00:00My next door neighbours, where I used to live, were vegans and I used to bake all the time
00:11but a lot of what I was baking they couldn't have. So I didn't start out as vegan, I just
00:18thought that if I was going to open a little business it needed to be a niche, so vegan,
00:22gluten free baking. There seemed to be a need for it and I really enjoy doing it, it's just
00:27something a little bit different. We have an array of cupcakes here, we also do full
00:33cakes and I do some various tray bakes as well. For the cupcakes today I've just done
00:39a little mix of biscoff, which is naturally vegan anyway, I can also do that as a gluten
00:44free substitute, as with all of these, a chocolate cake, a black forest, so cherry jam in the
00:52middle and vanilla buttercream on top. I've also got here a strawberry and vanilla one,
00:59so it's got a blob of strawberry jam in the middle, some freeze dried strawberries on
01:02top and blackcurrant jam. This is actually gluten free even though it's oats. What I
01:08was surprised about was the amount of customers that I get because there's a dairy intolerance
01:15or an egg intolerance, so not just people that have chosen to be vegan for ethical reasons,
01:23but people that actually have an allergy to some of the products that you would use in
01:27normal baking. I'm not quite there with the egg white substitute, so I don't tend to do
01:36the very delicately piped stuff as much, but fondant's great, it's like working with modelling
01:41clay, you can make all kinds of things out of it and stick them onto your cakes and they
01:44look fantastic. I did a Gruffalo one a couple of years ago and I've had a couple of repeat
01:50customers or repeat orders based on that. It's quite tricky making a Gruffalo out of fondant,
01:56but you know, I manage it. I'm not fully vegan, although I will be joining in with Veganuary. I
02:04am pescatarian, which means I've totally cut meat out of my diet, but I still eat a lot of fish,
02:10I eat dairy, I eat eggs, but it's just been sort of a step in the right direction for me,
02:15and it's something that makes me feel better physically, but also mentally. You can still
02:22go to a restaurant and pick something lovely off the menu and not feel like you're being
02:26deprived. There's ready cooked fish available. It's not affected me in any way, I would say.
02:37I think we all, probably from our regular diets, don't get all the nutrition that we need from
02:41them. That's why so many people take vitamins as well. But I think as long as you're open to all
02:47the different protein sources, some nuts, legumes, tofu as well. I think there's lots of things that
02:56we sort of probably eat naturally, and I guess just eat more of those. So like chickpeas,
03:03for example, I'll quite often bulk out things that I eat with chickpeas. So then it's just
03:11sort of reducing the amount of meat or fish in things, I guess. Hummus I have for my lunch every
03:17day anyway, so that won't make a big difference to me. And things like lentils as well, they're
03:23great substitutes for like a mince or something like that. There's a way to do it, and it's also
03:28quite economical as well.
Comments