Charity Bake Sale: As If You Needed A Good Cause To Enjoy Some Sweets, But Here’s One

L.A. blogger Tannaz fills us in on the second annual No Cookie Left Behind bake sale, which is part of Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale. She writes:

This year’s offerings include banana caramel cake, homemade chocolate peanut butter cups, chocolate Guinness cake, cupcakes by the dozen, lemon bars, zucchini bread, sweet almond bread, a wild mushroom tart, many mini banana bread loaves, Spork Foods vegan cookies, Paulette macarons, Lark Cake Shop cakes, and much, much more.

What’s even better, the event takes place at our beloved Scoops.

As you can see, it takes place this Saturday from noon to 4. Scoops is at 712 N. Heliotrope (off Melrose, next to L.A. City College).

Scoops Cools Us Down

It was 100 degrees this weekend. It would have been a crime not to visit Scoops. So visit we did, and we wound up getting some of my most favorite Scoops flavors yet. Our selections:

Maria: Banana Macadamia Nuts and Black Sesame Coconut

Mike: Mango ricotta and Horchata

Evan: Almond tiramisu (yes, that’s a “Kids’ cone” — they’re quite generous with the scoops. And to make things easier on him, we told him it was chocolate.)

The Horchata is one of the best ice cream flavors I’ve ever tasted. Clearly we must make some at home.

The Scoops Report: Yes, That’s Bacon in My Ice Cream

Scoops is probably the only spot that deserves its own blog post every time we visit. (Here’s the scoop on our last visit, back in February.) This time out, I’d say we sampled some of the best Scoops flavors yet.

Oh yeah, you read that right. Banana/Peanut Butter/Bacon. I wasn’ t planning on getting this flavor… but then I sampled it. Something about the hint of bacon — Scoops is subtle with its flavors, after all — meshed nicely with the peanut butter flavor (the banana was a little more obscured). For my second flavor (remember the Scoops mantra — One Scoop Is Two Balls), I chose Tiramisu Guinness. Slightly more disappointing — I barely tasted the Gunness, and the rest tasted less like tiramisu, and more like plain chocolate.

The Kid Formerly Known As Blogger Toddler enjoyed — seriously, he inhaled the whole thing before we were even done — his Chocolate/Jalapeno flavor. Indeed, the jalapeno was subtle, but added a nice kick.

Maria may have picked best of all: A Red Wine/Lychee Sorbet.

Zombies Invade Scoops (But Sorry, No Brains Here)

We get a lot of press releases here at Franklin Avenue, but when one includes those magical words — “Scoops Ice Cream” — I gotta take notice.

Rebecca writes to tell us about the film <a href="
http://www.americanzombiemovie.com” target=”_blank”>AMERICAN ZOMBIE, which opens
at the Laemmle Sunset 5 today.

The movie, about a group of L.A. zombies struggling to gain human acceptance, hasn’t received great reviews. But for Angelenos, the setting alone should be interesting: The film was shot in and around Hollywood, East Hollywood, Los Feliz, Silverlake, Altadena, the Valley and Downtown.

Now, the Scoops part: In conjunction with the film, the “American Zombie” folk are putting on an art exhibit at Scoops Ice Cream Shop’s Gallery. “<a href="http://theartofamericanzombie.blogspot.com
” target=”_blank”>The Art of American Zombie” runs through April 20; to mark the occasion, Scoops maestro Tai has whipped up a few special flavors. (Nothing brain-related, Rebecca promises.)

Zombies Invade Scoops (But Sorry, No Brains Here)

We get a lot of press releases here at Franklin Avenue, but when one includes those magical words — “Scoops Ice Cream” — I gotta take notice.

Rebecca writes to tell us about the film <a href=”
http://www.americanzombiemovie.com” target=”_blank”>AMERICAN ZOMBIE, which opens
at the Laemmle Sunset 5 today.

The movie, about a group of L.A. zombies struggling to gain human acceptance, hasn’t received great reviews. But for Angelenos, the setting alone should be interesting: The film was shot in and around Hollywood, East Hollywood, Los Feliz, Silverlake, Altadena, the Valley and Downtown.

Now, the Scoops part: In conjunction with the film, the “American Zombie” folk are putting on an art exhibit at Scoops Ice Cream Shop’s Gallery. “<a href=”http://theartofamericanzombie.blogspot.com
” target=”_blank”>The Art of American Zombie” runs through April 20; to mark the occasion, Scoops maestro Tai has whipped up a few special flavors. (Nothing brain-related, Rebecca promises.)

Another Scoop of Scoops

East Hollywood’s famed Scoops ice cream shop is probably the only eatery that deserves a blog post every time we visit. Owner Tai Kim’s unique ice cream flavors are forever changing, forever ambitious and forever a reason to keep coming back.

For our first visit since last June, I got one scoop — which, in Scoops speak, actually means two balls of ice cream. This time out, I got Scoops’ signature Brown Bread flavor (vanilla with caramel swirls and Grape Nuts for a nice crunch) and Olive Oil & Vanilla Sea Salt — one of my favorite Scoops flavors yet.

Maria got the Coconut Thai Ice Tea flavor. And Blogger Toddler enjoyed the Hazelnut & Peanut flavor. (Both of them got the kid’s size — one scoop for just $1.50.)

Scoops has also just launched a new art show: “One Scoop is Two Balls: A Works on Paper Show with Ice Cream.” Art and ice cream? In your FACE, LACMA!

Scoops, 712 N. Heliotrope Dr., Los Angeles.

Eat a Cookie, Help a Starving Kid

Not like you need an excuse to go to Scoops, the most unique ice cream shop in all of Los Angeles.

But here’s another good reason to visit the East Hollywood shop on Saturday, Aug. 18: The No Cookie Left Behind bakesale.

The event is part of Share Our Strength’s “Great American Bake Sale,” which encourages people to hold sales in their community, with proceeds going toward fighting childhood hunger here in the U.S.

Cold hearted, and don’t care about no stinking starving kids? How about this: The baked goodies set to go on sale sound pretty awesome: maple vanilla granola, fleur de sel caramel cake, pumpkin cupcakes, vegan cupcakes, lemon bars, Mexican chocolate rice crispie treats, Persian baklava, Barefoot Contessa coconut macaroons, and more. Live music will also be there.

The bake sale will take place that day from noon to 4. If you haven’t been to Scoops — and really, what’s wrong with you?! — it’s at at 712 Heliotrope Ave., just north of Melrose, between Normandie and Vermont.

Thanks to organizer Tannaz for filling us in on this delicious event.