Burlington Mother and daughter team plan to make their Brant street stores the centre of the vegan food universe.

News 100 greenBy Pepper Parr

August 10th, 2015

BURLINGTON, ON

Cupcakes from Burlington being sold in Dubai. Wow – could that actually happen?

Kellys - Mother and daugter - kelly lk down - not all bd

Erinn Weatherbie and her Mon Kelly Child look over the schedule for the day – their marketing mantra is set out on the white board behind them

Well the actual cupcake may not get made in Dubai but the recipe and the concept will have come from the agile mind of Kelly Child who has operated Kellys Bake Shop with her daughter on Brant Street for the past two years.

The operation was recently voted 3rd (and only Vegan bakery) on BuzzFeed’s list of top 25 cupcake shops in the world. It’s an amazing story for a Burlington based business.

What is BuzzFeed? If you are into social media – and isn’t everyone – you will know who they are. For those who don’t know, BuzzFeed labels itself as the “Most Important News Organization in the World,”

BuzzFeed seems to have found a business model that allows it to enjoy “true journalistic independence.” (That model is “sponsored content”—copy that is produced jointly by BuzzFeed and an advertiser to blend in with editorial copy, with a small, inconspicuous identifier of the sponsor.)
After the Boston marathon bombing sent a surge of traffic to the site, BuzzFeed brought over Lisa Tozzi from The New York Times to build a breaking-news team. It also hired Miriam Elder, a correspondent for The Guardian in Moscow, to create a world desk; it now has a dozen reporters and editors stretching from Mexico City to Nairobi. In 2013 BuzzFeed formed an investigative unit as well.

So BuzzFeed would appear to have clout and worldwide reach – which explains why Kelly and her daughter and their publicist are all a twitter over the thousands of people who walk through their doors.

Kellys - her with cup cakes-edit

Delicious – without the guilt – or so they say. Childs wants to become the Martha Stewart of the vegan food world.

This all got started with the opening of a restaurant in March of 2010 called Kindfoods, a new restaurant concept conceived from a deep inspiration of healthy vegan (plant-based), and gluten-free eating and ultimately living in harmony with Mother Nature.

KindFoods got renamed and is now known as “Lettuce Love Café” ; their food is 100% authentic vegan, gluten-free, peanut-free – the healthier choice is the way Kelly and Erinn put it and add that their business is not just a food choice but a lifestyle choice as well.

The restaurant proved there was a market for vegan food in Burlington – the cupcakes were an extension into a product that had become very very popular.

Kellys - kitchen

Pink prevails in a spotless kitchen where cupcakes get produced by the thousands.

Their publicist says their cupcakes are delicious, stand head to head with the fat and sugar laden varieties, but these are guilt-free – vegan, gluten-free, peanut-free – the healthier choice

Kelly has a rapidly growing on-line following; #kellystribe who follow not just for food advice but also for inspiration and to be part of a community of life minded, health conscious eaters.

Childs adds that “It’s good for the soul when we know it’s local, fair-trade and organic and kind to living things and the planet.” She adds that great food does make a difference.

Kelly and Erinn are both very savvy and walk the talk about their insights and food philosophies. All of their food is 100% authentically Vegan – not just by way of ingredients, but also in the way they think about the planet and being socially conscious – kind food.

Kelly is a “marketer” – the product happens to be something she is passionate about but the strength is that of a big picture marketer.  Erinn has a degree in political science that she earned at McMaster. Her Mom lived in Toronto at the time and followed Erinn to Burlington where they are in the process of building an empire on cupcakes that are vegan.

They are working on their first cookbook which will be published by Random House in 2016. There are literally thousands of cook books out there – to have Random House pick up your book is a big big deal

To have investors in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates express a financial interest in what you are doing is also a big deal.  Are there dollars on the table – not yet but Kelly and her daughter Erinn are looking far beyond the borders of Burlington.

Kellys - counter of cup cakes with people

Exceptional marketing savvy are creating a brand that is becoming known around the world.

When a small shop on Brant Street draws several thousand people on a weekend and gets written up in one of the hottest news sources you know something is happening.

The underlying product will be cupcakes but that appears to be just the beginning.

Kelly Childs, who is exceptionally fit, does yoga and appears to have tapped into all the progressive approaches to running a retail operation, is clearly on a roll.

Where does she see all this going? She wants to become the Martha Stewart of healthy food choices and the cookbook is going to be the launching pad for that world reach effort.

The Martha Stewart of vegan food eh!, from Burlington you say. Keep an eye on this one

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3 comments to Burlington Mother and daughter team plan to make their Brant street stores the centre of the vegan food universe.

  • Guy

    There is nothing sugar free with any treat, all loaded with sugar and very fat for the human body. I would never go to that place.

  • Steve Smith

    Curious, because the article goes out of its way to mention the product is, gluten free and peanut free, and totally vegan, but nowhere does it say it’s sugar free or what they’re using as a sweetening substitute, if indeed, they are sugar free.

  • Steve Smith

    How is stuffing sugar laden cupcakes down one’s throat, health conscious?

    Editor’s note – |Supposed to be no sugar in the things.