Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale -- Sacramento Edition

My friend Kathy and I went to the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale -- Sacramento Edition at the Embassy Suites in Old Sacramento over the weekend. Twelve different chefs offered their amazing desserts for sale, with proceeds going to YEA (Youth Empowered Action) Camp. YEA Camp is a leadership camp to help teens learn about community service, activism, and social justice.


I thought I'd write about all the goodies that were available at the bake sale, not to make you feel badly about not attending, but to let you know where you can buy these wonderful treats on non-bake sale days.


I worked my way around the room, starting with Plant Chef, which was offering cookies, cupcakes, muffins, and truffles. I bought a gluten-free chocolate cherry muffin and a couple of ginger cardamom dark chocolate truffles. Plant Chef's Andrea is a blogger, not a professional chef, so unfortunately, you can't find her delicious baked goods in stores. You should check out her blog, though, and try out her yummy recipes yourself.

At the next table, Butterfly Vegan Bakers were selling cookie mixes and peach or blackberry crumble cups. I couldn't decide which crumble cup I wanted, so I bought one of each. Butterfly's baked goods can be ordered online. They're also available at the Davis Co-op.

Capitol Garage was offering their amazing almond Amaretto dark chocolate truffles for sale. The truffle flavors on their menu change from time to time, but they're always fabulous.

Chef Clay Purcell of Tower Bridge Bistro at the Embassy Suites outdid himself with a delicious French cherry tart on almond cookie crust and vegan pastry cream drizzled in chocolate. This isn't a regular menu item, but may be on the menu when Tower Bridge Bistro's Vegan Weekends resume soon. It was great that Chef Clay arranged for the bake sale to be held at the Embassy Suites.

Shine was the next restaurant represented at the bake sale, offering nutty crunchy bars. These scrumptious treats were made from crisped rice cereal, brown rice syrup, almond butter, pecans, almonds, cranberries, and chocolates. You can always find great vegan desserts at Shine!

At the next table, I was so excited to find vegan peanut brittle, in both regular and spicy varieties. It was made by the folks at Sweet Sugar Vegan, who will be opening a vegan coffee house on Arden Way next month. Can't wait to check it out!

Up next was Garden to Grill, with a nice assortment of cupcakes, brownies, creamies, and baking mixes. The cream filling in the mint brownie was calling to me, so that's what I took home. Garden to Grill always has a great dessert selection at their restaurant on K Street.

Dr. Bob's Donuts & DoYos brought their wonderful healthy donuts and donut mixes to the bake sale. I'm not much of a do-it-yourselfer when it comes to donuts, so I bought their handy four-pack of donuts with toppings. If you visit Dr. Bob's Roseville location, you can get vegan frozen yogurt on your donuts too -- delicious!

Sassy Oh Baking Co. was selling all kinds of great things -- pies, cookies, cookie sandwiches, muffins, and breads. By that time, my shopping bag was getting pretty full and I still had a few more tables to visit, so I had to limit myself to a couple of lemon cornmeal sugar cookies. Sassy Oh's baked goods are available on Saturdays at the Oak Park Farmers Market.

Baagan from Roseville was offering two types of vegan brownies at the bake sale, so I had to buy one of each. I knew I couldn't go wrong with either the maple pecan blondies or the salted caramel brownies, and I was right!

Melissa from Sugar Plum Vegan was there selling a nice assortment of her amazing products. She had donuts, creamies, a gorgeous cake, cookies, and a few loaves of her new gluten-free Nourish bread, which she hopes to have available in stores soon. Sugar Plum Vegan's products can be ordered online, but they can also be found at Shine, Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op, Nugget Markets, Temple Coffee and lots of other places.

Last, but definitely not least, were the incredible mini cupcakes from Pushkin's. They weren't labeled, so I'm not sure what all the flavors were, but I bought one of each and they were a huge hit at my house. Full size cupcakes are available at Pushkin's Bakery.

Those of you who follow the vegan scene in Sacramento will not be surprised to learn that the vegan bake sale was the brainchild of Bethany Davis, who founded the Sacramento Vegan Chef Challenge that takes place every October. Thanks for another great event, Bethany!