The ladies behind Urban Food Crawl, a weekly vegan food tour of downtown L.A., are back with another vegan-friendly event called “Cupcake + Art“, a vegan cupcake competition where you get to be the judge. The event plans to feature ten bakers from the Los Angeles area competing for the title of the best vegan cupcake around town. The participating bakers include Food Network's Cupcake Wars' Kim Aeck and Kim Thurman of Bake You Happy, Clara Polito of Clara's Cakes, and more. We have details from organizer Jen Bardekoff, and a definition of what makes a 'vegan' dish vegan from the Internet's most infamous vegan blogger.
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What qualifies as vegan?
[quote]So, what makes a cupcake vegan? A while back we consulted the Internet's most infamous vegan blogger, Quarrygirl, on what makes a food dish vegan. Her answers were that they should have no animal products, including: meat dairy, eggs or honey, in the ingredients. “This means if it's a pizza, the crust should be vegan. If it's a sandwich, the bread is vegan and nothing is brushed with butter. I specify 'in the ingredients' because sugar can be made using animals, yet the product contains no animals. This is a whole different subject, but suffice to say, as long as every component of the dish is free of animal ingredients … I'm cool,” she explains.
On to the cupcake and art
As a devoted cupcake eater, Jen thought it would be fun to create an event centered on profiling talented bakers around L.A with cupcake-themed art. Not only that, the proceeds from the art sales will go to the charity of the winning baker's choice.
For the bakers, the organizers took preliminary actions to pick the ones they believe make “delicious artisanal cupcakes using very high-quality ingredients,” and “addictive frosting.” She explains that the fun aspect about vegan baking is figuring out how to make substitutions.
She expects event goers to have “lots. of. cupcakes.” Each baker can present up to three cupcakes for attendees to vote on. Jen encourages attendees to bring to-go boxes just in case. Beer and wine will be available for purchase.
The ten participating bakers:
Amanda’s Bakery and Café
Bake You Happy
Clara’s Cakes
Courtesan Cupcakes
Crushcakes & Café
Jamaica’s Cakes
No Udder Desserts
Peace Treatz
Scootabaker
Sweet Alexis Bakery