Not Just for the Birds

Looking for a nice little vegan goody here in LA is not too hard to do with such an abundance of forward thinking bakeries and shops. Finding one that won't leave you stuck in a 2 hour traffic mess is a different story. Luckily for me I learned about a little cake shop down in Silver Lake that had vegan cupcakes everyday of the week.

What use to be an old upholstery shop is now Lark Cake Shop, a cute and very welcoming store front. The shop looks like a vintage furniture store meets a happy little tea cozy. All of the sofas and chairs were mismatching and reminded me of something I would see at a long lost aunts house. The cookie jars were clear glass and over sized to display the plate sized cookies. Each perfectly labeled with an old typewriter font. The cupcakes were displayed in their own case with hand written labels for each perfectly crafted dessert. The cakes were all artistically designed, yet simple and appealing.

Lark carries two types of vegan cupcakes, Vegan Chocolate Orange Cupcake: Vanilla vegan yellow cake with orange pudding filing, topped with orange marmalade and chocolate ganache along with the winner of my heart that day, Boston Banana Vegan Cupcake: Banana cake filled with a slice of banana surrounded by vegan pastry cream topped with vegan white chocolate icing.
Since my heart will probably always be in Boston (yes, the grass is always greener, but I do really love a place with history and well read residents...) I opted for the Boston Banana. When it was served, I was given the delicate morsel on a little old antique plate. Another thing that is totally rad about this place is that they try to minimize their environmental footprint by using only compostable cups, boxes, utensils and straws. Extra points!

The little cake tasted like homemade banana bread, but with a softened, somewhat wet banana inside...I'll leave it at that. The icing tasted like hardened white chocolate. All-in-all very tasty cake, but I could have lived with maybe a softer frosting.

Ch'en Ch'en, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas any more...

When looking for new places to go in a new city it can become a little daunting. What area is safe? What should I order when I get there? How much? How's the traffic? Will my complexion look okay in the artificial lighting? You know, the normal worries about going to a new place. Well luckily for me, my friend Abby has a friend who was working out here and so we decided to meet up and go dig into some scrumptious brunch.

Sam (Ab's friend) is a pretty cool cat. He's been doing the whole LA thing for awhile now, and being mister outgoing, he knows his way around the city pretty well so I was leaving it up to him to decide on where to rendezvous. "Brunch at Auntie Em's? They have some really good cupcakes there..." Yeah, sold. I wasn't sure if he knew that cupcakes were my enthralling past time and that I have dedicated several hours to cupcake porn or if this place just had good cupcakes plain and simple. Either way I was excited.

After putting on my looser fitting pants, B and I headed over to Eagle Rock where this little joint resided. It seemed like a pretty fun area and an even awesomer interior, complete with plastic cherry motif table tops and handmade cake and cupcake stained glass pieces (yes, I did inquire about how I could get one of these made for me).



After ordering the ACS sandwich (Avocado, Cucumber, and Sprouts) I was ready for the goods. There were a couple of options to chose from, Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting, Chocolate with Chocolate Frosting, Coconut with Cream Cheese Frosting and rolled in Coconut, Carrot with Cream Cheese Frosting (Available in small, medium and large sizes). Now I know that to see if a cupcake joint is legit or not I should have opted for the red velvet, but I love trying the more rare little cakes. So the coconut one had a new home to go to tonight.

OH MY GOD! This was by far the best little morsel that I have ever eaten! Perfect cake to icing ratio. Wonderful coconutty taste all mixed into the white cake batter with some slightly sweetened cream cheese frosting. I am going back in the very near future.

Pure Luck...to Find Such Amazingness!

Living in LA, you have a lot of options when it comes to eating vegan. Typing into Google to see where to go, I'm able to find at least a couple dozen of places to open my wallet and expand my waistband. So where's a girl to start?! Thankfully Yelp had a listing for Pure Luck, a tiny little, well, hole in the wall, down by the Los Angeles College.
Over 350 people wrote up reviews about how delicious this place was and the the jackfruit sandwiches were a must. 350 reviews? That's impressive for a place that doesn't even have it's sign in it's entirety still in place outside.
When I went down here, I was still pretty new to the city so I was a little skeptical about the neighborhood. However, shortly after stepping foot into this veggie joint, all doubt was faded. The atmosphere was so warm and welcoming and it felt like we were just at someones lake house having a little get-together. Atmosphere can only get a place so far though, the real question is - how's the food?! (sweetbeetandgreenbean)

Brandon took the leap and got the pulled jackfruit BBQ sandwich, BBQ Jackfruit “pulled-pork” with pickles, onions and vegan mayo on a rustic roll. To add to this deliciousness, we added some fresh made lemonade and some rosemary fries.

Myself? Well, I am a sucker for pesto and so any chance to eat it and not feel guilty is such a pure pleasure for me. Tofu pesto sandwich. Grilled Tofu and fresh basil-spinach pesto on a rustic roll, with romaine and onions and vegan mayo AND sweet potato fries. Hellz yeah! This was worth the 2,200 mile drive. Guilt of finishing every bite on my plate? HA! I could have gone for round two.