This dairy free chocolate company makes the best vegan chocolate on the planet and you can order it online for UK delivery.
The company has shared news that it might become difficult to locate their products in coming weeks due to the major supermarkets cutting down on non-essential stock refills.
Of course the joke I need to make here is that vegan chocolate is essential!
The entire range of vegan chocolates, including their incredible vegan Easter eggs, are online for you to buy directly.
I need to make special mention of the White Strawberry Hamster. How good does this sound?!
All of their regular chocolate bars are available plus a gorgeous Easter pack featuring eggs and bars.
Did I mention there is free shipping for all orders over £10? How easy is it to spend £10 on chocolates?!
Vegans. This is your chance to use your compassionate shopping powers for good.
It is emergency time for legendary London vegan bakery, Ms. Cupcake.
As I mentioned a short while ago on my blog, the UK’s first 100% vegan bakery has decided to shut doors forever. If you missed it, you can read my emotional post online here.
Mellissa Morgan and the Ms. Cupcake business have been on the frontline of veganism for a decade and without her efforts, we would have experienced a very different march forward.
Mellissa pushed boundaries as an independent vegan business owner and showed just how much demand there was for plant based foods. Being inundated with vegan food in 2020 is thanks to pioneers just like Ms. Cupcake.
So they are shutting down, but there has been even more devastating news for the bakery and Mellissa just two weeks out from closing date.
The business was booked to appear at the huge Vegan Life Live show in London this weekend (March 14 and 15, 2020) but with last minute notice, the vegan mega show was cancelled due to concerns about large events contributing to the spread of coronavirus.
While this was obviously an extremely tough decision for the show organisers, this has left Mellissa and her vegan bakery holding thousands and thousands of pounds worth of extra stock that was destined to be sold at the show.
Mellissa told me:
We are desperately trying to close on a positive note, but the idea of all of these products going to waste is heart wrenching for the whole team who has been working so hard. Financially, it is quite disastrous for our small business.
Vegans, this is where we need to do one last act of support and compassion for someone who has done so much for us.
Go the the Ms. Cupcake website NOW and up until March 20, 2020 and order delicious vegan cakes and treats to be delivered to your home or office.
You can choose from four categories of sweetness:
Vegan tray bakes
Vegan cookie sandwiches
Vegan brownies
Vegan American-style cookies
Click here NOW to buy one last big bundle of vegan goodies from this legendary vegan business. Help them go out on a high and with a few less bills!
Buy treats for your home, your workplace, a neighbour, a loved one, someone you are trying to expose to veganism, and most importantly for yourself.
If we can join forces to send as much love and cash in the direction of the Ms. Cupcake bakery as possible, we might just be able to help them have a smile on their faces as the doors shut for the final time.
Order from the online store now or before March 20, 2020 for delivery in the UK or for collection in store.
If you can make it along to the shop in Brixton before it closes, please note they have extended their opening times to include Mondays. This means they will be open EVERY SINGLE DAY until March 29, 2020.
Extra note: you can also order a signed copy of the best-selling Ms. Cupcake recipe book. Already got it? Click here to order another. They make great gifts.
I recently discovered with my own tastebuds that Plant Power Fast Food is one of the best places on the planet to buy vegan food.
The fast food chain with locations scattered around Southern California is almost without peer when it comes to plant-based comfort food. Their burgers, breakfast sandwiches, fries, and shakes are all the stuff of legend.
And let’s not overlook their decadent cheesecakes.
The cheesecakes by Plant Power are such a standout item, the chain has recently inked a deal with Whole Foods Market stores.
You can currently buy the cheesecakes by the slice in the following locations across Southern California:
Hillcrest
La Jolla
Del Mar
Laguna Niguel
Irvine
Jamboree
Huntington Beach
Brea
Redondo Beach
Torrance
El Segundo
Newport Beach
Long Beach
Plant Power has announced that this list is just the start and more Whole Foods locations will be added soon.
If you live in Southern California or are visiting soon, grab some vegan cheesecake from Whole Foods and visit one of the Plant Power Fast Food restaurants for exceptionally good eating.
Follow Plant Power on Instagram and see all locations on their website.
It has been just over 24 hours since the announcement was made, so the feelings are still fresh.
Legendary (I mean, really REALLY legendary) vegan bakery business Ms. Cupcake announced it is set to close in March 2020.
This is sad news but of course it is not completely surprising.
I talk with vegan business owners often and they are struggling. People want convenience and are willing to sacrifice independently owned vegan businesses to get it. It feels like our community is increasingly becoming a block of faceless consumers unable (or unwilling) to support small business.
This phenomenon already happened to non-vegan businesses, with many independent stores shuttering their doors over the past few decades.
Now it feels like it is veganism’s turn to lose our pioneering retailers and business owners to big ticket capitalism.
The Ms. Cupcake bakery in Brixton stayed open a lot longer than it should have thanks to owner and founder Mellissa Morgan and her ingenuity, talent, and compassion. The vegan retail scene changed drastically and radically, but Mellissa kept her head above water with savvy choices. Her cupcake distribution deal with Whole Foods Market stores was one of the first major deals of its kind for a vegan business in the UK.
If you want to know what hard work looks like, study the output of Ms. Cupcake.
Mellissa started her business with all-night baking marathons followed by all-day selling stints at outdoor markets. She turned the London vegan scene upside down with her delicious and inventive creations, giving us hope that a better future for animals was around the corner and it included cake.
The Ms. Cupcake business was born at a time when London was still a struggle for vegans. Seriously, if you were vegan ten years ago you will know exactly what I’m talking about.
Mellissa showed us that we could expect more as vegan consumers while she also inspired dozens and dozens of others to take a risk with vegan business.
Ms. Cupcake didn’t just open the door through which other superstar vegans businesses strolled. Mellissa’s bakery smashed the door off its hinges.
We suddenly had a world class vegan food business and is not dramatic to say it felt like a hopeful new dawn for London.
The opening of the physical bakery location in Brixton took things to another level.
People would come from all over the UK to visit the bakery. Remember, this was long before vegan cake options were even a thought for Costa or Tesco. Ms. Cupcake gave us a peek into a strange new world and we lost our collective shit over it.
People would even come straight from the airport with their luggage because of all the hype. They couldn’t wait.
Mellissa wasn’t just a clever and talented cake maker. She showed us you could do all of this and also do what was right for your community.
Because of her kindness, the Ms. Cupcake and Fat Gay Vegan stories are inextricably connected. Mellissa went above and beyond what most would do by allowing me to start my monthly London Vegan Potluck social event (and then host it for six months) in the space outside her shop.
Four years later, when London Vegan Potluck was coming to and end, Mellissa and her team showed up to our final event with a personalised cake to thank me for my contributions to the London vegan community.
When London was absolutely bereft of exciting vegan social events, Mellissa allowed me to host a vegan pizza party in her shop on two occasions. I was desperate to create social capital for vegans and Mellissa and her bakery team were on the frontline with me.
I was once in the pub a few doors down from the Ms. Cupcake bakery, indulging in a few afternoon beers, when a random local pub goer noticed I had a box of Ms. Cupcake goodies on my table. He told me that when violent protests erupted around London (including Brixton) during August 2011 following the death of Mark Duggan at the hands of police, Mellissa went into the streets and gave away cakes to protestors.
This local pub goer had tears in his eyes as he told me that nobody touched or went near Mellissa’s bakery during the violence because of her act of support, solidarity, and community strengthening. He said everyone around those parts saw her as a good person and a treasured member of their community.
Through the bakery, Mellissa gave many people their first ever vegan job. Her team evolved over the years, however Mellissa always kept a strong, dedicated, and well trained group of people by her side.
I’m even friends with some of her team members to this day!
Mellissa gave her time and expertise with grace and humility.
Following on from her groundbreaking and highly-influential recipe book (which you need to order online here), many people started copycat baking businesses around the UK.
When I would ask her about this, Mellissa would shrug and wish them well. She really just wanted vegan cake to be everywhere and understood that she had created a sugary monster that she couldn’t control, so instead she hoped for the best for all the people following in her footsteps.
If you attended community events and vegan fairs in the early days, Mellissa could be found giving up her precious time and expertise for cooking demonstrations, panel discussions, and personal appearances. She worked as hard on building our vegan scene as she did on her own business.
At a time when we were all scrambling to build a vegan movement that would put compassion into the mainstream, Mellissa was ahead of the game with a world class product and an unwavering smile on her face.
I would never be able to overstate how important her role was in making veganism the unstoppable social and commercial concern it is now.
Mellissa might very well be the most important vegan business person that London has ever known. She is the original. Vegan Nights. Temple of Seitan. Hackney Downs Vegan Market. We all followed.
We all owe a huge debt of gratitude to Ms. Cupcake.
Extra note: I think you should all follow Ms. Cupcake on Instagram. Something tells me that she will be back with vegan goodness in some form before we know it.
Extra extra note: for goodness sake, buy her cookbook online NOW. Let’s send Mellissa out with a bang.
Do you ever ponder where the heck Chanel of legendary London vegan bakery Vegan Delice ended up?
Well, you can stop stressing over these unknown facts.
Chanel is serving full time inside Westfield Stratford, East London under her new business name, Cake Cult London.
Chanel was the superstar of Hackney Downs Vegan Market every week until it ended, so it is great news that her many fans can find her in a regular spot.
Cake Cult London is located on the lower ground floor of Westfield Stratford, right near the Great Eastern Market.
Be sure to visit early in the day if you can, because Chanel’s stuff is so fabulous it always depletes quickly. The Bakewell slices are heavenly and worth a trip to the bakery in their own right.
Have you almost gotten a handle on gift buying for Christmas?
Good. I’m here to tell you about your next vegan gift giving opportunity.
Valentine’s Day!
Moo Free are one of my favourite sweet treats companies on the planet and I’m thrilled to hear about this new product they are launching in 2020.
Inspired by their Hazelnut Truffles that hit the shelves recently, Moo Free has now created the perfect self-indulgent treat or thoughtful gift.
The heart-shaped truffles are filled with a soft raspberry centre which uses a unique raspberry concentrate mixture to achieve its mouthwateringly wonderful flavour.
Made from a white chocolate alternative recipe, these tasty new truffles are created using UTZ certified cocoa in association with the Rainforest Alliance, which helps support sustainable farming and provides better opportunities for farmers, their families, and our planet.
Produced in Devon, these new Moo Free truffles are certified vegan and are gluten and soya free.
Moo Free‘s White Raspberry Truffles will be available to buy from their online factory store (you can pre order now) and in a select number of Waitrose stores at the RRP of £4.99.
London, here is your opportunity to take part in a super fancy and super exclusive masterclass led by one of the leading vegan patisserie chefs on the planet.
I’ll show you how to make exquisite plant-based versions of festive French patisserie classics that will wow your guests during the festive season. – Clarisse Flon (specialist vegan patisserie chef, food consultant and photographer)
Grab a ticket and get along to the Made in Hackney kitchen on Saturday December 12, 2019 between 10am and 5:30pm for this rare learning (and eating!) opportunity.
This Masterclass is part of the Made in Hackney ‘VIP Series’, working with experts who are renowned in their field.
The class will include:
How to make a show-stopping Pear and Chocolate Genoise Yule log
Make an exquisite chocolate cream patissiere and chocolate buttercream
Learn to make gorgeous iced sablé Christmas biscuits
Rolling and setting techniques
Piping skills
How to make stunning chocolate décor and caramel shard decorations
Learn how to enhance flavours, and how to pair textures and tastes
A delicious organic plant based lunch, and take home recipe pack
15% discount in neighbouring wholefoods shop, Food for All
Clarisse Flon is a specialist vegan patisserie chef trained in classic French patisserie. Clarisse has worked in many fine dining establishments around the world while developing plant based versions of her traditional recipes.
She launched The Sunny Spoon in 2013 (a French vegan patisserie bakery featured many times at Hackney Downs Vegan Market) and helped launch Cafe Forty One, a vegan restaurant in La Suite West hotel in Notting Hill. Clarisse now works as a food consultant and photographer, developing vegan options and recipes for businesses.
Fee: £160 (£118 Concession) includes delicious tastings and a recipe pack.
This fee is used to fund the Made in Hackney programme of free courses to vulnerable and low-income community groups. By attending a Made In Hackney masterclass you get a great day of learning AND you’re providing the charity with essential funds for them to continue their work with vulnerable community groups.
Growing up as an uncultured and unworldly person in Australia, I didn’t know much about fancy foods or even foods that a lot of people consider common.
Heck. I didn’t even try hummus until I moved to the UK in 1998. Can you believe it? That shows how out of touch I was with international and diverse tastes.
Now, of course, I’m running all over the globe and eating all sorts of food.
I even know what panettone is!
And in fab news that I think of lot of people will adore, Selfridges food hall is now selling a spiced pumpkin vegan panettone just in time for the festive season.
I saw this delight at the Selfridges food hall on Oxford Street in London.
If you aren’t able to get into this store, Selfridges is also selling the festive panettone online.
