With the holidays around the corner, don't miss out on the region's locally made sweets. Vegg’d Out Vegan Kitchen and Uhuru Pies are two businesses that have started filling orders for customers looking to secure their favorite desserts in advance.
Tampa's Vegg’d Out Vegan Kitchen specializes in organic and vegan goodies, and after a successful turnout during last month's Vegan Dessert Fest, the company launched its holiday ordering program. Raw sweet kale "cheesekake," maple pecan doughnuts and gluten-free pumpkin and chocolate chip "cupkakez" are just some of the desserts on the menu (there's more than 20).
Customers, who should email cleanereatin@gmail.com for an order form, need to submit their requests via email by Nov. 13 for Thanksgiving, Dec. 11 for Christmas and Dec. 18 for New Year's Day. Once Vegg'd Out responds with an invoice, orders — which have a $50 minimum — may be prepaid with a debit or credit card and delivery will be arranged.
Keeping pace with the holiday tradition of Uhuru Pies in St. Petersburg, volunteers will bake and distribute hundreds of pies in flavors like apple crumb, chocolate pecan, sweet potato and pumpkin. The sweets, whose sales benefit Black Star Industries' independent black economic development programs, are available in 9- and 6-inch sizes, and a couple can be made gluten-free.
When pies start rolling out of the oven, patrons, who place orders online, may pick them up at designated Pinellas area locations from Nov. 14 to 25 or Dec. 18 to 24. Orders with 10 or more items have the option of free delivery.
This article appears in Nov 5-11, 2015.