sugar, sugar – Mani’s Bakery

One crappy thing about me is my allergy to cane sugar. I have developed this within the last several years. I sometimes doubt how serious it is but I get reminded in vicious ways when I ingest some and have abdominal cramps and/or my breathing gets constricted. Needless to say that I need to be cautious when I dine out and have to turn my head and act like my cup of hot tea is all that I want when people around me snack on cookies or other treats in coffee shops.

This past weekend my best friend visited from Los Angeles and brought me a stockpile of treats from Mani’s on Fairfax. There are various companies that don’t use sugar and you can buy their goods at health food stores, but the quality of treats at Mani’s is sooooooo much better! Here is an excerpt of what they do:

We bake traditional gourmet desserts using unrefined sweeteners such as fruit juice reduction and real chocolate sweetened with barley malt. All of our wheat flour is organically grown. We believe these ingredients retain more of their natural nutritional value.

I am writing about them here for two reasons. First they do custom wedding cakes. Here is an information about their pastry chef, Kristina Montaine, including her contact information. Second, they have a blog. And their blog includes selected recipes including their fruit reduction!! Take a look at this and by all means stop by if you are in the L. A. area. They have full menus for meals as well, but the treats are divine.

Yay, Dia de los Muertos topper

The top two tiers are dairy free, wheat free, and vegan.

They can customize anything. Barbie here has no refined sugar.

So what did my friend bring me on her cross-country journey? Macaroons, chocolate-dipped almond shortbread, truffles, almond roca cake, and truffle hearts. She had never been there before and does not try to avoid sugar, but she is now a Mani’s convert. She sampled everything she brought and was plotting what she would buy next time she went.