Los Angeles Brand Sweet Laurel Brings Its Whole-Foods Indulgences to a Beautiful New Cake Shop in Palisades Village
Gorgeous baked goods free of dairy, refined sugar, grains and guilt—it would be a dessert lover’s dream were it not a reality for Palisades Village, where later this summer, patrons will get their first taste of Sweet Laurel’s eponymous new cake shop.
“Our food is indulgent yet healthful,” says Claire Thomas. “It’s about loving the food you eat instead of punishing yourself for craving it.“
Before Sweet Laurel, “we had been constantly disappointed by gluten-free or vegan-baked options and were self-described carb snobs,” she adds. “The textures and flavors always seemed a bit off, like a photocopy of a photocopy of the thing they claimed to be.“
Sweet Laurel was different from the start, its winning recipe also free of gums and fillers that create what Claire Thomas calls “sad, drab sweets”—that suspicious photocopy effect.
“Ours are showstoppers, on the table and on your palette.”
Sweet Laurel treats are not so much decorated in the usual sense but adorned. Fresh flowers on a lusciously frosted naked cake. A flourish of farmers’ market herbs. A dash of raspberries. A drizzle of sweet cream.
Now, having fulfilled custom creations for an array of influencers, hosting private classes, and releasing their first eponymous book, Sweet Laurel Cake, Coffee and Tea marks a sort of homecoming for its founding tastemakers who grew up Palisades regulars.
The shop will cultivate a “Malibu meets Mayfair” aesthetic, so old world bones, but with a “simple, minimalistic approach—just like our desserts,” says Claire Thomas. “And of course, lots of fresh flowers.”
As tasteful? The menu: classic offerings, new baked goods, nourishing house-made nut and coconut milks, Caffe Luxxe coffee and tea.
Sweet Laurel | sweetlaurel.com
Photographs: Reprinted from Sweet Laurel: Recipes for Whole Food, Grain-Free Desserts. Copyright © 2018 by Laurel Gallucci and Claire Thomas. Photography by Claire Thomas. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House, LLC.