4th Totally Fabulous Vegan Bake-Off – I was there, were you?
I’ve been waiting for this day since the last totally fabulous vegan bake-off in October of 2010, the 4th Totally Fabulous Vegan Bake-Off. This time, with my delightful co-pilot, JC. I was at a volunteer orientation for Social Media Week Toronto at the Entrinsic Office immediately before the bake-off event was to start, so I got there much later than I wanted to and we saw this:
Crazy lines are the price of success I guess! On the plus side, my concerns of not being able to find the place were unfounded. There is nothing like walking down Bathurst from the TTC station and seeing a huge line, and just knowing that it was because of the Vegan bake-off.
Once we got in, there were several categories, but many of them were already sold out (like the Professionally Crafted Vegan Classics (no surprise there!), Cupcakes/tarts/pastries, and cookies) but we did get two plates of Gluten-free treats – regular and chocolate based, the decadent raw sweets, and vegan bars.
We started with the plate of general gluten free sweets. First thing I noticed – I didn’t notice a missing gluten flavour in any of them. You’ve come a long way gluten free baby, keep up the good flavours.
Gluten-Free Sweets
30. Brown Bag Donuts
31. Half-Moon Spectaculars!
32. Morning Glory… That is my story….
33. Strawberry Coconut Tart
34. Too Die for Coconut-y Carob Banana Balls
I think the Half Moon Spectaculars were easily my favourites, and then looking closer, I realized they were made by Willie from Until We Eat Again. EDIT: And they WON the Gluten Free Category, see more from Willie’s Blog Entry – AND the Recipe. The Brown Bag donuts were pretty adorable, and I loved that someone put the effort into folding little brown bags around the donuts.
Raw Desserts
18. 3-Part Pineapple Pinnacle Pastry
19. Cruda Cafe’s Mint Nanaimo Bars
20. Dy-Na-Mo bars.
21. Little Dewey’s Chocolate Power Balls.
22. Queen Elizabeth’s Sweet Potato Fig Muffins
23. Tokyo Cream Pie!
I liked most of the ones in this category, I was impressed that they were raw desserts, and they were tasty on their own merits. The Mint Nanaimo Bars from Cruda Cafe were great, and while the Tokyo Cream Pie looked a little weird in bite form, it was actually pretty tasty.
Vegan Bars
6. Chocolate Cookies
7. Chocolate Raspberry Roll-up
8. Double Chocolate Glazed Brownies
9. Get in my belly bars
10. Guava Macaroon
The Gluten Free Guava Macaroons were so delicious. Made by Natalia of Cookie Martinez, they were a real and unique treat.
Gluten-Free Chocolate
Peanut Butter Banana Split Brownie Bites
Jamie’s Zucchini Loaf
Megamint Chocolate Cookie
Raspberry Buttercream filled chocolate cookie sandwiches
Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
Lady Bites
It was actually hard to choose, The Peanut Butter Banana Split Brownie Bites were tasty and pretty. I loved the Megamint Chocolate cookies, but JC (as a mint chocolate hater) wasn’t a fan. He was right when he said they were almost like Girl Scout cookies (but better!) The raspberry butter cream sandwiches were adorable, and then how can you go wrong with rich chocolate zucchini bread (Edit: Jaime has provided the recipe for the Zucchini Loaf on her blog along with some other Pictures of the event). We were pretty undecided on this category.
I have no idea who won, because we didn’t stay until the end, but I’m sure the TVA will have a recap available soon.
The lovely Natur-a people were there again this year, and the cappuccino & vanilla natura soymilk were the perfect post Vegan Bar beverage.
We finished off the evening with a shopping trip to Panacea and Qi Natural Foods on Bloor Street (in preparation for tomorrow’s Super Bowl Sunday tomorrow) and shared a vegetarian combination plate at the fantastic Nazareth Ethiopian ((969 Bloor Street West, Toronto) cuisine.
Did you go to the Vegan Bake Off? Did you have any favourites?