I’m adding another vegan cookie to the mix! This time… vegan AND gluten-free!

Babycakes has its origin in NYC and has since opened up a shop in downtown LA. All of their products are vegan and most are gluten-free! Their non-gluten-free products use spelt flour, which I know has been the topic of some gluten vs. non-gluten debates, but they list spelt under their non-gluten-free products, so good for them for naming it that way. (I guess you can tell which side of the argument I stand on.) I have tried their cupcakes and cookies. Their cupcakes are delicious, but the review on that needs to go on another blog. Supposedly, their donuts are phenomenal as well!

The bakery isn’t in the middle of downtown; rather, it’s kind of on one edge of downtown. But as long as you’re on this side of Los Angeles street, you’re fine. The bakery is small but they made do with what space they had. Baked goods line up and stack up in display cases taller than me to your left, a few tables and chairs are on your right, and the cash register sits at the end of the walkway.

A co-worker of mine told me that Babycakes’ cookies were some of the best cookies he’s had, vegan and gluten-free or not. Well, I told him, I’ll be the judge of that. I walked in and immediately ordered a chocolate chip cookie, eyes widened and appetite whetted by the thought of eating every single donut, pastry, cookie, loaf of bread, cupcake, muffin, brownie, and whatever else they had in the entire store. I’ll bet even the paint and tile in this place are vegan and gluten-free.

The cookie smelled delicious:

but was the thinnest cookie ever:

The flatness of the cookie was a definite turn-off. How could a cookie this flat possibly be good? In cookies you look for that moist, soft & fluffy, light-as-a-cloud center with pockets of air in between the structural integrity that is individual crumbs. I didn’t have faith. I was a non-believer. But dude, I paid for this cookie, and hell will freeze over if I don’t eat something I paid for.

Have you ever had one of those moments where your brain turned upside down? Or you got slapped in the face? Or an internal volcano dispelled lava of disbelief all over your body? Metaphorically speaking, at least? A moment where you realize you were dead wrong, that you asserted yourself so unkindly,  and are so embarrassed to admit it except on your cookie blog? Well, that’s me right now.

This cookie was crispy on the outside, soft & moist on the inside — baked exactly right. I almost got over how flat the cookie is real fast. There are enough chocolate chips in there, but a few more wouldn’t hurt. Out of all the vegan cookies I’ve eaten, this tastes the closest to a regular cookie, which isn’t that big of a deal, but I know eating vegan AND gluten-free is scary to some people. If everyone could have this cookie as an introduction to this alternative less-cruelty eating style I think people would be more open to trying new things.

• Taste: Delicious + the smell was super enticing. 10
• Crust and center moistness: crispy crust, soft interior. if it were not as flat it would be better. 9
• Value: $1.50 for a cookie that’s vegan and gluten-free AND TASTES GREAT!! 10
• Overall: My first choice for a cookie now. 10

Babycakes NYC
130 East 6th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90014
(213)623-5555

Hours of Operation
Monday: 10am-8pm
Tuesday-Wednesday: 10am-10pm
Thursday-Saturday: 10am-11pm
Sunday: 10am-8pm

Heyo! So you saw my review of Jamaica’s Cakes chocolate chunk cookie (vegan). Now for her non-vegan cookie!

As you can tell from the picture, it’s quite a large cookie. This is going to be a short post because unfortunately there’s not much to write. It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Just the right type of moistisosity (that is TOTALLY a word). Average amount of chocolate chips. Soft, but not too soft. Mm, I’d come back because she has a lot of other goodies, but the cookies aren’t much to write home about.

• Taste: I actually prefer the vegan cookie over this one. 6
• Crust and center moistness: Just right. 8
• Value: $1.50, I believe, for a large cookie. Quite pricey for a cookie, but then again it *is* West LA. 7
• Overall: Pass. 7

Jamaica’s Cakes
11511 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90064
310.478.1971

I would not normally eat the Mrs. Field’s cookies, but I was craving a sweet one day and these were in the kitchen, so I caved! I took the red box of 8 individually wrapped cookies and grabbed one of these:

I’m not at all new to the world of Mrs. Field’s. And if my tone didn’t show it already, but I’m not a huge fan of these cookies. It’s hard to explain why: they are delicious. Even if they are baked 6 months ago and thrown on the supermarket shelves to sit and wait for me to eat them, they are still soft, moist, and chewy. They are so tasty, so buttery. The cookies have a genuine homemade bumpiness on top and are not flat like other mass-manufactured cookies. The chocolate chips retain that highly sought-after gooeynessthat you don’t experience just anywhere. Speaking of chocolate chips, they are not lacking in that category:

So, why do I dislike them? Because they have like 300 calories each. And it’s not because they are huge. I mean, they aren’t small either, but they do have more calories for their size than average. Upon closer inspection I also found out that they contain hydrogenated oils / margarine and high fructose corn syrup. I realize I’m not eating cookies for health reasons, but even I still have standards!

All in all, I would eat this cookie RARELY when I am DESPERATE. I like to keep my hydrogenated oils and HFCSs at a minimum, so eating this wouldn’t be horrible on occasion.

If you want to see my last review on Mrs. Field’s, read about her chocolate chip cookie cupcakes.

• Taste: Delicious. 10
• Crust and center moistness: The wrapper keeps these cookies VERY moist. 10
• Value: $3.99 for a box of 8. $0.50 ea. great deal! 10
• Overall: High calories, hydrogenated oils, and high fructose corn syrup make me not want to eat it. But I suppose that’s why these are so tasty. 7 for me, but a must-buy for those who don’t care. Can’t lose with Mrs. Field’s!

YAY ANOTHER REVIEW!!! …2 months later…

I have an awesome e-mail pal, Jamaica. When I was looking into going to baking, I e-mailed a bunch of people and she was BY FAR the MOST helpful and gave me the MOST insight and most insight out of all the tens of people I contacted. Ashamedly, I took this long to review a cookie of hers!!

I grabbed the LAST vegan chocolate chip cookie (non-vegan to be reviewed in a couple of weeks!). It was wrapped up in plastic wrap and let me tell you: when I unwrapped this cookie the smell was SO inviting. I’ll be honest — I bought this one day and ate it the next, and the strong smell of freshly baked cookie was still there! The smell was comparable to a cookie I baked in the oven myself. First impression was looking GREAT.

Oh, minus the one thing that made me hesitant; it was a pretty flat cookie:

I got over it really quickly, though, thanks to the smell and taste. This cookie was delicious. There was something “different” about the taste of this cookie that I could not put my finger on, though. It was evident in the first few bites but I suppose I got used to it after that. Other than that one different taste, this cookie tasted like any other cookie! And I cannot get over the texture: it was super moist and very soft. This is a blurry picture, but it shows the middle of the cookie + the chocolate chunk distribution:

…okay, not a great picture of the texture, but you can make out some of the round pieces that make up the entire cookie, rather than cookie crumbs that stick together and make the cookie tough and hard. This piece is a section of the cookie that had a LOT of chocolate chunks in it, but as you can see the chunks are layered, so you’re sure to get at least a couple of pieces of chocolate in every bite.

• Taste: Loved it, and despite that odd flavor, I would still give this a 9
• Crust and center moistness: VERY moist, even the next day. 10
• Value: $1.75 for a large cookie. Quite pricey for a cookie, but it is vegan, and in West LA. 7
• Overall: Definitely a must-try. 9!!

Jamaica’s Cakes
11511 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90064
310.478.1971

My first post in my months-long hiatus will be about cookies from my boyfriend!

The boyfriend went to Eagle Rock Italian Bakery and grabbed a bunch of cookies for me

It was an entire box FULL of cookies. That I took a picture of in poor lighting, because of course, I knew I had to take pictures before they were all eaten. Here are pictures of a select few:

These chocolate chip cookies were thick!!

My favorite one was the heart with red sprinkles!!

This sandwich was a second favorite!

This sesame seed one was okay. Not my favorite..

The chocolate chip cookies were very buttery, and quite dense. The rest of the cookies were more or less sugar cookies with a hint of sweetness that let the filling (or sprinkles) take over. As you can tell from the pictures, they are nice and bite-sized, so you don’t have to feel so bad about eating four at once! On the down side, they are quite crumbly and on the dry side, but you should be okay if you eat outside Oh, another cool thing about this place is that they sell these cookies by the weight, about $1.10 / lb if Armando can recall correctly.

• Taste: Fulfills that sweetness craving, and the chocolate sandwich one had a lot of flavor! 7
• Crust and center moistness: it depends on what you get, but most of the cookies were more on the crumbly side.
• Value: $1.10/lb, good deal!
• Overall: Would have the boyfriend buy me again. 8!

Ok, I can’t figure out how to embed this specific video, but you HAVE to watch this video! It’s a clip from Robot Chicken on Adult Swim: The Cookie Monster finally makes his way through to the Keebler Elves’ cookie making base. It’s hilarious!!!

http://eater.com/archives/2011/02/14/cookie-monster-vs-the-keebler-elves-on-robot-chicken.php