PETA Names the Top 10 Vegan Sweet Treats for Valentine’s Day
Perfect for Valentine’s Day—or any other day—PETA’s cooked up a sinfully sweet list of the Top 10 Vegan Sweet Treats in the U.S. What makes these tempting desserts even sweeter is knowing that they’re also kind to animals. Following a nationwide taste-testing extravaganza, we’ve pinpointed the perfect places to find desserts that are both out of this world and completely free of animal-derived ingredients. Check out the winners now:
Coconut Cake
Sublime Restaurant & Bar—Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Last year, we went nuts for Sublime’s Chocolate Nirvana cake. In 2018, we can’t get enough of this white cake with coconut butter crème and almond tuile, which took home the title of Best Vegan Sweet Treat.
Connolo
Plant—Asheville, North Carolina
Plant—one of PETA’s top six vegan fine-dining restaurants in the country—is run by head chef and owner Jason Sellers. All its offerings take sweet-toothin’ to another level, but we’re totally smitten by the cannolo, which comes wrapped in a handmade anise shell with candied orange ricotta, a chocolate puddle, and chocolate-cardamom ice cream.
tSoynami
Nami—Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix’s Nami blends its delicious tSoft tServe ice cream (either rich vanilla or chocolate) with a selection of vegan toppings to create tSoynami desserts. If you’re too dazzled by the choices to create your own masterpiece, you can pick one of its existing 18 flavor combinations.
Pop Tarts
Morels Cafe—Louisville, Kentucky
Morels has a few different pop-tart flavors, which vary based on the availability of ingredients. Some varieties on offer include strawberry, blueberry, brown sugar and cinnamon, PB&J, and, for a clever twist, green tomato. If you stop by on Valentine’s Day, we’ve heard rumors that there’ll be heart-shaped vegan pop tarts in an array of pinks and reds.
Divine Kingdom Chocolate Box
Divine Treasures—West Manchester, Connecticut
The Divine Kingdom box from Divine Treasures features six cute animal-shaped organic chocolates, made with locally sourced ingredients. Take note if you’re shopping online: All Divine Treasures products are vegan and gluten-free, and the company makes vegan chocolates in all sorts of shapes, in addition to making nondairy cheeses. If you visit the store in person, grab some vegan soft-serve ice cream, too.
Chocolate Truffle Pie
Venerable Bean Bakery—Morgantown, West Virginia
Snuggled inside the Mountain People’s Co-Op, the grab-and-go Venerable Bean Bakery specializes in vegan versions of classic treats—and if you’re local, you shouldn’t miss the special tasting dinners it features. While the Chocolate Truffle Pie is hugely popular, the bakery also features other delicious specialties—including truffles—which are seasonal and available only for a limited time.
Cobbler
Detroit Vegan Soul—Detroit, Michigan
Both locations of Detroit Vegan Soul serve a rotating array of super-tasty, assorted desserts, including cakes, cobblers (which sometimes come with coconut vegan ice cream), and cookies. The cobbler pictured below is peach.
Scones
Mud Pie Vegan Bakery & Coffee—Kansas City, Missouri
Mud Pie has two locations: one in Kansas City, Missouri, and another nearby in Overland Park, Kansas. Both stores serve fresh-baked scones daily—usually, two sweet flavors and one savory, although they vary from day to day. The company will have some very special vegan cupcakes and Bundt cakes for Valentine’s Day.
Cinnamon Rolls
NuVegan Café—Washington, D.C.
In addition to these delicious cinnamon rolls, this café—where Beyoncé and Jay-Z savored Washington’s famous vegan fried chicken—offers a variety of smoothies and shakes made with soy, rice, almond, or hemp milks in nearly 20 different flavors, including Tropical Delight, Raspberry Cream, and Piña Colada.
Cookies
Timeless Coffee—Oakland, California
All of Timeless Coffee’s baked goods are vegan. The shop has plenty of Valentine’s Day specials, in addition to these stunning cookies, so don’t miss them. There’s also a new Berkeley location.
Show Animals Your Kind Heart
Not only are vegan desserts free of saturated animal fat and cholesterol, they also spare animals immense suffering: In the dairy industry, calves are torn away from their loving mothers shortly after birth, and in the egg industry, parts of hens’ beaks are cut off with a hot blade when they’re just a few days old. Going vegan—and encouraging others to do the same—is a compassionate decision that anyone can make to help animals.
Even if you don’t live near any of the restaurants featured on this list, you can turn your own kitchen into an amazing vegan eatery—and we can help you do it. You can browse free vegan Valentine’s Day dessert recipes from PETA Living and check out a selection of sweet gifts from the PETA Catalog. You can find everything that you’ll need to go vegan right here on our site.
Where are your favorite places to grab vegan desserts? Share this post with your friends, family, and social media followers, and be sure to tag your favorite local vegan dessert shop to spread the word.