Sharon satisfies the cravings of those who have cut animal products and wheat from their diets.
Two and a half years ago, Sharon Bousi decided to stop taking animal products in her diet. This included eggs and milk. It seemed a natural transition from the vegetarian lifestyle she had adopted earlier.
“I suffered withdrawal from ice cream and tea,” she muses.
Since then, she has learnt the art of making her own dairy-free milk and discovered a similar variation of ice cream.
Her love for sweet things including desserts was however not quelled by the shift to being vegan, but getting her favourite treats without the eggs and milk, was a challenge.
“I had to learn to make them for myself,” she says. She researched on the substitutions for the ingredients she needed to bake, having previous knowledge on baking.
She found that it was a different ball game all together, with eggs and butter making up an integral part of cake making.
Some of the substitutes commonly used in vegan baking include bananas, citrus, baking powder and apple puree, all acting as raising agents.
Her simple hobby of vegan baking has since turned into a full side hustle, or 5 to 8. Once she leaves work, she gets home to fulfil her orders, which she tells BDLife, are every other day.
“Yesterday, I had no orders to deliver, today I had six,” she says.
The baking was something she did not expect to pick up as quickly as it did. This was largely due to the fact that there is a need in the market for such alternatives.
This includes people with allergies to things like eggs or lactose intolerants and in special cases, gluten intolerance.
“I do purely vegan cakes. I get people requesting regular cake, but I turn them down,” she explains.
On her wedding day, she had a vegan cake and to her pleasant surprise, the guests enjoyed it and they did not notice the difference from regular cake.
Sharon Bousi. PHOTO | COURTESY
To keep her costs down, she has learnt how to make the non-dairy milk using almonds, cashew nuts, coconut, flaxseed, hazelnut rice, oats and other options available.
“Making it was more cost effective than buying. I make all my milk over the weekend,” she explained.
She makes an assortment of cakes and cupcakes including chocolate fudge and carrot which are popular with her clients.
“I don’t make sponge cupcakes like black forest. Sponge is more expensive because I use condensed milk,” she says.
The cost and process of making the non-dairy condensed milk is time consuming and quite costly. The cupcakes retail for Sh540 for a minimum dozen and Sh2,000 to Sh2,200 per cake.
For frosting or icing her cake, she makes whipped cream from the coconut cream and the other alternatives. She makes butter using soy lecithin with natural oils like coconut and olive oil.
Meatless meat
The journey of going vegan was not as easy on the onset especially when it came to eating out. She had to ask about the ingredients in the food, which, was not always readily available.
“If I didn’t know what was in the food, my go-to was chips,” she says. In the quest for alternatives for vegan, she discovered the different options including meatless meat made from vegetable protein.
“There are more options available for vegans and vegetarians than for meat eaters,” she says.
Locally, there are more than 20 options of lentils and pulses for sale.
Her friends are always surprised that the food and cakes she makes are vegan, explaining that research makes up the greatest part of transitioning.
