Vegan cakes

[Guest guest]

Bakeries often deliver fresh, moist, delicious cakes to stores but then the stores don't sell them fast enough or rotate them properly. I think that was the problem a couple of years ago when vegan cakes were not as popular, and Black China and Whole Foods cakes would often be stale---they're still fighting that reputation. And low-fat baked goods do go stale faster, fat is a preservative. Now that demand has increased I think you have a better chance (although I'm sold on Maggie Mudd's cakes so I don't buy many other cakes!). But if you want to be really sure, call the store a couple of weeks prior to your event and find out what day they get fresh deliveries from your favorite bakery. Or call the bakery directly.

And since we're talking about vegan sweets, there are a couple of online places that do killer gifts and they ship right after baking. I have ordered from both Allison's Gourmet and Protection Island, and the treats arrived very fresh and incredibly delicious:

http://petamall.com/veg.asp

 

Sticky Fingers is to die for:

http://www.vegcooking.com/rest-Sticky.asp

 

And if you want to give someone a great vegan gift but don't want to risk stale cookies, California Cove Designs is all vegan and they donate all their profits to animal rights groups:

http://californiacovedesigns.com/MoreGiftBaskets.html

 

Ordering from these companies not only ensures a great gift for your friends, but also means you're supporting a hard-working vegan business--they need our support to make it! We've all had beloved vegan businesses go out of business and it's disappointing, to say the least. Because they cater to a smaller customer base, they really need us to make it.

And of course, if you have a local bakery that you can talk into making a special vegan cake for you, then you've just opened their minds to vegan foods. You can ask your favorite bakery or restaurant to contact www.VegAdvantage.com for free vegan foodservice advice and recipes. This may result in them putting a vegan item on the menu permanently, which means non-vegans will see it and be curious.

Alex

 

P.s.

One more thing about MaggieMudd cakes. As Tammy mentioned, they do photo cakes and they're brilliant! You just e-mail them whatever photo you want, and they replicate it on the cake with edible, vegan icing. I had one made for a friend and the photo (of her in front of a San Francisco view) was so real I thought they had just blown up the photo and stuck it on!