hold the phone! clara’s cakes, one of our favorite bakeries, has started offering vegan mexican wedding cookies (aka russian tea cakes?)! they’re ridiculous: rich, moist, powdered sugary, littered with nuts, and scarily real tasting.

mexican wedding cookies. $12 per dozen.

they’re 12 bucks per dozen which is a steal, considering this is one of the best tasting baked goods i’ve eaten in ages. to order, email clara at info@claracakes.com!

hey everyone! time for an OC field report from reader nicky tracy. in the following post, she explores a mostly vegan and gluten-free bakery called sensitive sweets in fountain valley. i can’t wait to check this place out!

Vegan dining options in Orange County aren’t exactly few and far between, but when you’re gluten-free and have an insatiable sweet tooth, that can be a whole ‘nother story entirely. Naturally when I got wind that an all gluten-free and vegan-friendly bakery had opened up in northern Orange County, I couldn’t wait to investigate. Sensitive Sweets, located off of Brookhurst and Slater Ave in Fountain Valley in a little strip mall next to Le V Cuisine and Golden Scorpion Tattoo, offers some of the best vegan gluten-free breads, cupcakes, cookies and muffins I’ve had yet, without charging an arm and a leg and without the nasty aftertaste typically left behind by garbanzo/fava bean-based baked goods.

Although not everything in the bakery is vegan (the lemon bars and fudge brownies both contain egg and the marshmallows they use contain gelatin), most of their sweets are vegan-friendly and those that aren’t are clearly marked otherwise.

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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.

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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…

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as if the cheap sandwiches, all you can eat brunches, and vegan nutella weren’t reasons enough to get your ass over to the meet market now you have one more thing to lure you in: new vegan cupcakes!

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