asking for holds and stock levels we had to discontinue that access to keep our shop moving. With that said, we are pretty quick to answer your questions via email! Fill out our form here, your message will get filtered to the best person for the job and they will be in touch ASAP! 🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨 FYI: We do not ship our desserts. We appreciate getting so many email requests but mail order Cookies & Cake isn't our thing, no matter how much you're willing to pay. Thank you!
We do things a little differently at Gideon's, and we know you have questions. Here's a bunch we hear throughout our days. We hope it helps! If we miss something, hit that "Contact Us" section via that upper right menu.
To keep us from selling out too fast, we have a strict limit of 7 Cookies per paying customer (sorry, infants don’t count) at our counter. However, for our East End Market location, you can preorder larger quantities via our website! That’s where you are right now! Why would you want to do this?
Special orders are available for pickup at our East End Market location. We do not ship, cater, or deliver.
Simply put, the extra high volume of that location prohibits us from handling preorders both in storage and daily operations.
This is a new East End Market option we added in the year of the Covid and it’s been so popular we’re going to keep it around. Next Day Preorders have a more limited menu and quantities but we’re capable of turning it around overnight!
Our products are scratch-made and free from nasty preservatives. They are designed to be enjoyed as close as possible to the day of purchase. However, if you must store beyond the purchase date here are some tips!
Our Cold Brew Coffees are Vegan and some are GF but our baked goods are not. For the best vegan desserts around, we suggest you visit our friends at valhallabakery.com if you’re near Gideon’s at East End Market. They do fantastic work, and we don’t want to take a penny away from the beautiful business they are building! Vegan friends! Support Valhalla! If you’re near Disney Springs don’t forget about erinmckennasbakery.com!
All of our products contain Eggs, Dairy, Gluten, Wheat, and in some flavors, Nuts. Soy Lecithin can be found is most chocolate chips, ours included. Our desserts are prepared in a kitchen where all items love and work together. Protection against cross-contamination can not be guaranteed. The Cookie dough has its secrets but is not exotic in its ingredient list. It’s the toppings like Oreos that are filled with some crazy stuff.
For details on this, please visit the “Things to Know” section of our Disney Springs Page.
We do not. Lineage Coffee Roasting is our neighbor at East End and we’re not taking a penny away from their amazing business.
Sorry, no. We don’t customize our items in any way, especially with the salt. It’s a part of who we are and an essential ingredient to our intended flavor profile! Salt is crucial in all baking!
Yes! Our Cookies are fully baked but intended to mimic the best parts of cookie dough as you munch to that center. This is partly what makes our Cookies so unique, and it is tricky to pull off. If you knew our secrets, you would understand.
Sorry, no. That isn’t required at our current stage of growth so we haven’t broken it down. The good about our Cookies and Cakes, we don’t use a lot of sugar. The not as good? We use a lot of butter! Please think of each Cookie as four servings and Cookie responsibly.
It’s not so much a matter of production (though our Cookies are genuinely handmade and very labor-intensive) but rather a matter of storage. Our locations can only store so many Cookies per day, and the limit helps us control and balance our hourly output. Despite our Cookies being almost 1/2 pound each, you’d be surprised how many people come in wanting 50+ Cookies for their meetings, parties, etc. We want to make sure as many people as possible each day get to try our desserts. The limit is our way of being equal and fair to all.
We do not ship or deliver our baked goods and have no plans to do so. Our products are not designed for shipping and the demand at our physical locations is too high to allow for external sales. Also, we can’t control your potential first Gideon’s experience through the mail, and we don’t like that. We fully 100% discourage shipping, and if you’re reselling my cookies I’m going to send you a really nice “stop doing that” email before I get all legal because I’m super serious about it. Scratch made Cookies with no extra preservatives do not like to be shipped. They’re going to show up with bloomed chocolate, way dryer than a fresh Gideon’s Cookie, and, potentially, not ideal for your stomach. The only way to avoid all of that is to quickly overnight your purchase and that’s SUPER expensive. Sending 6 Cookies to my family in NY, overnight, averages $92 in shipping and that’s the same timezone.
But … for private use (aka locals who insist on shipping cookies they purchase from us to family and friends), if you really really really must do it (don’t do it) here are a few tips for those who dare. At checkout for an online East End Market Preorder choose “Single Bag” packaging. Without the restraints of our box sizes, this makes it easier for you to pack things in any size shipping box. The smaller you make it the less the overall weight. I prefer layering them in bubble wrap but packing peanuts work as well. Most importantly, overnighting our Cookies will be the best experience and safest choice but, be warned; (saying it again) it’s expensive. Our Cookies are HEAVY!
No, we do not. We only sell slices in our storefronts. Whole cakes made to order only with a 72-hour notice.
Sorry, but our storage space for cake slices is so limited that it is a first come first serve item.
One of the most frequent emails we get is from customers asking for an exception to our preorder requirements. I’m sorry, this is not possible. Our unique Cookie and Cakes take 24 hours minimum to prepare. We need time to build your order into our schedule. Preorders for the East End Market location are only available via this website, which is scientifically engineered to prohibit early pickup.
We do not.
We do not.
That’s a bigger super huge no. By Preordering our Cookies through our website and in our stores you agree to not resell our products for 3rd party local sales, use, or shipping. We’re really grateful that so many people are looking for ways to get our Cookies shipped but we’re extremely protective over our product quality and user experience and will take action if we see resale happening. It’s pretty serious stuff for us.
Congrats on your big day, and thank you for wanting us to be involved! We do not cater events, but you can preorder items for your wedding for pickup. While we don’t offer custom wedding cakes, our standard cakes have been popular for those preferring a simple wedding. If you plan on having a dessert table, our Cookies are always a big hit, and our Cookie Bites (quartered cookies dipped in chocolate) are even better! Take a look over our Menu and place a preorder today! Contact us via the contact page on the menu with questions!
We’re not into world domination, but we are looking to grow a bit in the coming years because our creative brains crave opportunity. The goal is to grow in a way the never risks our quality and experience.
As for franchising, we are very privately owned. One owner. No Investors. No Partners. Steve is a single owner (Hi! I’m writing this.) and this business is super private and personal to me. I started Gideon’s with $800 bucks and a recipe that took 15 years to perfect. We’re just trying to make our own way in life and enjoy the experience.
I know, right? It might seem odd, but due to a high volume of calls asking if we will hold Cookies (pro tip – we don’t without preorder), we no longer have a public phone number. It’s crazy distracting in our little bakeries. For order inquires, drop us an email with any questions. We try to answer quickly. Also, our Instagram is always filled with helpful and current info.
Not in the traditional sense. We’re not very traditional. However, we do have something fun in the works and fair warning; even once it is active, we’re not going to tell you what you get with your rewards. Secret anticipation!
No. If you don’t mind us giving you a little business talk, our Cookie isn’t high profit. The average in the food industry is a 300% markup, and we’re not anywhere close to that due to our almost 1/2 pound per Cookie, the massive amount of premium ingredients, and tons of labor that go into making a single Cookie. We try to keep our prices as low as possible all the time as we are blessed with the demand for high volume, and, when you think about it, it’s a great value. By the pound, we’re certainly the best-valued dessert in all the land.
Oh wow! Gideon’s Collectible Trading Cards have been a thing! If you didn’t know, Gideon’s has lore behind the desserts and a little universe of interesting and often adorable creatures. You can learn about their story by collecting trading cards! At the time of this writing (I’ll probably forget to update this as we progress), Wave One (cards #1 to #16) has been retired, and we are now on Wave Two (#17 to #32)! Some cards are rarer than others, and we sometimes drop special extra rare limited release promo cards! Follow the social so you don’t miss out! How do you get these cool kid items?
1) In-Store: Purchase enough Cookies to fill a Medium or Large Cookie Box at Gideon’s Bakehouse. One is hidden inside! FYI : A Medium Box required at least three Cookies.
2) Online: We will place a random card in every online merch order over $20. This does NOT apply in-store. To be clear, it is every order OVER $20, not cards for every $20 spent. Ya dig?
These cards can not be purchased alone. 1) and 2) is your only path. You can not ask for specific cards. They are pre-inserted in the boxes. Lady luck is your only hope! Happy Collecting!
As a general rule, no. They are advertised as Limited, and I’m not kidding when I say that. Gideon’s is just as much an art gallery as a bakery. I resist the urge to rerelease popular items, putting more money in my pocket but devaluing the collectible nature of the goodies. But you never know. I’m a pretty principled fella (stubborn), but we’re all hypocrites now and again, am I right?
Each month we make a little postcard sized menu to hand out to people waiting in line at Gideon’s in Disney Springs. They are not at the East End location. You have to be in our line at Disney Springs to get one. Please be cool and keep it to one per person, please. Handing out free stuff like these menus and trading cards gets expensive with the massive crowds of a theme park. 😅 Don’t live in Central Florida but still want to collect? Happy Day! We add a free monthly menu with every single online merchandise order! We don’t keep previous menus, so if you want a January menu, for example, you’ll have to order some merchandise from our website on any day of January.
It is genuine. Steve, (Hi! Me again!) the creator of Gideon’s, loves old books and bought a collection of books at an estate sale back in the early 2000s. In that purchase was the cookbook filled with writing and doodles with the Gideon name scribbled on the back. We look like an old victorian bakery paying tribute to the print date of the book, 1898, and answering the question, “What would that creepy little kid’s bakery look like!?”. Our inspirations were pulled from artist Edward Gorey and, of course, Disney’s Haunted Mansion.
