SusieCakes Dairy-Free Fruit Crumble Bar

I’ve blogged about SusieCakes before, extolling their delicious cupcakes. But cake isn’t the only thing they do well. We recently ordered a pumpkin pie and an apple crumble pie for Thanksgiving, and both were amazing — especially the latter, whose crumb topping was the best I’ve ever tasted.

Alas, those pies weren’t dairy-free, but their Fruit Crumble Bar is. It’s made without dairy or eggs — a feat that you will realize is quite impressive when you taste it. This treat is less decadent than cake or pie. It’s not too sweet, and it even makes a nice breakfast pastry, as the berry filling is kind of jam-like.

SusieCakes is now my favorite bakery in Los Angeles, surpassing Big Sugar in Studio City, whose cupcakes have been stale too many times on my recent visits. Hopefully, SusieCakes will add more dairy-free and vegan items to their menu.

Here’s a tip: Sign up for the SusieCakes rewards program, and you’ll get a free slice of cake on your birthday!

SUSIECAKES, 11708 San Vicente Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90049

A NOTE TO MY READERS: Due to the busy-ness of the season, I will be taking a break from blogging until January 2020. Happy holidays, and I’ll see you in the new year!

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Follow Your Heart Vegan Caesar Salad Dressing

What are the hallmarks of a Caesar salad? It should be thoroughly coated in grated Parmesan cheese; it should be garlicky and lemony; and it should have a salty, fishy bite from anchovies mixed into the dressing (and also laid atop the salad). Without these elements, can a salad really be considered a Caesar?

Follow Your Heart makes a vegan Caesar salad dressing that lacks all of these elements, and not just the non-vegan ones. The website describes this product as “creamy, thick, and rich with garlic and pepper notes.” This is just patently false. Straight from the bottle, this dressing is pitifully thin and struggles to coat the lettuce. I don’t taste garlic at all.

I managed to salvage the dressing somewhat by mixing in some freshly squeezed lemon juice, minced garlic, a dash of Worcestershire sauce, and lots of ground black pepper. I garnished it with a few anchovies, but if you don’t eat fish, you can leave them out.

With these modifications, you can create a decent dairy-free Caesar salad. But the whole point of buying dressing in a bottle is so you don’t have to spend a lot of time whipping up your own. With that in mind, this dressing from Follow Your Heart isn’t worth it.