Mighty-O's Vegan Donut Delight

I can't believe it's not made with animal fat!

The Hole: Lemon poppy seed and chocolate peanut butter cake donuts.

The Shit: As all fried dough lovers know by now, Mighty-O baker Sara Beth conquered rivals across town and across the country to be reigned queen of donuts by Food Network. According to a cashier at Mighty-O, it's led to a huge jump in business.

So I had to know, are the donuts worth the hype that Beth has garnered for her employer. Erin, a friend visiting from D.C., and I did a brisk walk around Green Lake to clear our digestive systems, then made our way to Seattle's hardest-to-find 'hood, Tangletown, and picked up a couple of donuts sans animal products.

The cashier said his personal favorites are the apple fritter (sadly no hole) and the chocolate peanut butter. Erin picked out the lemon poppy seed, covered in a lovely yellow spotted icing.

By the time we got home, grease was already leaking through the paper bag, a reminder that vegan or no, donuts will give you heart disease.

The magic of the Mighty-O cake donut is the crispy exterior and delicately moist interior. It's a tough balance to strike. If the outside doesn't have a bit of crunch to it, your donut is undercooked. But it's easy for the interior to turn into a soggy mess if it spends too long in the oil.

All that said, most donuts, however well done they are, are effing delicious. The real question for Mighty-O is "can you tell its vegan?"

Erin couldn't, so consider that a cross-country victory for Seattle granola ethos.

One note: we did pick up one of those fritters our cashier was so gushy for. The fritter was a bit heavy on the bread, light on the crispy edges, for my taste. Perhaps, the vegan formula works best for circular cake.