Helen Graves

Scoff Gluten-Free And Vegan Freak Shakes In London

A vegan raspberry freak shake at The Canvas Cafe.

Remember when freak shakes came to London? These colossal arrangements of dairy and sugar were previously off limits to vegans since they contained milk and eggs, but now a café in east London has made an adapted version, which is also gluten free.

The Canvas Café serves shakes made with vegan ice cream blended with soya milk, which comes in avocado, raspberry and chocolate flavours.

Toppings include vegan, gluten-free brownies, and vegan meringue made with aquafaba, the juice from a can of chickpeas, which is currently a hot ingredient in the world of vegan cooking. When whipped up with vanilla and maple syrup it acts like egg whites to make a meringue with (thankfully), not even a hint of chickpea.

Yes.

Flavours to choose from are: raspberry and coconut, topped with raw beetroot cakes; avocado, chocolate and raw matcha cake; and a dark chocolate shake topped with vegan meringues.

The Canvas Café is 'London’s first Happy Café', meaning it is part of a network of cafes aiming to promote happiness in their customers. Owner of the Canvas Café Ruth Rogers said, "As London's first Happy Cafe, our promise has been to make people happy; through our creative events, our warm welcome, and our food and drinks.

"Each delicious, colourful and healthy freak shake is made with love, and will make you happy from the inside out."

Sounds good enough to us.

Scoff shakes from 11am-7pm Tuesday-Sunday at The Canvas Café, 42 Hanbury Street, E1 5JL.