At Ampersand Bakehouse in Toronto's Danforth East neighborhood, owner Stephanie Kaptein has a delicious secret: she's been quietly veganizing her bakery menu without announcing it to customers. And they're none the wiser.

"This past year, we've veganized all of our cookies," Kaptein reveals. "When people see the little (V) on the cookie jars, they give that crunched up face we all hate. 'Oh, it's vegan,'" she mimics with a laugh. "It's very hard to convince them to try one."

Her solution? Stealth veganism. Instead of prominently labeling everything, she simply mentions they have "vegan options" and lets customers discover which items are plant-based only when they specifically ask.

The Vegan Label Problem

So why are people so weird about the word "vegan" on food labels? Kaptein has a theory that resonates.

"Some bakeries and food establishments will feel the need to offer something vegan, but they'll also make it sugar-free and gluten-free," she explains, visibly frustrated. "Of course it's not going to taste good anymore when you're trying to accommodate every food restriction into one single product."

The result? People try these well-intentioned but flavor-compromised treats and develop an aversion to anything labeled vegan. Or worse, they had a disappointing vegan dessert a decade ago and never gave plant-based baking another chance.

"Vegan baking has come a long, long way," Kaptein insists. "New vegan pastry shops are popping up with amazing products like Fatty Bear and Bad Attitude. I feel like there used to be this attitude of 'oh, it's good for vegan' and we're getting away from that. Now, it's just good. Period. No qualifier."

The Quality Test

At Ampersand, Kaptein has a simple but rigorous standard: any new product, vegan or otherwise, must be the best thing in the display case before it makes the menu.

"A new product doesn't get included unless it's my favorite thing in the whole display case," she says. "It has to beat out my whiskey chocolate caramel cupcake done with traditional baking ingredients before it's added to the same menu."

This high bar ensures that customers aren't settling for second-best when choosing vegan options. Her strawberry chocolate cupcake, for instance, has become a bestseller regardless of its plant-based ingredients.

The Business Case for Going Vegan

While Kaptein herself isn't exclusively vegan, she's found compelling business reasons to embrace plant-based baking.

"Vegan ingredients have gotten incredibly affordable and widely available," she points out. "A brick of butter from Costco is about $5.70 while a plant-based vegan margarine from Valumart is $4.99."

The savings are even more dramatic with egg replacements. "A dozen eggs is about $3.93 while a 400g bag of ground flaxseed is $6.99, which gets me the equivalent of 57 eggs," she calculates.

In an industry with notoriously thin profit margins, these cost differences can significantly impact a small business's bottom line. Oreos are famous example of an "accidentally vegan" product. They're not specifically marketed as vegan, but they don't contain any animal-derived ingredients like milk, eggs, or butter.  

Beyond Business: The Inclusive Cake

Perhaps the most compelling reason for Kaptein's vegan pivot is inclusivity. She notes that milk and eggs—two staples of traditional baking—are among Health Canada's "priority food allergens," associated with 90% of allergic reactions in the country.

"Many children with an egg or milk allergy may outgrow it within a few years. But that's still a lot of birthday cake you're missing out on," she says. "That's one of the many reasons vegan baking is so great—everyone can enjoy it! Egg allergy, milk allergy, no allergies."

So the next time you're enjoying that delicious cookie or cupcake at Ampersand Bakehouse, you might be unwittingly participating in Toronto's quiet vegan revolution. And by the time you realize it, you'll already be reaching for seconds.