Baking has always been my way to express my appreciation to my friends and family. For years, I improved my recipes so I could give my loved ones the perfect culinary experience that they deserve. From crunchy croissants to fudgey brownies, it just warms my heart to see people enjoy one of the pastries that I created.

When one of my dear friends told me that she was vegan, this put me to a dilemma. Due to her dietary restrictions, I was no longer able to express my love for her through my baked goods. Even worse, while my non-vegan friends could easily enjoy other amazing pastries at other places around town, she was left out in the cold due to the limited offering of vegan food in Knoxville. It broke my heart to see this.

I spent hours and hours of researching and testing how I could transform my doughnut recipe to be fully vegan and only include 100% plant-based ingredients, and I only stopped when I felt that I could no longer tell the difference. When I first showed her my result, I was overwhelmed. I had made thousands of baked goods over the last 10 year, but the moment she took her first bite of my vegan doughnut, I knew I had never felt as humbled before by the gratitude she expressed.

That’s why I decided to start Vegâteaun, a plant-based virtual bake house that is committed to offering vegan pastries that are indistinguishable from their non-vegan counterparts.