Vegan Bakery Needs No Real Casein to Rock

As if to prove a point that LES vegan bakery Babycakes is both a little bit rock and roll and a little bit frosting, chef/owner Erin McKenna and team Babycakes have released a high-def trailer for their upcoming cookbook, wherein the shop becomes a de facto, Joan Jettified site of a girl power and gluten-free frolic. Badass. The four-year-old spot is not only kosher vegan, but most of its recipes substitute agave for refined sugar and are (of course) gluten-free. Coconut oil is used in placed of butter, and Jason Schwartzman apparently approves, as do others. Babycakes the book is blurbed by Natalie Portman and Zooey Deschanel; its foreword was written by none other than Tom Colicchio. Babycakes also supplied the starch-modified blueberry pie eaten by Norah Jones in Wong Kar Wai’s little-seen My Blueberry Nights (recipe here). The Telegraph has an interview and more recipes from McKenna, and includes this nugget about the shop’s sugar-dairy-frosting: “Some people just come in for a $1.50 frosting shot that they can knock back like a tequila, or a 12oz take-out tub to devour at home.” Babycakes will be published May 5; Babycakes' Twitter, for fresh-baked updates, here.