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The owner of a brand new all-vegan bakery says many "wouldn't be able to tell the difference" between her treats and non-vegan cakes.

Elle Connell, 25, has opened the Ellephant Vegan bakery, located in Stockton Business Centre, with help from her partner, Alex Mountjoy, 25.

After struggling to find vegan-friendly desserts for herself and her boyfriend, both of whom have been vegan for almost three years now, Elle decided to experiment with making her ideal treats.

She said: “Everything else available was just typically vegan: so lots of nuts and seeds - which can be nice but there wasn't anything like a really dirty cake or a dirty brownie.

“I kind of learned just to do it just for us. So that we could have something and then it just expanded.”

Ms Connell believes that any incorporation of vegan alternative into a person’s diet is a step in the right direction, adding that most people can not taste the difference between her vegan cakes and non-vegan alternatives.

(Image: evening gazette)

Ellephant Vegan Bakery offers a range of desserts including giant iced cookies, giant brownies and occasion cakes for weddings and birthdays which she has been selling since October 2018.

One of her customer’s favourites is her nanaimo bar, made up of three layers with a coconut-biscuit base, set custard and chocolate on top.

The pun ‘Ellephant’ came from her boyfriend’s nickname for Elle Connell.

She said: “I was thinking that I want a bit of me in my brand and I want a bit of me in my business - so it’s a little bit sentimental.”

Ms Connell expects that the orders will be flooding in this Christmas, resulting in a lengthy waiting list. For those who are worried about missing out on the vegan confectionaries, however, Ellephant Vegan Bakery will be making plenty of market appearances over December including the Orange Pip Market and Ingleby Barwick Markets.

Along with the opening of the bakery on Sunday, Ms Connell is also launching a YouTube channel to document the journey of the bakery.