I love sugar

Frozen yoghurt delight

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My 4th annual vegan Day of the Dead party on Sunday was incredible. From the food to the guests to the atmosphere, the event was outstanding fun.

One of the most-loved dishes served up by Chef Julio (and his helpers Carlos and Josh) was the decadent dessert. This final plate of the night broke sweetness records and pushed the boundaries of sugar decency.

Check it out:

What do you think?

The plate featured a gooey chocolate brownie in a sea of choc fudge sauce, topped with vanilla frozen yogurt dusted with a mix of chile, hibiscus, salt and sugar.

I want to give a massive shout out to Coconut Collaborative for the vanilla frozen yogurt alternative. The company furnished our party with a mammoth freezer bag of the good stuff.

You can buy all of their flavours in most major supermarkets and independent health food stores. My favourite is the chocolate version but this vanilla was perfectly suited to the brownie dish.

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Halloween delight

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I was at a recent Morrissey concert in London when the legendary singer asked a peculiar (and awesome) question from the stage.

He wanted to know where he could buy ‘a vegan wagon wheel’ and of course he was talking about the fabulous Round Up bars made by Ananda Foods.

These gorgeous treats are available in many stores around the UK, including Ms Cupcake and Vx here in London.

I visited the Ananda stand at VegfestUK London yesterday and was delighted to see (and buy and eat) a special limited edition version of the Round Up for Halloween. It was an explosion of biscuit, chocolate, marshmallow and jam.

Look at this fabulous thing!

Yes!

Get on over to the Ananda Foods stand today on the second day of VegfestUK London to pick one up, or reach out to them via their online shop to see where you can find your very own Halloween Round Up.

You can also like Ananda Foods on Facebook and like them on Twitter.

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Fall-ing for cupcakes

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A change in season means a change in cupcake flavours at Ms. Cupcake in Brixton.

I spotted this gorgeous autumnal flavour during a recent visit.

Other flavours for the cooler weather include Lemon Matcha, Speculoos, Black Bottom (with cream cheese baked in!), Apple Crumble Custard and finally, Blackberry.

How GORGEOUS do all of those sound?

Catch the special seasonal varieties until November in store and visit the Ms Cucpake stand at VegfestUK London on October 10 and 11, 2015.

Follow Ms Cupcake on Twitter and Instagram.

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Vegan Bake Off

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Roll up for the BIGGEST celebration of cruelty-free cake to ever be staged in the UK.

Join your guest host and judge Fat Gay Vegan as he nibbles his way through the entries before naming the winners of the West Midlands Vegan Fest 2015 ‘Vegan Bake Off’.

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There will be prizes. There will be drama. There will be a very full FGV!

Categories include:

– Decoration (cakes only/judged on appearance)
– 14 and Under (any baked item by people aged 14 or under/judged on taste and appearance)
– Chocolate (any baked item with chocolate as the star attraction/judged on taste and appearance)
– Stallholder (open to cakes, cupcakes, slices and cookies by stallholders/judged on taste and appearance)
– Cheesecake (raw or cooked cheesecakes/judged on taste and appearance)

You can enter one item in one category only. The cost per entry is £1 per item. All entries will be sold after judging with all profits from entry fees and sales to be donated to a local charity.

You will be able to drop off your entry to the Fat Gay Vegan stand on either Saturday or Sunday of the fest with the cut off time being 3pm on Sunday. No entries will be taken after this time.

The judging room will be open to the public after 4pm. The judging room holds approximately 100 people and entry will be on a first come basis.

Go here for more information on the West Midlands Vegan Fest 2015.

Let me know you are interested in entering the Vegan Bake Off or have plans to attend as a spectator with an RSVP on the Facebook event.

Extra note: you can supply extra cake for tasting/judging purposes if you do not want your entry to be cut during the tasting process. You must also include a list of ingredients with your entry.

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Cake in a jar

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Post by:

Caitlin panel

A new vegan bakery opened just a couple of weeks ago in Barcelona, which seems to bursting at the seams these days with new vegetarian and vegan restaurants. But bakeries? This one’s the only 100% vegan bakery! I knew I had to check it out.

La Pastisseria Besneta is so new Google couldn’t even seem to find it, so I headed there in hopes that it was open on weekends. Luckily, it was open – and I got to taste test their lemon meringue cake!

La Besneta sells whole cakes, or individual servings of cake in a jar. The cakes in a jar are super cute (and super hipster), and wouldn’t look out of place in Shoreditch. It makes the whole cake buying and eating experience just a little bit more exciting. The day I visited, they had two muffins and four different kinds of cake (carrot cake, lemon meringue and two different chocolate cakes, one with raspberry filling and one without). I selected the lemon meringue.

besnetacake

 

The meringue was light and fluffy and the lemon was just the right amount of tart. The only downside is that while cake in a jar is very photogenic, it’s a little bit difficult to eat. Make sure you have a spoon – and not fork – handy!

If you visit Barcelona, definitely check out this new vegan bakery in the Gracia neighbourhood. Like the bakery on Facebook.

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South of the river treats

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I have often heard about The Waiting Room in the south London enclave of Deptford, but really wasn’t sure where Deptford was situated. It sounded like one of those places you would never visit due to it being in the middle of nowhere.

I don’t know why I thought that, I just did.

This week led to somewhat of a revelation as I discovered there is a train departing every 10 minutes from London Bridge station that takes an incredibly short time to deliver its passengers to Deptford, just one station away.

The Waiting Room is a vegetarian coffee shop offering vegan alternatives for almost their entire menu. It would be marvellous to see this rad store front make the switch to completely vegan, but until they do vegans still have a lot of food and drink to keep them busy.

Check out what I got my paws on during my visit this week.

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