FEBRUARY 1, 2023
The Buy Black movement
Frequenting local Black-owned businesses throughout the year is a great way to support Black entrepreneurs and take part in the Buy Black movement, which encourages consumers to shop with Black-owned businesses whenever possible.
Maya’s Cookies
Between February and April 2020, the number of Black business owners witnessed a sharp decline of 40-percent according to Forbes. This steep decline is largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused unprecedented closures throughout the world. After the resurgence of the Buy Black movement in the summer of that same year, Black businesses experienced a boom of support. In fact, Bloomberg reports, the number of Black business owners in operation increased to 1.5 million during August 2021.
Black-owned vegan bakeries
Throughout 2023, we’re keeping the momentum going, so if you’re a vegan with an insatiable sweet tooth or are simply looking for a bakery to supply your office potluck with vegan cupcakes, here are the 16 Black-owned vegan bakeries we can’t stop dreaming about.
The Vegan Doughnut Company
1) The Vegan Doughnut Company
Founded by sisters Kharisma and Kyra, The Vegan Doughnut Company made history as Ohio’s first and only all-vegan doughnut shop. The bakery’s iconic square doughnuts are guaranteed to satisfy the strongest sweet tooth. Choose between classic flavors or opt for the duo’s one-of-a-kind creations such as lemon lavender, banana pudding, raspberry strudel, and Neapolitan. We’ll take one of each.
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Maya’s Cookies
2) Maya’s Cookies
This fan-favorite, San Diego-based bakery made headlines after coming back from the brink of closure. After the COVID-19 pandemic forced owner Maya Madsen to let go half of her staff, the cookie company experienced a jaw-dropping 10,000-percent increase in sales after the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement. Now, equipped with a new storefront, Madsen and her team are whipping up specialty cookies—from chocolate chip s’mores to snickerdoodle and annual Black History Month cookie collections. Our favorite part? Nationwide shipping—vegan cookies for all!
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Southern Roots Vegan Bakery
3) Southern Roots Vegan Bakery
After Marcus and Cara Pitts adopted a plant-based lifestyle, Cara Pitts was determined to recreate her favorite dishes and desserts, without animal products, and earn her grandmother’s stamp of approval. She took to the kitchen, and through trial and error, Cara Pitts whipped up a dreamy vegan doughnut that her grandmother, friends, and family couldn’t get enough of. From their humble beginnings selling baked goods at their church to captivating Tabitha Brown and her millions of followers, this husband-and-wife-team doesn’t disappoint.
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Victor and Mika’s Bakery
4) Victor and Mika’s Bakery
Mika Altidor knows the power of plants. When the former jewelry designer was diagnosed with several large fibroid tumors, her doctor informed her that she’d have to undergo surgery. Instead, she turned to a whole-foods plant-based diet and overtime, she successfully healed herself. Now, Altidor and her partner in life and business, Victor Munoz, helm Central Florida’s first vegan bakery. Between crunchy cream-filled cannolis, cinnamon churros, and Tahiti berry doughnuts, you can’t go wrong at Victor and Mika’s.
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Estella’s Vegan Dessert Boutique
5) Estella’s Vegan Dessert Boutique
Entrepreneur Chantele Jones made headlines when she opened Detroit’s first vegan bakery. Jones, who grew up watching her mother and grandmother “turn heaps of flour into delicious pastries,” made it a mission to veganize her family’s recipes after going plant-based for health reasons. Named after Jones’ grandmother, Estella’s Vegan Dessert Boutique offers a selection of pound cakes, breads, muffins, blueberry bars, and cookies. Pro tip: the muffins, pound cake, and sweet bread loaves are available for shipping.
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Like Mom’s Only Vegan
6) Like Mom’s Only Vegan
Located inside Cincinnati’s famed Findlay Market, vegan bakery Like Mom’s Only Vegan defines family affair. Helmed by Naomi Sams and her mother Sakile Chenzira, Sams’ four children also work for the bakery in brand identity and communications, production and sales, and administrative and accounting. Vegan for over 20 years, Sams raised her children vegan and always ensured they could partake in their friends and family’s birthday celebrations with their own plant-based treats. Now, she’s making vegan cupcakes and cookies for all! Lemon cranberry poppy seed cookies, we’re coming for you!
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Mo’Pweeze Bakery
7) Mo’Pweeze Bakery
You won’t find any top eight allergens in Denville, NJ’s Mo’Pweeze Bakery. This Kosher-certified, plant-based bakery helmed by Christine Allen has churned out cookies, doughnuts, brownies, cupcakes, pies, and more since 2013. Allen, whose family of five is no stranger to food allergies (her youngest son has over 30 himself), takes extra care to also omit sesame and mustard seed—two rising allergens of concern—from her baked treats. Allergen-friendly never tasted this good!
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8) Brewer Bakes
Growing up, Tasheka Brewer’s happy place was in the kitchen baking alongside her grandmother. Watching people’s faces light up upon tasting the desserts the duo created further ignited her passion. Today, Brewer is keeping Indianapolis satisfied with her soft-batch vegan cookies made with organic ingredients. Choose between carob chip or the crowd-favorite snickerdoodle for a better-for-you treat.
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Brown Sugar Baking Company
9) Brown Sugar Baking Company
When the COVID-19 pandemic began shuttering businesses worldwide, chef-owner Lillian Hill decided to temporarily close her kitchen and focus on helping other small, BIPOC-led businesses succeed. Now, the Seattle-based chef is “back in the lab” working on creating new vegan desserts free of the top eight allergens. Between Hill’s chocolate açai cake, Pumpkin Squash Spice Cake with a Hint of Maple Creme, and Strawberry-Filled Lemon Glazed Breakfast Croissants, we can’t wait to see what she whips up next.
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Devi’s Donuts & Sweets
10) Devi’s Donuts & Sweets
16 years ago, Eva Ognibene acquired a doughnut recipe from a friend and soon started making fresh doughnuts for family celebrations and events. The positive reviews were plenty, and Ognibene, alongside her husband Tom, launched a vegan boutique doughnut business. After six years of selling their specialty vegan doughnuts at local farmers markets in Long Beach, CA, the “Vegan Doughnut Queen” and Tom Ognibene lauched their first shop. Whether you pay a visit to their doughnut shop or stop by their weekly Sunday booth at the marina, don’t miss the Oreo Crumb, Chocolate Pistachio, and Coconut Maple Bacon varieties.
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Heavenly Vegan
11) Heavenly Vegan
This Bronx-based bakery is helmed by Diamond, a self-taught vegan baker with over 19 years of baking experience. In 2014, she began selling cake pops, cupcakes, and cake to her friends and family, and soon after, Diamond’s Corner was born. Two years later, Diamond began her transition to a vegan lifestyle, and knew her treats needed to change, too. Enter: Heavenly Vegan. Between Oreo Chocolate Chunk cookies and strawberry-filled vanilla cupcakes, we can’t decide where to start.
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Cloudy Donut Co.
12) Cloudy Donut Co.
This vegan doughnut shop is making history in New York City’s Brooklyn Heights. The first Black-owned food and beverage business in the neighborhood, Cloudy Donut Co. slings pillowy-soft doughnuts in rotating flavors that range from Boston Cream and Powdered Jelly to Grapefruit Mimosa and Mango Chili Lime. Founded by restaurateur Derrick Falcon, this all-vegan doughnut shop also boasts two locations in Baltimore.
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Plant Based Sweets by Lotus
13) Plant Based Sweets by Lotus
After husband-and-wife-team Allen and Maria Howard went vegan in 2019, they were on the hunt for plant-based Southern favorites such as biscuits, pound cake, and cornbread. Unable to find vegan treats in Baton Rouge, LA to satisfy their cravings, the duo took matters into their own hands. Now, they’re whipping up unimaginable eats such as chocolate-dipped oatmeal cream pies, red velvet pecan praline cookies, cream cheese-filled and glazed king cake, and more. Brb, we’re driving to Louisiana!
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@chefshyah/Instagram
14) Shyah’s Vegan Bakery
Yis’Shyah Yisrael is at the forefront of this Raleigh, NC-based vegan bakery. The culinary pro, with a decade of experience in plant-based cooking, launched her enterprise in 2014 after a lack of high quality vegan and gluten-free bread options left her wanting more. A determined Yisrael soon began crafting her own breads, and after a positive reception from her plant-based family, she started selling her creations around town, soon adding cakes, pies, doughnuts, and more. Now, she’s slinging cranberry orange rolls, chocolate chip doughnuts, cinnamon raisin rolls, and more nationwide.
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15) Vegan Dream Doughnuts
Vegan for over 30 years, Ras Izes utilizes natural, organic ingredients to create tasty, better-for-you doughnuts. A prominent figure in Atlanta’s West End neighborhood, Izes has come to be known for his entrepreneurial, health-minded spirit, whether he’s making juices or selling his food on the go. At Vegan Dream Doughnuts, a rotating array of endless vegan flavors such as Banana Strawberry Caramel and French Vanilla Almond Hazelnut is keeping West Enders coming back for more.
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Sweet Vegan Bakes
16) Sweet Vegan Bakes
Chef Cheryl Nelson adopted a vegan lifestyle nearly 20 years ago, and after expertly veganizing her favorite dishes, she launched Sweet Vegan Bakes in Old Town Chicago. Now, Nelson wows patrons with a sweet-and-savory menu complete with chocolate truffles, cake balls, jackfruit barbecue sammies, mac-and-cheese, and more.
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