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Valerie Confections SUPER CHOC-O-FOOD

Still scrambling for holiday gifts? If you’re shopping for people who like food, or should like good food, then look no further than these L.A. options:

Valerie Confections: While Valerie Gordon is know for her toffees and cute-as-a-button petit fours, an interesting gift would be the SUPER CHOCO-O-FOOD, a huge block of milk chocolate with a hint of caramel loaded with dried pears, apricots, golden raisins, macadamia nuts, cashews, almonds, sunflower seeds and peanuts. The packaging comes from Commune Design, and each color (pink, violet, aqua) corresponds to part of a triptych image found under the label. Valerie now also has teas blended by the American Tea Room just for the shop, including the Black & Blue, which was inspired by her Black & Blue jam and contains black tea from Nilgiri, blackberries, black currants, blueberries and blackberry leaves.

Kiss My Bundt Baking Academy: Chef Chrysta Wilson of Kiss My Bundt, formerly on West Third Street, is now teaching baking classes at Surfas in Culver City. The first class will be on January 15 and will focus on baking with winter citrus. And if you purchase a spot in this class before December 24, you’ll get 20 percent off. If you’ve ever had Wilson’s bundt cakes, you know they’re a treat.

Monsieur Marcel at the Original Farmers Market at Third and Fairfax: This gourmet foods store has all kinds of delicious treats, including European chocolates, fancy vinegars and oils, flavored salts, cheeses, wine and all kinds of fun stuff. This place will have lots of variety, so you’re sure to find something for the gourmand on your lift.

Red velvet Baby Bundt. Photo courtesy of e*starLA.

My favorite bakery Kiss My Bundt is in dire need of some cold, hard cash. Owner Chrysta Wilson is asking, for the second time, for help from the L.A. cake-loving community so she can keep her doors open. Kiss My Bundt needs to sell 150 Big Ol’ Bundts (those are regular-size bundt cakes), which retail for $32, by Jan. 31 or else the store on W. Third Street will have to close. The bakery is behind on rent due to the craptastic economy, which as well all know has forced many a beloved store to shut its doors. Wilson asked for help back in November, too, which raised a bunch of money but not enough to pay the bills.

So go over to the store and buy a Big Ol’ Bundt, or buy the equivalent in Mini Bundts ($2.50 each) or Baby Bundts ($4.50 each) for your friends, family or co-workers. The menu has something for everyone, from red velvet to maple bacon, and the cakes are perfectly moist, something that I can’t say about some of the cupcake stores out there. I recommend the pumpkin spice with the cinnamon spice glaze (I prefer glazes instead of frosting, but that’s good, too), the Luscious Lemon Drop, and the chocolate banana. My finance, Rory, likes the German chocolate, and this says a lot because he is not a sweets person!

Kiss My Bundt Bakery
8104 West Third Street (at Crescent Heights Blvd.)
Los Angeles, CA 90048

Blogger Shop Day at Space 15 Twenty

I haven’t been out for a day of wandering and shopping (well, window shopping!) in ages, so when I saw there were some interesting events happening over the weekend, I recruited Esther of e*starLA to check them out with me.

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Farmers Market. From Rosebud_03 (flickr).

Ever wondered about the inner workings of some of your favorite restaurants in the Farmers Market at Third and Fairfax or along West Third Street? If you take a walking food tour with Melting Pot Food Tours, owners and guides Lisa and Diane Scalia will give you the low down. And now the ladies have expanded their walking tour business into Old Pasadena.

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