I opened a vegan-friendly baking business...but I'm not fully vegan

Blackpool Gazette

A vegan, gluten-free baker shares her top tips for trying Veganuary.   Helen Blake, who owns Vea Curious baking, says it's okay to take baby steps and make small changes to your diet and lifestyle- adding that she's not fully vegan, but will be joining in with Veganuary.   Helen, who makes cakes and bakes to order, and also sells her vegan and gluten-free desserts at the Fairhaven Lake cafe, shows some of her mouth-watering treats in this video.   Watch the full show at https://www.shotstv.com/watch/vod/52745937

Transcript

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.

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