This year for the holidays I packaged the ingredients for BabyCakes chocolate chip cookies in mason jars and sent them to family and friends so they could bake them fresh at home. Everyone freaked out once they baked them and then urged me to sell them in the shop. It made the whole process so easy for them (we all know by now these ingredients aren't always the easiest to track down) and they wanted more.

So! I'd like to introduce a new player on the BabyCakes NYC menu: The Chocolate Chip Cookie Kit. It's a quick and fool-proof way to get crispy, chewy, fresh out of the oven vegan, gluten-free cookies without scooting your booty down to the bakery! And you get these cool mason jars too! Each batch makes about 40 cookies and the kit is only $26 (you save $34 on cookies alone!). I'm not going to do the hard sell on these, I think the value speaks for itself. Kits are available May 4th out of our LA location and May 7th out of New York. Yep, we'll ship them too!

I've opened up the blog to address concerns and questions about the BabyCakes Cookbook (What do you mean you don't have it!!! Get it here!)before and I thought it was a great success! Over the past year, we've tallied up the most frequently asked questions and that list plus helpful answers now lives on our website under the tab "Cookbook". If your question isn't answered there, you can twitter us your questions Monday-Friday from 10am-5pm EST, OR! email the bakery at cookbook@babycakesnyc.com. EZ!!! And for the sake of getting a speedy response to you and maintaining order, don't leave a question in the comment section below, k? No questions in the comment section? Thank youuuuuu!!

Just real quick: Kesté the beloved (albeit new) pizzeria in the West Village is now offering gluten-free, vegan pizza! Kesté usually has hour long waits even on the snowiest nights so I'm hoping it's going to be as good as the rest of the pies they serve up. I'm going to check it out after work tonight and report back!

Hey! I just want to let you all know that I've made these things called The Workout Cookie. Warning: this is not for the Ding-Dong, or Twinkie crowd. I created it to fill the low-fat high-fiber mega, mega, mega-healthy breakfast void some customers were feeling. It's the kind of thing you grab to eat on the subway on your way to work, or to munch after a bike ride. It's high-fiber, sweet and crunchy like a muffin but without all the extra fat and stuff. Now, if you know me at all you probably think I've lost my mind because I've made something low-fat. But wait. Let me explain.

Since the dawn of BabyCakes NYC, I have stood firm in my clogs against baking lowfat food. Most lowfat products are terrible, and frankly nowhere near healthy. And lowfat sounded so 80's Jane Fonda Workout style. I've always preached that fat is good for you, especially the kind I bake with and that your body needs it to be able digest fat,. I know it sounds backward but it's true. I've softened in my years, I suppose, and recently became open to the challenge to make something lowfat for those who cringe at the sight of oil. So here we are.

Now, about the cookie, right? It's made with coconut sugar (low glycemic!) gluten-free oat flour and oats, flax meal, fresh banana, and blueberries, pureed pear, and very minimal oil (they're about 3g of fat).The girls at the bakery really like them, and they are all pizza and french fry types so I think it's a good sign!

We're twittering when we have them so if you're in the neighborhood and curious, stop by!

Bye!

Hey LA! I just want to let you know that we deliver alllllll over LA now. Yes, it's true. You can just pick up the phone and get fresher than fresh BabyCakes driven straight to your doorstep. Our delivery service has different zones and charge accordingly but it's reasonable if you can swing it. Just call the bakery at 213.623.5555 and we'll take it from there.

Toodles!

I always feel bad when celiacs come into the bakery, spot the Skinny Bun (it's like a Cinnabon), then get all deflated when they see that it's not gluten-free. It breaks me heart, man! Those things are so good!

So I finally decided to make a change and began messing around with a gluten-free version of the Skinny Bun for the upcoming cookbook and after about 10 billion tries I finally got down a scrumptious cinnamon bun that is now known as the Wonder Bun. They are just as mouth friendly as the Skinny Bun and all of our Skinny Bun regulars like the Wonder Bun even better which is a major relief.

So get down here and munch, and wonder, and smile. Hooray!

So, I just got back from a brief trip to Italy last night (I know, chiiiiic!) and I'm a little discombobulated and loopy but I wanted to say hi and let everybody know that I still love them and I'm sorry for being gone and inducing nail-biting, hallway pacing, and obsessive refresh button pressing on the BabyCakes blog to see if I would show up. I know it was hard but you can all relax because I'm back and running around the bakery and fussing around like freak that I am again. Yay for all of us! Did I mention I'm sort of jet-laggy crazy right now?

Anyhow.

I won't bore you with descriptions of how good the food was but I will tell you that spending a dairy-less, wheat-less vacation in Italy was so effortless and DELICIOUS. There was even a place in Florence that offered a gluten-free menu (you can punch me in the face because I didn't take down the name but I'm sure it's google-able!) and this restaurant called Gigli in Lucca that had spelt pasta if you are not celiac or allergic to gluten. Even if you randomly walk into a restaurant it's easy to find something completely mind blowing that is vegan and gluten-free as-is and it will probably be the best thing you ever put in your mouth. I feel pretty embarrassed for not pulling together a food guide for any of you traveling to Italy but the idea is to stumble around and happen upon that perfect trattoria down a hidden side-street and eat your face off, right? So my point is (if I can figure out what my point is) is that you won't have trouble keeping on your gluten-free, vegan game while you travel in Italy. Oh! Also. Most good non-touristy places don't throw bread crumbs in stuff like many Americans do so that frees you up quite a bit! Oh, but be sure to double check with the kitchen to make sure, of course.

I embarrassingly have no pictures of beautiful rustic alleys with laundry draping out of shuttered windows or snaps of the Duomo to leave you with, but I'm sure you've all got plenty of postcards with that sort of deal hanging up somewhere or nestled in some book already, right? What I do have, are a collection of cool ice cream and pizza place signs I took along the way, so I've posted my favorite up there on the left. I mean, it's a ghost holding a pizza in one hand and a piece of pie in the other? Does it get any better than that? We are all clearly in need of a lesson in logo-making from these people.

I would say "talk to you soon!" in Italian to close this post here but that would be pretty annoying, right?

Bye for now!

This new cookbook I'm working on is now making me candy crazy. Don't get it twisted: I still have the fever for the donuts. But! I'm branching out to candy now too. These lil guys are just like Mounds and available in-store on special days (follow us on twitter to find out when) or you can special order them!

Also on my to-do list is peppermint patties, caramel chews, and rocky road! What's on your wish list? Hit me while I'm in the inspiration tunnel. I'm serious guys. I have the attention span of a gold fish these days!

You know I'm working on my next cookbook, BabyCakes Covers the Classics, right? Of course you do!

Anyhow, I'm including a few savory recipes in this one because that's what many of you have been clawing at me for (maybe a little hyperbolic to say, but I'm fun like that). So with a little bit of grumbling and a lot of hair pulling, I've tested and retested my way to the holy goldmine of crepedom. I locked myself in my apartment all day to focus on the crepe recipe and after many tries it finally came together! All I did was put in a little bit (BLEEEP) and added extra (BLEEP) and then accidentally (BLEEPED) which made the most delicious, delicate, buttery rich gluten-free, vegan, soy-free savory cheese crepes I've had since my last crepe in '97. Sorry about the bleeps, you're just going to have to wait for the cookbook!

In the meantime, enjoy the photos! Next quest: The Pizzette! Oh, dear. I've got work to do...

Well, here I am all of a sudden under the 75 degree Los Angeles sun. Lots of miles away from the snowy, slushy, slippery streets in New York. I am warm, but I am also hungry. My last trip here was full of homemade meals on the fly but this time I've decided to eat my way through LA. I'm swearing off homemade meals and exploring what This Town (I'm told I should refer to LA as "This Town") has to offer.

So what's for lunch? Does anyone out there have a favorite restaurant in LA that I should check out? What should I order? What do you like? How do I get there? Will they accept cookies instead of cash? I want to be in the know!

Oh, and can you hurry please? I only have 2 brownies in my purse and I'm reaching for them right now!

Inspiring. Chic. Creative. Tie a ribbon, make a bow. It's your night to shine...

Hey! Hi guys! Have you seen our new neon sign outside our LA shop? Here's a picture of it being installed. I love the hearts, they make us all so happy! We are so pumped about our new late-night hours in LA, did any of you take advantage of them? If so, how was it?

Today our New York store is getting a much needed facelift (feeling a little competitive with the younger, fresher LA shop?) so if you follow us on Twitter or Facebook you've been aware that we are closed for repair today. The floors are getting polished, we're applying a fresh coat of paint and doing some extra-loving scrubbing. Can't wait to unveil it!

Oh! Also. Valentine's Day is coming up and we're going to be offering heart shaped sugar cookies with inscriptions and big heart shaped chocolate chip cookie cakes with frosting piped around the edges. Order today and get one with a personal inscription!

Ok--I gotta get back to business. Hope to see you guys soon!!!