Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Valerie Vedral. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Valerie, appreciate you joining us today. Looking back, do you think you started your business at the right time? Do you wish you had started sooner or later

I started The Vulgar Vegan in 2021 after many years of dreaming about opening my own vegan restaurant or cafe. Several years before business was born, I actually had baked cupcakes for a wedding. When the pandemic hit, I realized it was time to take steps toward launching my business. While I sometimes do wish I had started my business sooner, I do think everything happened at the time it was supposed to.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

The Vulgar Vegan is a gourmet vegan cupcake bakery that offers cupcakes made with high-quality, premium ingredients and served with a side of sass! We also offer a line of specialty-grade roast coffees. Our cupcakes and coffees are meant for those customers who want a sweet vegan indulgence and a damn fine cup of coffee as well as those who would like to have a decadent dessert that is all around better for you and the environment. We love to create truly unique vegan cupcakes that you won’t find in any grocery store – from the vegan Hawaiian French toast-topped Breakfast at Tiffany’s that is dusted with edible diamond glitter dust to the blueberry lavender delight Damn Right I Got The Blues. In 2022, The Vulgar Vegan was part of the inaugural Berwyn Shops business incubator project’s first season and was a runner up in Ingredion’s Plant-based Protein Cook-Off. The Vulgar Vegan has participated in the Riverside Farmer’s Market, Austin Town Hall City Market, Brookfield Farmer’s Market, Naperville Artisan Market, Oak Brook Artisan Market, Chicago Vegan Test Kitchen’s markets, Cruelty Free You + Me’s Vegan in the Burbs markets, the One Of A Kind Spring Show at The Mart, Local Edition Luxury Farmers Market and more.

Although vegan and plant-based foods have become more mainstream, it can still be difficult to find a sweet vegan indulgence made with attention to detail and quality ingredients. The Vulgar Vegan addresses the lack of cruelty-free and allergy-friendly baked goods. We provide unique and delicious cupcakes and coffees for those looking for a sweet indulgence. Many of our customers have food allergies and we work with them to bake cupcakes free of their allergens so they can indulge in a delicious dessert. Most bakeries and grocery stores offer a limited selection of flavors and limit the ability of customers to select as many flavors as they’d like in their box of cupcakes. At The Vulgar Vegan, we offer customers the ability to create a truly custom box of cupcake flavors guaranteed to wow the crowds.

In December, we placed second in the Grubhub x The Hatchery pitch competition and won six months of private kitchen space. We also recently launched on Grubhub.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Social media is one of the fun parts of marketing The Vulgar Vegan! We’ve grown our Facebook and Instagram following organically over the past few years and have unique audiences across the two platforms. We also are proud to have an engaged following on both platforms. My advice to others looking to build their brand on social media is to be authentic and relatable to your core audience.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

All of our cupcakes are produced at The Hatchery in our private kitchen. The Vulgar Vegan is unlike other bakeries and grocery store bakery departments in that we create an experience that starts the second customers look at our menu. We offer customers the opportunity to create a truly unique and custom order – mixing up flavors in their cupcake box. We also provide catering services, baking cupcakes for events from birthdays to weddings to corporate get togethers. Additionally, we understand that some customers have food allergies and work with our customers on those allergies so they can enjoy a sweet treat without worry.

For our coffee line, we work with a small, family-owned copacker. Working with a small, family-owned business partner was important and aligned with our values at The Vulgar Vegan.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thevulgarvegancupcakes.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thevulgarvegancupcakes/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vlgrvegancupcakes
• Other: https://www.grubhub.com/restaurant/r/7780984

Image Credits
Photos from The Vulgar Vegan