This Black-Owned Bakery Is A Vegan Fan Favorite — & About To Be Everywhere

In 2018, husband and wife Marcus and Cara Pitts watched “What the Health,” a documentary exploring the connection between diet and chronic disease, and their lives were changed forever. Both went vegan shortly after, and when Cara left her corporate career to become a caregiver, her grandmother joined their plant-based journey and became their first official taste-tester for what would soon become a successful plant-based business, Southern Roots Vegan Bakery. 

The San Antonio, Texas-based couple wanted to provide a vegan alternative to their favorite desserts without sacrificing any of the taste. While they became popular for their cake donuts, their current top seller is Mary Lee’s Lemon Cake, named after Cara’s grandmother, who loves being a face of the company. Cara says her personal favorite are the Funfetti Volcano cupcakes: “It’s vanilla with sprinkles, and we call them Volcano cupcakes because they have the frosting in the middle. My husband’s favorite is our Chocolate Luxury [flavor]. He’s a chocolate head, so it’s chocolate on chocolate.”

When the pair created a vegan version of some of the desserts they loved for themselves, they began sharing them with their friends and family via church and community gatherings. Their passion carried them through a rigorous research and development process. Whether it was trying to find the best egg replacers or the key ingredients to make sure their cakes are still incredibly moist, they wanted to find a solution to the most common complaints they and others had with vegan desserts.

With the support of a culinary accelerator, which provided them with a 10-week college-style course that covered the essentials of starting a business, they began doing focus groups at farmers’ markets, and found that their customers weren’t exclusively vegan: Many clients wanted to try their products because of an allergy or health condition like diabetes. As their popularity grew, customers said they started coming to the market specifically for Southern Roots’ treats and one of them even provided the inspiration for their slogan, So Good You Won’t Believe It’s Vegan.

Part of Southern Roots’ tremendous growth came after a content creator mentioned them online, and then again during the global attention on the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. “It really pushed us to scale and grow quicker, but then it was also very bittersweet the way that we got all of this traction,” Cara explains. With the aid of mentors and other resources, they built up a small but mighty team of less than 10 staff that exponentially increased their output. Through the use of mass production equipment, they can pump out thousands of products in a day, and are prepared to scale again at a moment’s notice.

Their next venture includes expanding their product line and reach. Cara and Marcus recently acquired the vegan ice cream company, Cielo Scoops. They met the previous owners, a couple like themselves, at one of their farmers’ markets. The couple had decided to spend more time with their grandchildren, but had a great product and wanted to sell to someone they knew would be able to take the business further. Building off her experience as a caregiver, Cara hopes to get the product into hospitals and nursing homes, “Sometimes for seniors, we don’t really care about the quality of products and foods they’re getting, and I really wanted to change that narrative.”

With their recent integration of the ice cream into the Grand Hyatt hotel in San Antonio, Cara explains that the hospitality industry is another area they’d love to branch into. When she and her husband travel, they’ve noticed there often isn’t a quick and easy plant-based or allergen-friendly option in the lobby or to-go mart in the hotel they’re staying at, so they’ll have to order delivery or eat out. Where hotels are missing a huge opportunity for revenue for this target audience, Cara says they’re here and ready to partner to make it happen.

One of their biggest and most long-awaited goals this year — expanding into retail — has already manifested through their new partnership with American supermarket chain Sprouts Farmers Market, which launched in November. They’ve introduced three of their signature flavors of their beloved vegan cake donuts — Red Velvet, Vanilla, and Lemon Drop — to every store in Texas and California, with hopes to be in all locations before the end of the year. “It’s heartening to see Sprouts share our vision and passion for our brand,” Cara says. “We anticipate a fruitful and lasting collaboration with the Sprouts team.”

With nationwide shipping and pick-up options available in San Antonio, you can support Southern Roots Vegan Bakery year-round at their website, southernrootsvegan.com.