Recently, I was fortunate to be invited to a special vegan dinner with a select group of friends to celebrate both Memorial Day, and (more importantly) that revered global festival, otherwise known as Morrissey’s Birthday. Immediately upon receiving the invite, I offered to bring a dessert for the gang to eat. It being a birthday celebration and all, I decided to get a vegan ice cream birthday cake with “Happy Birthday Moz” written upon it.

I immediately thought of Scoops, a local favorite of vegans, as they offer not only a reasonable vegan ice cream selection, but also have a made-to-order vegan ice cream cake offering for only $25. Unfortunately, there’s a rather confusing set of steps to go through in order to place an order. First, you call the store, where they give you another number to call. You call that number, and are told to leave a message, with a promise of a call-back by the end of the next business day. Well, I called three times over as many days, and nobody bothered to call me back, leaving me somewhat caught short the day before the dinner, as none of the other restaurants in town would make me a vegan cake without 48 hours notice. Finally, I copped out and went to Wholefoods, to buy a lame combination of Soy Dream cookie dough ice cream and a fucking vegan brownie. How embarrassing!

Before we get to the dinner, though, Scoops has fallen foul of LA vegans (and even meat eaters, too) for serving Foie Gras ice cream. Not that I give a shit either way (I’d eat at XIV again in a force-fed fat-heartbeat), but (under pressure) they have assured people that they would not stock it any more, only to say – a few days later – that they have it “sometimes”.

It might be time for a foie gras / customer service demonstration outside Scoops. Serving foie gras is one thing, but lying about it isn’t acceptable, any more than not calling back paying customers who leave multiple messages requesting products! On top of that, some of the staff have a really shitty “no eye contact” attitude (especially the old Asian gentleman who works in there) when asked basic questions about their menu and offerings.

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move over kids, there’s a new vegan baker in los angeles and the goods are amazing. vegan bake sale launched just a few weeks ago and specializes in beautiful and tasty cakes and cupcakes, but cheesecakes and cookies are also in the works. alix, the talented baker behind all of this, has been teasing los angeles vegans with her treats for quite awhile on her blog cute and delicious…i was so excited when she announced that she was making them available to the general public.

coincidentally, alix launched vegan bake sale just 5 days before my dad’s birthday. what better way to celebrate than to get him a huge vegan cake…right?!?! mwahahaha.

vegan bake sale double layered chocolate cake. $45

when i contacted vegan bake sale to place an order, alix wrote back and said she could make any flavor i could dream up. that sounded like quite an opportunity, but i still went with basic old double chocolate. i mean, who doesn’t love that, right? when i picked up the cake i was shocked at the size…it was much bigger than i imagined! it was also beautifully decorated with gorgeous piping around the edges. seriously, too pretty to eat. even the smell of it in the car on the way to my folks’ house was so sweet and tempting, i am shocked i made it all the way there without stealing a finger full of frosting.

i think everyone would agree the cake was a huge hit. my non-vegan parents loved it, and so did my husband who usually won’t go near sweet foods. on her blog, alix says her baked goods “aren’t the healthy, crunchy, cardboard vegan desserts you find at health food stores, they’re the decadent, delicious treats that could fool any non-vegan,” and she is absolutely right. the cake itself was sinfully tasty, and so was the rich luscious frosting.

after eating just one slice i went into an epic food coma. i left the cake with my parents and kept getting emails from my mom about how great the leftovers were. total success.

so if you are looking for a vegan birthday cake in los angeles, or a load of vegan cupcakes, definitely hit up vegan bake sale for treats that will impress. i got an amazing vegan birthday cake from real food daily last year, and i can tell you this thing topped even that…which is saying a lot! plus, alix can not only bake “any flavor you can dream up,” she’s also a total frosting artist and your cake is guaranteed to look amazing.

check vegan bake sale’s website, blog, and twitter for more info.

last week i turned 24, and while to me getting older is a kinda depressing thought, i took it as an excuse to completely gorge myself on vegan cake.

chocolate & peanut butter cake from real food daily! (i dunno how much it cost 'cause it was a gift)

i haven’t had a birthday cake since i was 18…back in the day when i was still a vegetarian. i used to love the gooey dribbling frosting and moist chocolate sponginess—all stuff i’ve half-way written off since becoming a vegan. luckily for me, i have the most awesome co-workers who went out of their way to surprise me with a delicious vegan cake from real food daily and 3 bottles of specialty beer. what a gesture!

the cake was out of this world. everyone in the office was going at it, and nobody had a problem with the fact it was vegan. in fact, the cake was GONE, no leftovers, in like 30 minutes. usually we order cake from sweet lady jane’s, and when we do, a few slices always get thrown out. not with the real food daily cake, uh uh. people were coming over from different departments, wishing me a happy birthday just so they could sleaze away with a slice of me cake! it was great watching omnivores enjoying the vegan dessert. and trust me, i got plenty of it to myself—two big slices that sent me into a food coma and rendered me useless for the rest of the day. mmm. chocolate-peanut-buttery goodness.

yummmmmmmmy cake.

i know we at quarrygirl have had some unkind things to say about real food daily in the past (sometimes they blow), but none of those feelings spill over into my review of their cake. i don’t really know how expensive this was because it was a surprise, and i don’t know how the service was because i didn’t pick it up…but i DO know that my bday cake tasted incredible and looked beautiful. people were questioning, “how do they make it so soft and moist?”, “are you sure this doesn’t have eggs in it?”, “omg how do they make this taste just like real cake?” and then it was all gone. and everyone was full.

i highly recommend real food daily for a stellar, tasty birthday cake. i may even have to give them another shot and eat there again.

and a big shout out to the peeps who bought me this cake. if you ever read this, you rule!

(and a belated happy bday to mr. meaner, whose birthday was yesterday!)

morrissey turns 49 today. best wishes to such a kick ass vegetarian.