Sweet Bones: A Sweet Life

Boasting loads of personality and an ever-changing array of vegan baked products, Canberraโ€™s Sweet Bones Bakery and Cafรฉ is part of a new generation of bakeries that glories in serving up old favourites with a new twist.

Hidden inside a Canberran warehouse, in the trendy suburb of Braddon, is a rare gem of a bakery.

With an emphasis on serving up โ€œhome-styleโ€ favourites, Sweet Bones Bakery and Cafรฉ has one major distinguishing factor โ€“ the entire range is 100 per cent vegan.

Despite vegan food long being misrepresented as boring, bland and tasteless, Sweet Bones Bakery and Cafรฉ owners โ€“ and proud vegans โ€“ Emily and Russell Brindley are living proof baked goods free of animal products can, in fact, be absolutely delicious.

Originally a wholesale business, its first incarnation was in 2011 after Emilyโ€™s US-based parents headed home following a visit. The blues set in and in an attempt to cheer herself up, the trained chef headed to the kitchen.

Emily succeeded in baking her sadness away, but more importantly, the cupcakes she created were so impressive her brother-in-law demanded to know why she wasnโ€™t selling them commercially.

โ€œRussellโ€™s brother then made a phone call that led to a meeting with our first wholesale customer,โ€ Emily says.

After a few months of hard work, the duo were running a successful wholesale business. Still, they dreamed of one day opening a bakery/cafรฉ and, when a retail space became available in the trendy Traders Mall on Lonsdale Street, the enthusiastic pair leapt at the chance to set up their own space.

Describing it as a natural process to transition from wholesale to running their own bakery, Russell says it was a big step to take, nevertheless.

โ€œPretty much weโ€™d outgrown the kitchen we were using for our wholesale business and we needed to do something โ€“ whether it was get a bigger commercial kitchen for our wholesale work or do that and get a shopfront as well. We were really ready and just needed to take the next step,โ€ Russell says.

โ€œThe perfect location popped up and we made the commitment,โ€ Emily adds.

Decorated with reclaimed wood, lucky horseshoes and succulents, the bakery exudes a definite rockabilly vibe and in the 12 months since the doors first opened it has become a go-to place for Canberraโ€™s young and hip. But itโ€™s much more than the dรฉcor that attracts these customers.

Each day, following a staff โ€œfamily lunchโ€ and some punk rock tunes to wake everyone up, Emily and her crew get to work stocking the bakeryโ€™s cabinets with an array of cakes โ€“ including their renowned rosette cakesโ€“ miniature doughnuts, brownies, biscuits and muffins as well as raw cheesecakes and balls, while Russell mans the coffee machine.

It can be a big task, but the glowing response from their customers makes it worth it.

โ€œWe were actually really surprised by how many vegans came out of the woodwork once we opened โ€“ we knew there were a lot of them but itโ€™s been pretty great,โ€ Emily says.

โ€œBut we do also get a lot of customers who donโ€™t know weโ€™re a vegan bakery and will come back in and tell us how delicious everything was. Iโ€™ll be like โ€˜oh yeah, it was veganโ€™ and theyโ€™ll be pretty shocked.โ€

In a field that relies heavily on the use of eggs and dairy, developing a bakery range free of animal products can result in something of an experimental process. But Emily says itโ€™s not only possible to create a vegan range that is delicious, itโ€™s also easy.

Some of the adaptations that are regularly implemented in vegan baking include the use of apple cider vinegar and soy milk, which curdle when combined and are used instead of milk, while the vinegar will also react when baking soda is added and help cakes to rise.

โ€œWe also use ground flax meal mixture in our brownies to help bind the mixture together instead of eggs. We try not to use the No Egg egg replacement, but it does often come in handy โ€“ itโ€™s basically just starches like tapioca starch, potato starch and xanthan gum,โ€ Emily says.

โ€œBut the baking process is really the same. I think maybe itโ€™s less perishable โ€“ less prone to go rancid โ€“ and itโ€™s easier to clean up because itโ€™s less greasy.โ€

In fact, she says, often the most difficult aspect in her baking process can be perfecting a recipe so it meets her high standards.

โ€œOur cheesecake recipe, that weโ€™ve had since before we opened the shop, we thought was pretty good but it was always pretty flat โ€“ not like a real cheesecake. The taste was there but it was just the height I needed. But I finally perfected it this year after seven years of being a vegan,โ€ Emily laughs.

โ€œBut the number of new products we make for Sweet Bones depends really on how many mistakes I make. We try to keep the range really interesting and keep people excited, but a lot of the time the new products are some kind of mistake that one of us has made and weโ€™re trying to save them.โ€

One example of this, Emily says, is Sweet Bones Bakeryโ€™s ever-popular sugar skull cookies, which were created while trying to save a disastrous banana bread mix.

โ€œSomeone had given me the cookie cutters and I put off making anything with them for months and months. Then the staff were making banana bread and it somehow turned into a bit of a disaster, but I turned that into the sugar-filled cookie,” she says.

“It works out sometimes, but Iโ€™m a bit of a perfectionist so there are still some recipes Iโ€™m not that happy with and am still trying to develop.

โ€œBut we can also be inspired when we see something thatโ€™s not vegan and weโ€™ll go โ€˜oh, how can we veganise that?โ€™โ€

โ€œOur staff are pretty creative so someone will get a good idea and work on it for a while, but then all of a sudden it will be the best thing youโ€™ve ever tasted and weโ€™ll go โ€˜right, thatโ€™s going on the menuโ€™,โ€ Russell adds.

Sweet Bones Bakery and Cafรฉโ€™s popularity is continuing to grow by leaps and bounds, to the point where Russell and Emily say they have โ€œmaxed outโ€ their current space and are discussing plans for Sweet Bones number two. The location is yet to be determined and the only requirement so far is it must include a walk-in refrigerator.

โ€œIโ€™m dreaming of that!โ€ Emily laughs.

โ€œThe building weโ€™re in is not a permanent space โ€“ itโ€™s going to get developed in the coming years so weโ€™ll be looking for something more permanent,โ€ Russell says.

With Canberra undergoing something of a food revolution in recent years and a huge number of new restaurants and cafรฉs regularly opening, itโ€™s difficult to successfully make your mark and stand apart from the crowd.

Nonetheless, Emily and Russell say itโ€™s simply a matter of sticking to what you know and what you are passionate about.

โ€œBeing vegan isnโ€™t hard if your passionate about your health and you care about other living animals. It just really makes sense to us and itโ€™s really easy,โ€ Emily says.

โ€œAnd if you love food you just need to be inventive and think outside the box a little bit,” Russell adds.

“All good bakers need to be creative.”


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