The 6th annual totally fabulous vegan bake-off went off without a hitch! I for sure thought someone would have passed out in a sugar coma. There were 60 bakers this year including one of the youngest to ever enter the bake-off. I had the honour of being a judge alongside chef and entrepreneur Doug McNish and city councillor Mike Layton. We had the very hard task (not really) of crowning best presentation, best amateur baker, and best professional baker. Which means I got to eat a total of 16 vegan treats to decide on the absolute best!
The big stand outs came from the pro side and a big congrats to Jennifer Bundock from apiecalypse now! vegan bakery and Amanda Somerville from through being cool vegan baking co. who crafted the top 3 entries. These are the 2 newest vegan bakers in Toronto so it was nice to see them up there together. Their baking skills are certainly top notch so it made it especially hard to pick the best treat. Jennifer had 2 entries this year and both were in the finals, so that's got to tell you something. Her delicious nanaimo bars and sticky buns were totally worthy, but in the end we decided Amanda's pizza buns deserved the crowning achievement. They're just so addictive! Now that you're drooling, what are you waiting for? Hurry up and go check out these amazing Toronto bakeries and stock up!
Lauren Toyota
Lauren is a plant-based powerhouse, a former TV host turned wildly successful food creator, best-selling cookbook author, and the woman responsible for making vegan comfort food a thing worth craving. Through her blog and YouTube channel, hot for food, she’s amassed a dedicated following by recreating all the nostalgic, indulgent dishes we love—mac & cheese, burgers, cinnamon rolls—but making them entirely plant-based. No compromise on taste, no weird ingredients, just damn good food.