“Who doesn’t like a cupcake?” says Shotgun Café co-creator Michelle Bodner (left) when we meet up at the Beaver Café (1192 Queen W.), where she and partner May Brand sell their gluten-free and vegan breads and baked goods. Of course it’s easy to love a cupcake when it’s pretty much guilt-free. Yet their pastries hold their own against the milk and sugar variety, even beating out 80 other entrants to win one of the categories at this year’s Cupcake Camp Competition — an ad hoc event started by San Francisco “digital anthropologist” Ariel Waldman. That’s right: cupcakes that are actually good for you and taste good. Where do I sign up?
The pair began experimenting with recipes three years ago because, as Bodner confesses, “a lot of the gluten-free stuff out there is crap. Number one, it tastes like cardboard; it’s really dry and crumbly. It’s a poor imitation of bread or baked goods they’re trying to make. And number two, we are both vegetarian and [I am] vegan, and a lot of the gluten-free stuff has skim milk powder or gelatin or other things in it.”
But as any you may imagine, simply substituting gluten-free ingredients doesn’t always work out. Thankfully Brand’s experience as a vegetarian chef allowed them to perfect their recipes.
“She’s just absolutely brilliant at veganizing anything; she can take any conventional recipe or concept and turn it into this amazingly delicious vegan meal. And she loves a challenge,” Bodner says.
“It took about a year and a half of experimenting, but May really understands the chemistry of how different ingredients work.”
That’s a lot of trial and error, but it definitely paid off.
Word got around of their culinary prowess, and as Bodner tells it: “It just came out of starting to bake for our friends who were desperate and then they recommended to other friends. And the word travels very fast, especially in the queer community.” Add in the fact that Brand is a promoter and DJs the Foxhole and Hump Day Bump nights, and soon the pair were doing weddings and baby showers. “It wasn’t until last September that we just officially formalized a bit and decided what products we were making and promoting a bit,” Bodner adds.
They haven’t even opened a proper café yet — they’re selling through the Beaver and taking orders online — but they hope to eventually indulge Brand’s cowboy fascination with a western-themed storefront in the heart of the burgeoning Queer West scene.
So why choose Parkdale over an obvious Church Street destination? “The west-end queer scene is really diverse — it’s not like the Church street scene and concentrated on this one strip,” Bodner says. “I’ve lived in the west end for years and years and seeing the scene develop over the last 10 years is really impressive.
For more information about how to purchase baked goods from Shotgun Café, visit www.shotguncafe.com.