listen up vegans! you’d better set your DVRs to record cupcake wars this tuesday june 22nd at 9pm on the food network, because chef chloe is going to be competing with her delicious vegan treats!

chloe coscarelli first showed up on our radar earlier this year when she created the winning sandwich in coral tree cafe’s panini contest. since then she has distributed her baked goods throughout los angeles, started her own recipe blog and website, and even made cooking videos with vegnews.

tomorrow, chloe will be reppin’ the vegans when she goes head to head with other dessert pros on the food network’s cupcake wars. be sure to tune in and cheer her on, because not only is chloe and awesome local chef, but her vegan desserts ROCK. she made me a cake once and it was seriously one of the tastiest treats i’ve ever had.

tuesday, june 22nd on the food network at 9pm. CUPCAKE WARS! DO IT.

follow chloe on twitter, and check out her website for more info. she always tweets when her baked goods are available for sale.

lastly, i will leave you with this adorable video chloe made with vegnews. i can’t watch it without getting ridiculously hungry. good luck, chloe!

i’m happy to announce that there’s a new baked goods company on the los angeles scene, and it’s called merely “ingredients”. the small studio city-based business is run by shelley boyle, and produces amazing animal-free baked goods with simple healthy ingredients, as the name would suggest.

shelley was kind enough to send me some of her treats to sample…and i was blown away by their deliciousness. she was also generous enough say she’d throw in a few sample bags of cookies to all quarrygirl readers who order from ingredients within a week of this post! but before you click away and start ordering massive amounts of sweets, check out what i tried.

#3: almond butter, peanuts, and dark chocolate

it’s worth noting that the snacks are numbered rather than named. ingredients explains the method to their madness on their website: “We might be considered an odd bunch, because we have an affinity for numerals. You know… those numbers that follow you wherever you go. Do you always look at the time when it is 12:34?? We’re those kind of people. So, when it came time to name our products, we gave them numbers instead. Essentially… if someone had a favorite treat, it was named from their favorite number. Who knows… maybe you’re like us and your number will be on a bag someday. You can always dream….” it’s a totally quirky and bizarre way to label the products, but i dig it! plus, on every bag there is a little personal story behind the number. so fun.

Read the rest of this entry »

tiramisu by vegan bake sale. drool over it.

this isn’t just any tiramisu, it’s INSANELY AWESOME TIRAMISU. recently one of us (mr. meaner) celebrated a birthday—and instead of a cake, we had these adorable dishes by vegan bake sale. the popular italian dessert is traditionally made with espresso-dipped biscuits, egg yolks, mascarpone cheese, sugar and cocoa…and we are always on the lookout for animal-free versions of it. it’s been mr. meaner’s favorite cake in the world since way back when he was a vegetarian—so if we ever see a vegan tiramisu on a menu, no matter how full we are, we have to order it. i’m happy to report that vegan bake sale has taken the tiramisu crown!

i don’t know how she did it, but this layered dish was better than any tiramisu we’ve eaten (vegan or otherwise). pure genius, i tell you! it was pretty to look at, and it tasted AMAZING. i made a futile attempt to only eat half of the dish, and save the rest for later…but it was just too good to resist.

vegan bake sale is not taking orders at the moment, but maybe if you have a really special occasion and offer her millions of dollars, she will make an exception. ; )

until then, just be jealous. and enjoy the pictures.

do you like adorable little desserts? then you are gonna love sweet e’s bakeshop.

the LA-based company calls itself a “mini bakeshop,” because they specialize in cute bite-sized treats…and their sweets are custom-made, so they can put any decoration on any dessert. sweet e’s has been wowing customers for quite awhile (even making cupcakes for cast members of the hills), but only recently did they launch a brand new vegan dessert line!

when sweet e’s offered to send me samples of their new vegan cupcakes, of course i was beyond excited. even though i had pretty high expectations, i can safely say the treats were even more adorable and tasty than i imagined…

Read the rest of this entry »

hey vegans, clear your calendars for the weekend, because there are a few delicious activities that you should definitely attend.

here’s your weekend in vegan food….

Read the rest of this entry »

searching for something tasty to do this weekend? well, look no further!

here’s a list of vegan food events you won’t wanna miss…

Read the rest of this entry »

I HATE HOLIDAYS!!!! but boy do i LOVE holiday food…

peppermint patty and cream-filled cupcakes by vegan bake sale! (sadly the cupcakes got a little roughed up and smooshed in my car! :()

here in america, st. patrick’s day is pretty much a wasted occasion. you don’t get time off work, the bars are too crowded to enjoy, and pervs have the excuse to go around pinching people all day. even thought i enjoy a bit of fun and am quite a heavy drinker, i just can’t get into all the green beer, glittery shamrocks, and fake irish patriotism. what i CAN get into though, is st. patty’s day themed cupcakes by vegan bake sale.

Read the rest of this entry »

last week we brought you the news of frozen cookie dough by luscious organic desserts, and today we want to let know about another one of their brand new products: frozen brownie batter.

Read the rest of this entry »

remember buying dough at the grocery to make cookies with, and eating almost the entire package raw, before any of it ever hit the oven? i do! well now you can get that simple pleasure back with pre-made frozen cookie dough by luscious organic desserts.

luscious is one of our favorite vegan companies, and i can definitely say they’ve unlocked the secret to the perfect cookie dough. i tried the chocolate chip flavor, as well as white chocolate pecan, and both were fabulous. each little container of dough costs $6.50…and i think it makes about a dozen cookies (i can’t say for sure because i ate so much of the dough raw).

the dough is already separated into little balls, so all you have to do is smoosh it down on a baking sheet and bake it at 375 for about 8 minutes. it’s so unbelievably easy—i made about a billion cookies in under half an hour.

the cookies turned out absolutely delicious, and i shared them with friends who all agreed on that. they are real crowd-pleasers, super easy to make, and are done in no time. what more could you want than that? oh, and the dough tastes straight up AMAZING raw.

for ordering info, contact luscious organic desserts. i think they are already selling this stuff, but still waiting on final packaging and labels.

PS: i owe veggywood a big thanks for picking up this dough for me! check out her review of the cookie dough here.

whoa, i never thought i’d see the day. first a national pizza chain offers a dairy-free cheese option, then a mexican fast food joint flirts with a huge plant-based protein, and now starbucks (the corporate-est of all corporate mofos) is offering lucy’s vegan cookies in locations across the nation!

lucy's vegan cookies: $1.50 per bag of 4

that’s right, starbucks has officially begun rolling out lucy’s line of vegan/gluten-free/nut-free cookies in several of their stores, and each bag of 4 cookies is under 200 calories! the cookies can be found in locations all over los angeles, and i gotta say, they are surprisingly delicious.

when i first heard the healthy low-calorie stats on lucy’s cookies and learned that they were super allergy-friendly, i wrongly assumed that they wouldn’t taste very good. however when i got them home and took a bite, i seriously couldn’t stop. they are so addictive!

chocolate chip, cinnamon, sugar cookie

they’re hard, crunchy, and super sweet…and are seriously like little sugar-coated pieces of crack. they come in chocolate chip, cinnamon, and sugar cookie flavor; and while my personal favorite is the chocolate chip, all varieties are awesome.

so next time you are in starbucks, be sure to buy a bag (or 3) of lucy’s cookies! let’s support their huge decision to cater to vegans.

oh, and if you wanna go even further and send starbucks a thank you note, check out this form on veggywood.com!

i know, i know, you anxious vegans. you have been tracking the arrival of babycakes vegan bakery on twitter for ages (i know i have!), and now it is finally time for them to open up in los angeles. tomorrow at 10am is when the adventure begins!

cookies 'n cream frosted cupcake: $3.95

i reviewed the babycakes nyc location awhile back on this blog, so i speak from experience when i say, these cupcakes are FUCKING AWESOME. i got the cookies and cream flavor which was great, along with a creamy cookie and frosting sandwich. babycakes was originally set to open in weho, but tomorrow they are opening in downtown LA. their menu is epic, and they will also be carrying donuts…just what los angeles needs, if you ask me.

everyone from vegan celebs like rory freedman, to to live and eat in la and ecorazzi, to vegan forums are excited about babycakes opening up, so you should get stoked as well! for more info on the company, and to see a real time countdown to the opening of the new store, check out the babycakes website.

babycakes
(opening Sunday, January 3rd, at 10 a.m.!)
130 East 6th Street (between S. Main Street and S. Los Angeles Street)
Telephone: 213.623.5555

if their baked goods are ANYWHERE NEAR as good as the ones in nyc, we are all in for a real treat.

since our last post, teasing the arrival new vegan los angles donuts, the righteous fryers have created a twitter account and officially opened up for business.

i don’t have any more info than what i gained from the following 2 tweets, but i highly suggest you follow them, email them, and place some orders because their donuts are fucking insaaaaaaaaaaaaane. sooo good.

the righteous fryers on twitter

these are some of the best vegan donuts ever, a cross between the fancy ones at madeleine bistro and quick cheap ones at ronalds!

best of luck to the righteous fryers! los angeles needs more vegan donuts.

one thing the los angeles vegan scene is really lacking is vegan donuts. luckily, that may change very soon thanks to a couple of food science college students named jessica and amanda. the two girls came up with some killer recipes for the deep fried treats during a product development class, and BAM—just like that their company the righteous fryers was born.

they hooked me up with some samples of their punnily-named wholly donuts, which were drop dead delicious. the flavors i tried were apple crumble and boston creme, and i was blown away by what these college kids created.

the first one i sampled was the boston creme. dense thick chocolate cake coated in chocolate frosting, and filled with moist and fluffy cream. gah, it was so tasty. it was small and artfully made, yet rich and messy…it was like the cross between a madeleine bistro and a ronald’s donut. LA would be a better place if stuff like this was readily available.

next i tried the apple crumble, and lemme preface my description by saying i usually hate baked fruit. this thing, however, won me over with one bite. the fruit flavor wasn’t strong, and everything was coated in sticky sweet cinnamon. plus, it had this sugary crumbly coating on top that was off the charts—it tasted like a deep fried donut, an apple pie, and a piece of coffee cake were having a threesome in my mouth. wowowow.

unfortunately, the righteous fryers are not in business yet because one of them is still finishing school. they are well on their way though, so look out for these donuts in the future. they definitely have the dessert skills down already, let’s hope they smooth out the business affairs and get rolling ASAP.

good luck, amanda and jessica!

oh, and you can follow jessica (@raspberryrush) on twitter. yay!

so…i’m sure you’ve already heard that it’s national cupcake day. what better way to celebrate this special time of year then with some of THE BEST vegan cupcakes los angeles has to offer?

that’s right, trusted quarrygirl friend and favorite vegan bake sale now has cupcakes available to the public in silverlake. all you gotta do is head over to the meet market on sunset at descanso, and these babies are for sale individually!

the meet market is open on weekdays from 11am-4pm and weekends from 10am-8pm. i know, i know, that means it’s too late to grab a cupcake fix for tonight. but seriously, you should head over there tomorrow before they run out. a vegan cupcake this good that you don’t have to order by the dozen is very hard to come by.

right now, the meet market is offering pumpkin spice (pictured above), as well as peanut butter and cookies & cream (pictured below). i have never tried the peanut butter flavor, but i can tell you that the pumpkin spice and cookies & cream are MADLY DELICIOUS.

get to silverlake. get to the meet market. get some cupcakes. this is stuff that you usually have to order loads at a time. so take advantage.

the meet market
3206 W Sunset Blvd (at Descanso)
Los Angeles, CA 90026
mon-fri 11am-4pm
sat-sun 10am-8pm

sometimes you want a dessert that will satisfy your sweet tooth but not bog you down with loads of fat and sugar. enter tia’s bakery—a company focused on making healthy treats that are agave-sweetened and gluten-free, with plenty of vegan options.

recently, tia’s bakery hooked me up with a lovely lot of samples…and after being bummed out by some gluten-free food in the past, i was pleasantly surprised by how much i enjoyed their goods. they gave me a box of each of their cookie varieties—peanut butter, almond tea, and oatmeal raisin—all of which were delicious. the almond tea was my favorite, with a very unique and nutty flavor.

tia’s also supplied me with a box of vegan macaroons, which were absolutely awesome. these bite-sized balls are like yummy vegan crack rocks made of coconuts, dates, and agave. once i started, i couldn’t stop eating ’em.

now keep in mind, tia’s bakery does not make insanely decadent desserts, but scrumptious treats that taste great and light at the same time. these are the kind of healthful snacks i could eat a ton of and be satisfied, but never feel guilty. with a low calorie count, and pure simple ingredients that you can not only pronounce, but have used in a sentence, there is no reason not to make them a regular indulgence. i can’t wait to go get more of tia’s goods…especially the almond cookies and macaroons! oh, and they also make VEGAN CAROB TRUFFLES which i haven’t tried but sound so good.

and for those of you who can’t eat gluten, i can imagine these sweets are a godsend!

tia’s bakery products are available at wholefoods, santa monica co-opportunity, erewhon, rainbow acres, follow your heart, locali, earth bar and pc greens. yum time.