These Bakeries Earned Brownie Points for the Top Valentine’s Day Sweets
After much deliberation (and sweet-tooth satisfying), we’ve compiled this list of delicious desserts to celebrate a vegan Valentine’s Day—and all these irresistible treats are made without hurting animals. A mother cow’s milk is meant for her baby, and almost every egg labeled “free-range” comes—quite shockingly—from hens who are kept in cramped conditions and eventually slaughtered. Show your love for animals by making your sweet treat a vegan one.
Here are PETA’s 2021 picks for the best vegan Valentine’s Day desserts:
Tiramisu Cheesecake—Planty Sweet, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Planty Sweet is Albuquerque’s first 100% vegan and gluten-free dessert shop, specializing in gorgeous and colorful cakes, cheesecakes, pastries, and custom orders. Pickup orders can be placed on its website, or you can find these goodies at various farmer’s markets. This tiramisu cheesecake is decadent, creamy, and, frankly, perfect.
Peanut Butter Pie—Sea Salt & Cinnamon, Various Locations in Indiana
Everything at Sea Salt & Cinnamon is vegan and delicious, but we’re recognizing this bakery for its rich Peanut Butter Pie, which features a whipped peanut butter filling, honey-free graham cracker crust, and a drizzle of chocolate. Sea Salt & Cinnamon delivers goodies around Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, and Muncie, Indiana.
Chocolate Bundt Cake—Quincy Bake Shop, Oklahoma City
Chef and owner Trisha O’Donoghue studied at The French Pastry School in Chicago and brought her skills back to her hometown with the Quincy Bake Shop. The shop offers a few vegan baked treats, including a daily gluten-free scone and this super-moist personal-size chocolate Bundt Cake topped with a delicate ganache.
Floral Cupcakes—The Littlest Bake Shop, Kansas City, Missouri
The Littlest Bake Shop is Kansas City’s first all-vegan and gluten-free bakery. It has a seasonal menu that features treats like these Floral Cupcakes with almond and rose frosting and matcha leaves. Order ahead for pickup, and you can add a warm beverage, too.
Cinnamon Rolls—Dulce Vegan Bakery & Café, Atlanta
Dulce Vegan Bakery & Café offers organic vegan sandwiches, coffee, and baked goods to the Atlanta area. Its cinnamon rolls are soft and fluffy with a decadent icing that we consider one of the best ever. They’re available for pickup on weekdays, or you can order a box of four online on Sundays. Oh, and why not add a Unicorn Latte; a vegan sausage, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich; or something else from the menu.
Vegan Vanilla Cappuccino Cupcake—Little Owl Café, Fairbanks, Alaska
Little Owl Café’s Vegan Vanilla Cappuccino Cupcakes are topped with a fluffy vanilla and coffee frosting and a light dusting of cinnamon. The café also offers vegan oatmeal cream pie cookies, German chocolate cupcakes, and lemon-lavender mini Bundt cakes. You can also grab some lunch with your sweet treats, like the Very Veggie Sandwich.
Raspberry-Filled Donut Dipped in Chocolate—Izzi B’s Allergen-Free Bakery, Norwalk, Connecticut
Izzi B’s Allergen-Free Bakery makes scrumptious organic, vegan, and celiac-friendly treats, including this unique raspberry-filled doughnut dipped in chocolate. You can order online for local pickup or choose the nationwide shipping option.
While some of these desserts will only be around for the Valentine’s holiday, all these small businesses have tasty vegan treats that will make you smile year-round.
Business hours and availability may vary because of COVID-19, so be sure to double-check with each business and order online for safe, socially distanced pickup.
You can support local businesses, prevent future pandemics, and fight cruelty to animals by choosing vegan desserts instead of those made with dairy and eggs stolen from cows and chickens. Cows, chickens, and all other animals are loving, emotionally complex individuals just like us. They care deeply for their families and communities, and we owe it to them to end our speciesism and give them the respect and dignity that they deserve.
If you want to celebrate a vegan Valentine’s Day but don’t live near any of these winners, you can find vegan bakeries that will ship treats right to your doorstep. Or find a recipe to help you make your own right at home:
