Standing out in Australia’s billion-dollar cake industry is not an easy task, but Annabelle McMillan has found her niche.
The self-taught baker has built a flourishing business baking custom cakes that you wouldn’t guess are vegan.
“When I first started my business a lot of the vegan cakes that were out there were health-focused," she Annabelle explains.
"But I wanted people to see you could have an amazing cake that didn’t have animal products in it.”
"But I wanted people to see you could have an amazing cake that didn’t have animal products in it.”
Source: My Little Panda Kitchen
Annabelle says it forced her to rethink her business model, teaming up with The Vegan Teahouse’s Kate Jones to keep costs down.
“We actually couldn’t afford a space this big unless we have others sharing it with us, and we don’t always need it.
"It meant we could split the rent, split electricity and go in together on big bulk orders.”
The pair had also converted the front-of-house into a pop-up café, but have since closed it to focus on expanding other parts of the business.
Maker Kitchen is located on Parramatta Road, Sydney Source: MAKER
“Because it was only open on the weekend we were absolutely exhausted and it was costing a lot of money," says Annabelle.
They now lease out the fully-equipped kitchen, MAKER to other vegan bakers.
"We’ll have workshops running multiple times a week and plan to be the go-to for vegan education in Sydney. We do catering, workshops, markets, events, and one of the biggest components is our kitchen hire and incubation system that we do with other small vegan businesses.”
Annabelle has ambitious growth plans for the next twelve months.
She’s teamed up with the Sydney Community College to promote her workshops and hopes to create new partnerships with TAFE and other community groups.
Currently, MAKER offers 13 different vegan classes, including how to make vegan cheeses, chocolates, and bread.
Annabelle says "there’s not a lot of formalised vegan or plant-based education yet there’s a huge growing market for people who want to eat that going out".
"There’s not a lot of formalised vegan or plant-based education yet there’s a huge growing market for people who want to eat that going out."
"I’m hoping we can look at accreditation avenues and where that can lead to”.
Annabelle is onto a winning combo, as Australia’s vegan market is surging ahead.
MAKER offers 13 different vegan workshops Source: MAKER
Research firm Euromonitor International has named Australia the third fastest growing vegan market in the world and predicts the packaged vegan food market will be worth $215 million within two years.
Australia is the third fastest growing vegan market in the world.
Annabelle’s business partner Kate Jones says she’s experienced the growth first hand in her side-business, the Sydney Vegan Market, which receives thousands of visitors each month.
“It’s quite a beast, we launched in November last year and when we’re in our full glory we’re about 120 stalls which are all vegan, all the time," explains Kate.
"A lot of the small businesses who hire the MAKER kitchen come via the Sydney Vegan Market.”
With both businesses now turning a profit, Kate and Annabelle are able to hire a number of full-time and casual staff.
Kate says they’ve established a safe space for marginalised members of the community, “because we’re known as queer, we get a lot of young queer folk applying for the roles that come up from time to time".
"Being vegan is an extension of our politics and we believe that no one can be free until we all are”.
Annabelle says staying true to herself has been her recipe to success.
“I’m most proud of just sustaining and surviving as someone who is of Indonesian background, who’s a woman, who’s queer, who lives with mental health issues. Being able to pull from everything that is my identity and turn that into myself in cake form, food form, workshop form. I couldn’t be happy otherwise”.
