TASTE TEST: LifeThyme Bakery Funny Bones

LifeThyme Bakery Funny Bone cake

RATING:YYYY(4 out of 5 hearts!)

LifeThyme is a supermarket/health food store located in the west village in New York City. They have a buffet with many vegan & raw options as well as a bakery with many tasty vegan selections such as peanut butter banana cookies and vegan funny bones!

Funny Bones is a snack cake put out by drake's which consists of a peanut butter cream filled devil's food cake with a hard chocolate outer shell.

I've never seen this done vegan so I was really excited to try. Oh manna, this thing was huge! I couldn't finish it in one sitting. The outer shell was amazing. It reminded me of the chocolate shell on Hagen Daaz ice cream bars from my pre-vegan days. It was very sugary and I loved the peanut halves incorporated into this crust. The peanut butter cream blew my mind. It was also very sweet and oh so smooth and creamy. The only thing that kind of put me off was that the devil's food cake was a little dry. I found myself eating all the peanut butter cream and the outer shell then I was left with a bunch of dry devil's food cake. Oops, my bad.

Overall, this is definitely something I would get a BFF if she called me up crying. It's quite an indulgent treat, but a tasty one at that.

TASTE TEST: Foodswings 'Funfetti cake" and Bella Vegan Shake

"Funfetti Cake" at Food Swings

"FUNFETTI" CAKE RATING:YY (2 out of 5 hearts!)

BELLA VEGAN SHAKE RATING:YYY (3 out of 5 hearts!)

Foodswings is a cute “fast-food” style vegan joint in Williamsburg BK. It used to be owned by fellow Staten-Islanders Freedom & Lee Poerio-Tripodi but a few months back he sold it to the owners of the metal/grind-core bar Lucky 13 (which has vegan White Russians!). I haven’t been in since but I figured I should check it out to see if the dessert options have changed. With the previous owners they had an amazing selection of shakes, a nice vegan candy/ice cream selection and whoopee pies/brownies/cakes supplied by Vegan Treats . I would mainly go for their shakes which were always out of this world. The Bella Vegan was my favorite – vanilla ice cream, cookies and peanut butter.

When I walked in I noticed it from a mile away.... a vegan funfetti cake? WHAT YES! Totally my favorite cake ever and I've never seen it vegan. Man when I was 15 I would bake one funfetti cake a week. Haven't had that in forever!! It looked amazing in the case.

But alas, it wasn't good. Very dry and boring. No flavor what-so-ever. The frosting was pretty rad, sweet and well-whipped. Disappointing altogether though.

Anyway, despite the management change the laundry list of awesome shakes is still available so I had the bella vegan and it was terrific. Lots of peanut butter, super thick and yummy. I would not be opposed to going there only for shakes all the time.

So overall, shake good, cake not so much but I'm hoping that it's because it was stale and old. Which still, shouldn't be sold to customers in that fashion but whatever. I'll try it on a different day of the week and report back.

What do you think of the new FoodSwings? Have you been? What's your favorite shake?

TASTE TEST: Happy Buddha Cakes

Happy Buddha Tofu-Cheesecake & Decadent Chocolate Cake

RATING:Y(1 out of 5 hearts!)
Um. I never go to Queens. I was there this past Saturday and got to check out Happy Buddha Vegetarian, which is a vegetarian chinese restaurant chock full of mock meats and dim sum dishes.

I noticed the vegan desserts menu consistent of a "decadent chocolate cake" and a "cheesecake" so I decided to try both.

Both were pretty disappointing. They must have been kept in a freezer because they were both hard as rocks and cold when they arrived on our table. The cheesecake was more edible than the chocolate cake because it actually did have a nice cheesecake flavor. I think if it wasn't frozen, it might have tasted pretty good. Most tofu cheesecakes taste just like plain tofu to me, which is gross, but this definitely had that cheesecake edge going on.

Unfortunately, there's not much positive to say about the decadent chocolate cake. It was spongy with absolutely no flavor. There was no frosting/ganache/sauce... nothing, just spongy boring frozen hard cake. At some point while trying to cut a piece my fork went flying... sigh.

I wanted so hard to like these but they really missed the mark.

Have any of you had the desserts at Happy Buddha? Any other great spots in Queens? Post in the comments!

TASTE TEST: Amy's Organic Cakes (Chocolate)

RATING:YY(2 out of 5 hearts!)

Amy's Organic has released a new line of frozen cakes. There are only two flavors, chocolate & orange. Since I'm a sweet freak, I got the chocolate.

Ok so I took it out of my freezer and read the directions - it said to defrost for 2.5 hours! I was like.. what I want cake now!!!!!!!!!!! Then I put it in the fridge. Then I forgot about it. Now its two days later and I take it out of the fridge. So it says on the box that if desired it can be heated up in the microwave but it does not indicate for how long. I gave 30 seconds a shot and it came out smoking.

It looks super thick and rich so I was nervous it would be dry & heavy. When I took my first bite I was pleasantly surprised. It was very moist and light. It had a great chocolate taste that wasn't too overwhelming. Did I go back for seconds? Yes, come on look at that tiny slice I cut myself! It was not as moist & yummy un-heated but I still wolfed it down.

What I really liked was how its loaf style. It's a great serving size, I don't feel weird buying it like I would if I bought an entire peanut butter bomb cake or something. It's like a cute little loaf of chocolate cake.

Have any of you tried this or the Orange cake? Posts thoughts in comments!!