Valley woman turns vegan baking for best friend into business

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Brittanie Rodriguez's love of baking started in the high school home-ec classroom.

Her plant-based baking took off when she wanted to bake for her best friend, who has been vegan since college.

"When I developed it, I wasn't vegan, so I made sure I liked it," she said. "It's all trial and error, especially baking vegan, because not every recipe can just be switched out with the same egg replacement."

Brittanie got her start in Los Angeles but moved back home to the Fresno area in 2020.

"I didn't mean for it to become a business," she said. "I used to run a nature business in LA."

She's built a following with bestsellers such as banana bread and lemon loaves, but her recipes and menu are ever-evolving with seasonal options.

"Summer is the fun -- you get strawberries, blueberries," she said. "I do have flavors such as my banana, smores loaves, rocky road, those types of things are all year."

Each loaf is topped with a little reminder of the love that went into baking it.

"A lot of my customers are not even vegan -- it's just that they either want a healthier lifestyle since there's no cholesterol in vegan food," Rodriguez said. "I reduce my bread's sugar by 50%, so they're less sweet. There's no cholesterol, and I use high-protein flower, so it's healthier."

The baker says a supportive small business community makes it easy to source ingredients and promote her plant-based products locally.

Now, she's passing on the knowledge she gained -- offering webinars on how to get properly licensed to sell baked goods.

You can find her baked goods at Hummus Republic, Art Hop, or you can order them online.

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