Mister (VERY) Nice Guy's

I have a new man in my life. He is sweet, vegan, cares for animals, donates to animal welfare organisations, supports fair-trade where possible and is delicious. Wait, you know I'm talking about cupcakes right?

Mister Nice Guy's cupcakes have been hovering around my periphery for a long time- there is a stall at the Prahran Market (where I work sometimes) and they are sold in a bunch of cafes around Melbourne. There is a full listing on their super cute and very informative website (don't you just hate a website without much info? This one has pictures, descriptions, back story, the lot). But I had not tried them until recently for two (good?) reasons: cupcakes are rarely as good as they look (plus "vegan cupcakes? cupcakes need eggs and butter right?") and so far I had been able to talk myself out of the calories.

On World Animal Day (see here) they participated in the Edgar's Mission Vegan bakesale which is terribly worthy, so to support Edgar's Mission I tried a cupcake- Tiramisu. A-MA-ZING. Fortunately (or unfortunately for the willpower) their store is pretty close by.

A few weeks later I popped in to the Ascot Vale Bakehouse to pick up some vegan cakey goodness. The shop/cafe is super cute, with tables out front and a number of well-spaced tables inside, it would be a lovely place to catch up with friends.

In addition to everything being vegan, they cater for a variety of food intolerances and preferences. There is a huge range of gluten-free goodies (comprising 1/3-1/2 of the products they have on sale each day), some raw, sugar-free treats and they have just introduced fructose-free mini pies (pecan) and soy-free, sugar-free mini-pies (very keen to try the American-style pumpkin pie). There are savoury options for lunch too. If you 'Like' them on Facebook you can get a list of what they have in store each day on your newsfeed. If I ever see Tiramisu cupcakes listed I am calling in sick to work.

So, here is was the stash:

Raw Strawberry Shortcake, Strawberry Daquiri cupcake and the mini-cupcakes are from left to right: Red velvet, Count Chocula, Betty White (cause I just love the lady)

And a Strawberry Cheezecake


I am trying to study for an exam at the moment and finding it all a bit challenging so the Raw Strawberry Shortcake was my afternoon treat.

As far as I am concerned this is pure wizardry. It's a raw cake so it is make with nuts and dates and fruit and some coconut products. No sugar, no cream, no butter, no flour, nothing you would expect in a cake yet it tasted so damn cakey. And good cakey. The top was a sweet fresh strawberry icing, The middle tasted exactly like fresh-whipped cream and the bottom part was dense and fruity with a cake-like texture. Move over Honeydukes, there is a new guy in town.

If the raw cake was wizardry, the cheezecake was alchemy. Containing no actual cheese, hence the 'z', it had the texture of a baked cheesecake, the creaminess of a cheesecake and the strawberry topping was fresh and yummy without that horrible hard gelatine so many real cheesecakes have. It felt cleaner too.

The cupcakes were delicious-
Count Chocula- rich and chocolatey and tasted a bit boozy too:)
Red Velvet- as good as any red velvet I've had, nice tangy icing and fluffy cake
Betty White- rich chocolate cake, fluffy, coconutty, not too sweet icing
Strawberry Daquiri- The cake was a little drier that the minis but the flavour was gorgeous, tangy limey cake and strawberry limey icing that reminded me of the sweeties of my childhood.

A few days after this sugar-fuelled debauchery I was doing a 10.5 hour shift at the Prahran Market in the wine shop with no wine. If anything justifies cupcakey goodness this is it. This time I went a Gluten-free Apple Crumble.

They give you a little box even just for one cupcake. How good is that! Nothing worse than having your visual cupcake joy ruined by the icing getting smeared all over a paper bag

I live in a gluten-enriched world so this was a foray into the unknown.
Yes, I consider cake an adventure.
The texture was a little crumblier and chewier than regular cupcakes, a little like wholemeal flour (which of course it wasn't). I had the illusion I was being healthy (which of course I wasn't) except that the icing was sweet and fluffy and buttery (without actual butter) and crunchy. Did I mention the cake had moist cinnamony bits of apple in it too. I'm going to stop there, just typing this up makes me want to get more.

"But Your Royal Highness, the coeliacs, fructose intolerant, vegan and raw vegan people have no bread to eat"

"Let them eat cake"