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No Udder Desserts: Vegan Bakery in the Valley
28July 14th, 2011LA restaurants, no udder desserts, vegan bakershey everyone! time for another field report from rachel of power cut jewelry (check out her etsy site for awesome vegan and beatles-related items!). today she blogs about LA’s newest all vegan bakery, no udder desserts in woodland hills. check it out.
“The San Fernando Valley…it’s not the hippest place in the world, but it’ll do. It’s so unhip that it’s probably hip.” -Tom Petty
I suffered through the LVUSD school system and I’ve been engulfed by a bubble called “the valley” my whole life. Besides Tom Petty songs that make me happy to be a valley citizen, I have a strong dislike of the place. It’s too hot, the people are conceited, rude and terrible drivers lurk everywhere. One of my favorite restaurants, Madeleine Bistro, is hardly open and most recently the only somewhat decent vegan Thai place began serving meat. Although I complain, the most important thing about the valley is that my dog loves it here.
About two months ago, I randomly read about No Udder Desserts opening a storefront in Woodland Hills. Started by Trisha Lobefaro a few years ago, No Udder Desserts has been sold at various places in the L.A. area and can now be found at a quaint little bakery smack dab in the valley.
The shop is nestled in a little outdoor mall near a Target and Payless Shoes, it might be hard to find if you’re unfamiliar with the area, but luckily a sign reading “Vegan Bakery” adorns the main window. Inside is very small, with two tables and one outside the doors; although I didn’t eat inside, I can imagine sitting there with friends over some coffee and sweets would be quite nice.
I first went here about a month ago and was pleased to see that many of the cake offerings were petit fours. They’re the perfect size for when you want to indulge, yet not overdo it. I left No Udder Desserts with a pecan bar which was delicious. I immediately told Quarrygirl that I wanted to do a field report on this place!
I finally made it back to No Udder Desserts earlier this week, and got myself more than just one thing to try. Various bite-sized cakes that caught my eye were carrot, coconut, and chocolate. I also tried a lemon bar, pumpkin “cheezecake”, whoopie pie, chocolate chip cookie and I couldn’t leave without another pecan bar.
The petit fours are daintily decorated and equally pretty in taste. These small cakes are the perfect companion to some afternoon tea or coffee. None were overly sweet and each had the perfect amount of frosting. If I had to choose a favorite, I’d say the coconut one was the best (which is very peculiar considering I don’t really like coconut).
I enjoyed everything and so did my friend with whom I shared all of this. No Udder Desserts is certainly a little hidden gem in the valley and I’m very happy they have opened. They do offer full cakes, including wedding options.
Across from No Udder Desserts is a newly opened Vegan Joint. I will not be going there considering how poor their outcome in Operation Pancake was, however, Trisha of No Udder Desserts told me that the Vegan Joint has since changed suppliers. So if one of you readers are brave enough to scope them out, ask to see ingredients, etc., please let us know! (ed. note: after the whole operation pancake thing, the vegan joint was the only restaurant to reach out to us and let us know that they changed suppliers. they took the whole matter very seriously, and even offered me a tour of their kitchen. plus, unlike the other restaurants that were implicated, the vegan joint is vegan-owned! i’d definitely give them a second chance!)
Let’s all support the only 100% vegan bakery in the valley and make your way down to No Udder Desserts!
20839 Ventura Blvd
Woodland Hills, CA 91364
(818) 340-4194Mon-Sat: 10am-6pm (closed on Sundays)
Tags: bakery, cake, desserts, field report, the valley
28 responses to “No Udder Desserts: Vegan Bakery in the Valley”
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Oh boy, I’m right by there today. I’m going to drop by!
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Another awesome vegan bakery deep in the Valley is Amanda’s Bakery & Cafe! http://amandasbakeryandcafe.com/ Rad to see the SFV starting to get more veg options.
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Screwdriver July 14th, 2011 at 08:27
Funny….place is walking distance from my office. I’ll have to give them a try.
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Jessica,
Cool! I never heard of Amanda’s Bakery. I’ll definitely be checking it out soon, thanks for letting us know! -
styles July 14th, 2011 at 12:55
That new Vegan Joint could use all the help it can get with other vegan restaurants closing in the valley or starting to serve meat. VEGAN JOINT IS AMAZING!!
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Greg C. July 14th, 2011 at 14:01
I <3 No Udder's deserts…I only saw them sold at Lotus. Nice to hear they have a real place now! Really amazing stuff.
Could do without the douchebaggy valley hate though. Nice broad brush there….people who live in the valley are conceited? Where does this come from? If anything, maybe we're just defensive cuz we're constantly hearing how we're the scum of the earth. Believe me….you will run into rude people and bad drivers ANYWHERE. C'mon.
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I’m allowed to hate on the valley because I’ve been a valley girl since the day I was born 🙂
It’s a love/hate relationship I have with the place. I can’t seem to get away from it. -
Gauri Radha गौरी राधा July 14th, 2011 at 14:33
Those dessert cakes look quite tempting!! I can be made to do pretty much anything for a frosted vegan pastry (hehe.)
Thanks for the review, I will certainly stop in and try this place:D -
Hehe someone else beat me to the ‘aww, Valley hate? really?’ comment.
The West Valley may not be hip BUT c’mon, you’ve got FYH, Vinh Loi, one of the best Whole Foods in L.A. (the Tarzana one, and the one on Canoga is a pretty good second), Henry’s Market, a bunch of vegan options at Pizza Cookery, juice and raw foods at Juicy Ladies, reasonably edible Chinese food at Garden Wok, and now No Udder and Vegan Joint. You even used to have a Zpizza (RIP) and of course MB, the granddaddy of vegan food. All you lack is a QSR like Veggie Grill or Native Foods. Even without it, trust me, you kick the East Valley’s ass in vegan cred.
Also Vegan Factory isn’t (wasn’t) even close to the only decent vegan Thai in the Valley. West Valley, yes. But for the sake of accuracy, Vegan Lotus in NoHo is the best in the SFV and the only thing the East Valley has going for it besides Tony’s these days, unless I’m forgetting something.
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zitface July 14th, 2011 at 18:52
C’mon! The Valley is a terrible place. There’s nowhere remotely redeeming once one descends Laurel Canyon from Mulholland Drive.
The only reason that people live there is that they can’t afford to live in LA proper. I’ve never met anybody who would rather live ANYWHERE in 818 than 323, 310 or even 213.
Simple. The Valley is indefensibly bad, every which way.
I hate it there.
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Brandon S. July 14th, 2011 at 18:55
The valley (west of Laurel Canyon) is definitely LA’s smelly hot and sweaty armpit. But I’d rather live there than Highland Park like a lot of the hipsters on this blog.
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I had No Udder Desserts at Lotus Vegan and they tasted horrible. Amanda’s Bakery and Cafe FTW
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Thanks for The Vegan Joint and No Udder Desserts support…….GJ
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I love the little cakes — I brought a box of them to my office staff and they were gobbled up! I especially loved the pecan pie ones.
As for the Valley, I have an affordable house with a swimming pool in my backyard, and I can walk to Whole Foods or to Kung Pao Bistro or any of a zillion Starbucks and nail salons on Ventura Blvd. I love my little part of the Valley! Who needs to hate?
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I think Jessica and Amanda used to do Righteous Fryers together but now they have their donuts there on Saturdays, maybe Sundays too.
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Rachel, expect that I will be asking you to please bring me treats! Those petit fours look amazing. 🙂
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Nabil July 16th, 2011 at 06:11
The valley people are rude!!!!! then what do you call people in Santa Monica and most of the west side? If you hate the valley that much, a place where you run your business, how can you cook with love? Maybe you should move to West Hollywood and feed your sweets to people who eat air.
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Brandon July 16th, 2011 at 12:29
Like Brandon said, fuck Highland Park. At least they shower in the valley.
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🙂 next staff meeting (whenever that might be!) I’ll try to bring some!
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when you generalize an entire valley, its the same as other people generalizing all vegans. the valley has its good and bad, just like every other place, has nothing to do with this tasty bakery
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Sprocket August 7th, 2011 at 09:43
Most valley haters are not originally from Los Angeles, I’ve noticed. They don’t know much about the valley, obviously. I used to live in Hollywood but then we moved to Toluca Lake 14 years ago and love it!!! When we do go over the hill to the westside we have to drive around in circles to find a parking space and clean side walk to walk our little dog. Echo Park, Silverlake and Highland Park maybe “hip” to you new comers but it’s always been nasty and it will always be bit grungy. I like my sidewalks clean with ample parking and friendly people.
Back to No Udder bakery, AMAZING PECAN BARS YOU MUST TRY!
Skullowl July 14th, 2011 at 07:58