Gluten Free Blueberry Muffins

Believe it or not, these muffins are a triple threat; not only are these vegan, but they are also gluten free and sweetened with coconut sugar! Coconut Sugar is very close to brown sugar but with a hint of caramel. Coconut sugar is rich in minerals and vitamins, not highly processes and low on the glycemic index. These muffins are divine for a quick and healthy breakfast or delicious snack. Not do only taste great but they wont leave you with that unbearable guilty feeling! Nom Nom Nom

Gluten Free, Vegan, Coconut Sugar sweetened Blueberry Muffins 

 1 1/3 cups almond flour

1 cup sorghum

1/2 cup potato starch 

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum

1/2 teaspoon Vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups Coconut 

2 Tbs oil

3 Tbs Applesauce

1/2 cup warm water

1 cup blueberries

Preheat oven to 375. Mix together all dry ingredients. Add in oil & apple sauce till fully mixed then slowly add in warm water. Fold in blueberries. Put batter into paper lined muffin tins and bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool on wire rack for 5 minutes. Now....Devour! 

Almond Ginger Stir Fry

With a crazy love for Asian culture, what would be a better way to start Devour Bakery's entree recipes, then a good ol' Vegan Stir Fry. Not only is this stir fry vegan, but it is also Gluten Free and Sugar-free. So no matter if you are allergic to peanuts or gluten, or you just think eggs, dairy and meat are just plain disgusting, you are free to devour this mouth-watering stir fry! 

For Sauce

2 Tbs Fresh Ginger

1 Garlic Clove

1 Tbs Agave Nectar

1/4 cup Almond Butter (I adore Justin's!)

4 Tbs Miso

3 Tbs Oil

3 Tbs Rice Vinegar

1/4 cup water

For Stir Fry

3 Tbs Oil

1 box of Rice Stir Fry Noodles

1 cup Onion, chopped

1 bunch Bok Choy, chopped

1 Red Bell Pepper

2 Carrots, shredded

1 Cup Bean Sprouts

Cook noodles according to the package.

In a Vita-mix or food processor, process all ingredients till smooth.

Heat oil in large saute pan. Saute Onions, Red Pepper, & Carrots for about 5 minutes. Add in Bok Choy and srouts and cook till Bok Choy is soft and a bright greenish color. 

Add sauce and cooked noodles to vegetable mixture and cook another 2-3 minutes. 

Serve & Devour

The New Devour Bakery

Its 2012 and I need to better at sharing this next year. I have a very hard time sharing food, so sorry if I have ever stabbed you with a fork, or tried to bite your arm when you try and grab my luscious food off my plate. So now www.Devourbakery.blogspot.com is now going to my own collection of my favorite vegan recipes. Since being a private cook for a family, I've realized cooking is almost as fun as baking, so why not share the love, well those that I am sometimes willing to share.  Not only dessert recipes my good people, but also vegan Entrees and Appetizers. Bakery reviews arent disappearing either, so all you bakeries I haven't been able to devour, stay on your toes. So tie up your apron and start your ovens bitches, it time to get a-cookin'!

Vanilla Bake Shop

In the world of LALA land is yet another bakery, Vanilla Bake Shop. This cute little bakery is filled with tons of different mouthwatering treats such as cakes, cupcakes, icebox desserts, pies, tart cookies and more! So with more than just cupcakes, i had to devour this bakery from head to toe. Starting with a fresh fruit tart that was so refreshing and a nice break from your typical cake dessert. 

The ever so adorable Icebox desserts come in shots (like what I got) or in jars. I got a Dirt Cake shot, that  had me falling back into my childhood, when you would eat those cakes that had colorful gummy worms stuck in a schlop of crumbled oreos. The shot was the absolute perfect size as the dessert is so rich and delicious. Any bigger and your simply asking for trouble.  

Your typical chocolate, pistachio and rose flavored french macarons were another treat my bestie Steph and I could not avoid devouring. The chocolate was your typical chocolate macaron, and was almost a wet texture. The rose flavor was so faint making it have a very "blah" flavor, and I still have second thoughts on it being rose. The pistachio was a lot better than the rose, but was still just a hint of flavor, but overall had the best texture. The cookie part on the chocolate and rose was not airy enough, almost wet and sticky for my picky tastebuds.

3 mini cupcakes are next; Pumpkin, Chocolate Raspberry, and Chocolate with Choco & Vanilla frosting.   The pumpkin, was alright, it was your down right same ol' pumpkin cupcake with cream cheese frosting.  The Chocolate Raspberry was so extremely rich with a strong raspberry flavor. It was pretty darn good, but was a bit too much for me, and that was a mini!!! The Chocolate with Choco & Vanilla frosting, also was so so so so rich; I honestly dont know how people do the regular size of these cupcakes!

Next time im back in my home state, I would love to hit this bakery up again to devour even more tasty treats on their menu. (Oh, and try every single icebox dessert they offer--so bomb!!) Nom Nom Nom one love

My home towns Crushcakes

In the small tiny beach side town where I was born, now lives Crushcakes Bakery, just a quick skip and a hop from Linden Avenue in downtown Carpinteria, California. 

No pink and frilly glitter covered walls are going to be found at this bakery, and thank god, cause its about time. In the bakery/cafe, Giant wooden rugged paintings hang on black and red walls that give off a hipster, tattoo-style vibe. Since Crushcakes is so close to my house, I was able to try multiple cupcakes!

I got a red velvet cupcakes topped with sour cream frosting topped with a chocolate heart.

Next was a Cookies N' Cream cupcake that was a marble cake with a Oreo cookie buttercream.

Lastly, I tried a vegan (finally a place with a vegan cupcake!!) chocolate cake with a vanilla frosting.

All of these cupcakes tasted like your typical homemade cupcakes, nothing spectacular. They almost had a box taste to them, which really bums me out. They frostings were all so sugary as well-mirgrane maker for sure! There is nothing much else I can say besides they taste like your typical housewife made cupcakes, and to me, does that really make someone deserve their own bakery? Not so much...They did absolutely nothing for me. 

I really liked that they had vegan and gluten free options, but why do they always have to be such boring flavors!? Just because im vegan, doesnt mean I dont like fun flavors---Please stop with the lame chocolate and vanilla combos!

Whodidily Cupcakes

Whodidily Cupcakes is a small "rainbow" bakery in Montecito, California that looks as though Willy Wonka and Dr. Suess attacked it with paintbrushes and glittery sprinkles.

 A case of extravagant poofy cupcakes with obnoxious names like "Whipple Scrumptious" and "Dippity-Doo-Dah". 

Being a Santa Barbara native I was super excited to try Whodidily, that I got 3 regular cupcakes and 1 mini cupcake wrapped up in a little box to go. 

First, I got a mini, that..honestly I don't know what it was, but as much as I know it was a vanilla cake with some weird buttercream, absolutely smothered to death in chocolate chips. All I could pretty much taste were the old looking chocolate chips. 

Then I got "Snicker Snocker" that was a vanilla cake with a snicker center topped with a vanilla buttercream rolled in snicker pieces. If you are going to rip off the flavors of a crappy piece of candy, make the cake and buttercream taste like the main ingredients in the candy, don't just shove the actual candy bar in and all over it.

Next was the "Lolligagger" which is a Chocolate cake with a cookie dough center topped with a foul looking lime green buttercream, with glittery sprinkles all over it.  Besides that it looked like a Care Bear pooped it out and was so artificial looking, I was excited to have a cookie inside a cupcake! But no, the excitement only lasted one bite. The cookie dough tasted like old plastic, and the rest was so sugary I couldn't stand to have another bite. And may I add, Frosting overload?!?! Seriously! 

Lastly was the "Vanilla Dream" that was a simple vanilla/vanilla cupcake. It was nothing more than your typical, too-much-sugar, head ache causing, vanilla cupcake. 

Ordering at Whodidily was probably one of the most annoying times I have ever had in a bakery. All the cupcakes are given these weird tounge-twister names, and then you have to look at a big board and try to not get distracted with other wack names, to see what the flavor might be. Then by the time you actually eat it you have no clue what you are eating besides some brightly colored, over sugary product. 

And to make it even more confusing, if you notice, my Lolligagger cupcake is not what the description says on the wall...mine was green not pink. 

Cupcake wars or not...I was just not at all impressed, either would Mr. Wonka. 3 of us couldnt even finish half of what we got...ouch. I was rootin for ya Whodidily :( Just keepin' in real. 

Momofuku's Milk Bar

If you have to take a pick at one thing to be addicted to, I would recommend Crack...well, Crack Pie that is. The most grand and spectacular place in the US, New York City, is home to some of the most unique artists, hoity-toity housewives married to suit clad men who spend most of their time on Wall St., the most extravagant restaurants, and of course, some of the top bakeries in the country. Momofuku's Milk Bar is the only bakery that you can find cookies that taste like your local college kids compost bin (pretzels, potato chips, coffee, etc.), a pie that is honestly trademarked Crack Pie and even Franken Pie, which is 3 different pies pieced together to make one whole pie, and they even have soft serve that tastes like Cereal milk!

I am lucky enough to have been able to stuff my face at their Lower East Side location, and when one of my good friends Eric recently came to visit Colorado, he surely remembered how to make me squeal with excitement; DESSERT! 4 cookies poured out of his pocket; a Confetti, Corn, Blueberry & Cream, and Compost Cookie.

The Confetti cookie was devoured so fast I couldnt get a photo! 

All of the cookies have a sort of undercooked-ness to them, which make them melt in your mouth. The sprinkle filled Confetti cookie was probably one of the most fantastic cookies I have ever devoured; fluffy and chewy with a simple flavor that made it easy to make it disappear. The Blueberry and Cream cookie was sweet and refreshing with the hint of milky blueberries.

The Compost cookie is basically what would come about if a 7-11 had a baby with Mrs. Fields; the cookie has so many flavors happening that every bite tasted completely different than the previous. The corn cookie was the only one that didnt really knock me out of my seat, i mean think of corn bread made into a cookie and ta-da...you have the corn cookie. 

On my previous trip to NYC I tried the Crack Pie (a favorite of Anderson Cooper), which is basically a pie with a filling of butter and brown sugar. It was good, don't get me wrong, and extremely addicting, hense being called Crack, but once you have had a slice, you don't really need to eat the whole pie. With 4 locations in New York, you cannot make an excuse not to become a crack, or cookie, addict. 

I even got a Momofuku Milk Bar post card in the mail the other day, now thats the way to my heart...cookies in the mail, now only my tastebuds would be satisfied with taste of paper.