ms cupcake

Time to step up for a vegan legend

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Vegans. This is your chance to use your compassionate shopping powers for good.

It is emergency time for legendary London vegan bakery, Ms. Cupcake.

As I mentioned a short while ago on my blog, the UK’s first 100% vegan bakery has decided to shut doors forever. If you missed it, you can read my emotional post online here.

Mellissa Morgan and the Ms. Cupcake business have been on the frontline of veganism for a decade and without her efforts, we would have experienced a very different march forward.

Mellissa pushed boundaries as an independent vegan business owner and showed just how much demand there was for plant based foods. Being inundated with vegan food in 2020 is thanks to pioneers just like Ms. Cupcake.

So they are shutting down, but there has been even more devastating news for the bakery and Mellissa just two weeks out from closing date.

The business was booked to appear at the huge Vegan Life Live show in London this weekend (March 14 and 15, 2020) but with last minute notice, the vegan mega show was cancelled due to concerns about large events contributing to the spread of coronavirus.

While this was obviously an extremely tough decision for the show organisers, this has left Mellissa and her vegan bakery holding thousands and thousands of pounds worth of extra stock that was destined to be sold at the show.

Mellissa told me:

We are desperately trying to close on a positive note, but the idea of all of these products going to waste is heart wrenching for the whole team who has been working so hard. Financially, it is quite disastrous for our small business.

Vegans, this is where we need to do one last act of support and compassion for someone who has done so much for us.

Go the the Ms. Cupcake website NOW and up until March 20, 2020 and order delicious vegan cakes and treats to be delivered to your home or office.

You can choose from four categories of sweetness:

  • Vegan tray bakes
  • Vegan cookie sandwiches
  • Vegan brownies
  • Vegan American-style cookies

Click here NOW to buy one last big bundle of vegan goodies from this legendary vegan business. Help them go out on a high and with a few less bills!

Buy treats for your home, your workplace, a neighbour, a loved one, someone you are trying to expose to veganism, and most importantly for yourself.

If we can join forces to send as much love and cash in the direction of the Ms. Cupcake bakery as possible, we might just be able to help them have a smile on their faces as the doors shut for the final time.

Order from the online store now or before March 20, 2020 for delivery in the UK or for collection in store.

If you can make it along to the shop in Brixton before it closes, please note they have extended their opening times to include Mondays. This means they will be open EVERY SINGLE DAY until March 29, 2020.

Come on, vegans. Let’s do this.

Let’s put a bit of effort into helping send this legendary vegan business out with a bang. Order cake, cookies, and tray bakes now.

Extra note: you can also order a signed copy of the best-selling Ms. Cupcake recipe book. Already got it? Click here to order another. They make great gifts.

Legendary Ms Cupcake bakery to close

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This one hurts.

It has been just over 24 hours since the announcement was made, so the feelings are still fresh.

Legendary (I mean, really REALLY legendary) vegan bakery business Ms. Cupcake announced it is set to close in March 2020.

This is sad news but of course it is not completely surprising.

I talk with vegan business owners often and they are struggling. People want convenience and are willing to sacrifice independently owned vegan businesses to get it. It feels like our community is increasingly becoming a block of faceless consumers unable (or unwilling) to support small business.

This phenomenon already happened to non-vegan businesses, with many independent stores shuttering their doors over the past few decades.

Now it feels like it is veganism’s turn to lose our pioneering retailers and business owners to big ticket capitalism.

The Ms. Cupcake bakery in Brixton stayed open a lot longer than it should have thanks to owner and founder Mellissa Morgan and her ingenuity, talent, and compassion. The vegan retail scene changed drastically and radically, but Mellissa kept her head above water with savvy choices. Her cupcake distribution deal with Whole Foods Market stores was one of the first major deals of its kind for a vegan business in the UK.

If you want to know what hard work looks like, study the output of Ms. Cupcake.

Mellissa started her business with all-night baking marathons followed by all-day selling stints at outdoor markets. She turned the London vegan scene upside down with her delicious and inventive creations, giving us hope that a better future for animals was around the corner and it included cake.

The Ms. Cupcake business was born at a time when London was still a struggle for vegans. Seriously, if you were vegan ten years ago you will know exactly what I’m talking about.

Mellissa showed us that we could expect more as vegan consumers while she also inspired dozens and dozens of others to take a risk with vegan business.

Ms. Cupcake didn’t just open the door through which other superstar vegans businesses strolled. Mellissa’s bakery smashed the door off its hinges.

We suddenly had a world class vegan food business and is not dramatic to say it felt like a hopeful new dawn for London.

The opening of the physical bakery location in Brixton took things to another level.

People would come from all over the UK to visit the bakery. Remember, this was long before vegan cake options were even a thought for Costa or Tesco. Ms. Cupcake gave us a peek into a strange new world and we lost our collective shit over it.

People would even come straight from the airport with their luggage because of all the hype. They couldn’t wait.

Mellissa wasn’t just a clever and talented cake maker. She showed us you could do all of this and also do what was right for your community.

Because of her kindness, the Ms. Cupcake and Fat Gay Vegan stories are inextricably connected. Mellissa went above and beyond what most would do by allowing me to start my monthly London Vegan Potluck social event (and then host it for six months) in the space outside her shop.

Four years later, when London Vegan Potluck was coming to and end, Mellissa and her team showed up to our final event with a personalised cake to thank me for my contributions to the London vegan community.

When London was absolutely bereft of exciting vegan social events, Mellissa allowed me to host a vegan pizza party in her shop on two occasions. I was desperate to create social capital for vegans and Mellissa and her bakery team were on the frontline with me.

I was once in the pub a few doors down from the Ms. Cupcake bakery, indulging in a few afternoon beers, when a random local pub goer noticed I had a box of Ms. Cupcake goodies on my table. He told me that when violent protests erupted around London (including Brixton) during August 2011 following the death of Mark Duggan at the hands of police, Mellissa went into the streets and gave away cakes to protestors.

This local pub goer had tears in his eyes as he told me that nobody touched or went near Mellissa’s bakery during the violence because of her act of support, solidarity, and community strengthening. He said everyone around those parts saw her as a good person and a treasured member of their community.

Through the bakery, Mellissa gave many people their first ever vegan job. Her team evolved over the years, however Mellissa always kept a strong, dedicated, and well trained group of people by her side.

I’m even friends with some of her team members to this day!

Mellissa gave her time and expertise with grace and humility.

Following on from her groundbreaking and highly-influential recipe book (which you need to order online here), many people started copycat baking businesses around the UK.

When I would ask her about this, Mellissa would shrug and wish them well. She really just wanted vegan cake to be everywhere and understood that she had created a sugary monster that she couldn’t control, so instead she hoped for the best for all the people following in her footsteps.

If you attended community events and vegan fairs in the early days, Mellissa could be found giving up her precious time and expertise for cooking demonstrations, panel discussions, and personal appearances. She worked as hard on building our vegan scene as she did on her own business.

At a time when we were all scrambling to build a vegan movement that would put compassion into the mainstream, Mellissa was ahead of the game with a world class product and an unwavering smile on her face.

I would never be able to overstate how important her role was in making veganism the unstoppable social and commercial concern it is now.

Mellissa might very well be the most important vegan business person that London has ever known. She is the original. Vegan Nights. Temple of Seitan. Hackney Downs Vegan Market. We all followed.

We all owe a huge debt of gratitude to Ms. Cupcake.

Extra note: I think you should all follow Ms. Cupcake on Instagram. Something tells me that she will be back with vegan goodness in some form before we know it.

Extra extra note: for goodness sake, buy her cookbook online NOW. Let’s send Mellissa out with a bang.