Three local bakeries in Portland, Oregon that make custom vegan wedding cakes were reviewed. The bakeries are: Piece of Cake Bakery, Saint Cupcake and Joseph's Dessert Company.

As a vegan, I eat relatively well. Lots of veggies, fruits, legumes, and different starches that I'm in the mood to eat or is available at the time. However, I have to admit that I'm not consistently good about my diet. Don't get me wrong, its always vegan, but not 100% healthy. French fries, fried rice, spaghetti, burritos and dessert....not t

Kaminsky, 18, author of the newly published "My Sweet Vegan," a cookbook that includes nearly 80 dessert recipes. Hannah Kaminsky will sign copies of "My Sweet Vegan" from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Jan. 5 at Barnes & Noble in Westport.

What to do when you want to serve dessert, but are serving up vegetarian meals? Quick recipre for a delicious vegetarian cake. Yes you can eat healthy and enjoy it too.

Seasoned (non-vegan) baker picks up a copy of My Sweet Vegan because the recipes and photos look so good, and ends up loving it!

Vegan wine is wine made without animal products. As such it can be part of a vegan diet. Wineries might use animal-derived products as finings. To remove proteins, yeasts, and other organic particles which are in suspension during the making of the wine, a fining agent is added to the top of the vat. As it sinks down, the particles adhere to the agent, and are carried out of suspension. None of the fining agent remains in the finished product sold in the bottle, and not all wines are fined. All Kosher wines are vegan.Examples of animal products used as finings are gelatin, isinglass, chitosan, casein and egg albumen. Bull's blood is also used in some Mediterranean countries but is not allowed in the U.S. or France.As an alternative to the animal products Bentonite, a natural, inert clay powder, can be used to clarify the wine. There are even some very patient vintners who let the wine's sediments settle naturally. Winemakers are not required to put on their label which clarifier is used, since it is removed from the final product. However, some wine makers will boast on the wine label that their wine is unfiltered, because some wine connoisseurs prefer wine to be unfiltered.