10 January 2025
Alt Bakery is a snug, plant-based little piece of heaven creating quite the stir in the local baked-goods scene. This vegan bakery is the brainchild of Jasmine Bivins, who left a more traditional career path in food to pour her heart and soul into an establishment where creativity, quality, and community reign supreme. Alt Bakery has something of a devoted following, one that we, too, are about to join. Over the next few pages, we will take you into Alt Bakery’s world.
What makes Alt Bakery stand out?
First and foremost, it’s the unshakable commitment to vegan baking. Every single thing is 100% plant-based—no eggs, no dairy, just them being them and doing what they do best. When I think about Sweet Girl, I think about them taking classic baked goods and giving them a creative twist that yields something really satisfying and delicious. I don’t know about you, but I don’t come across that many key lime pies these days. So a key lime pie swirl roll, with fresh-squeezed lime juice, cream-cheese-like icing, and graham cracker crumbs, might just be the next best way to experience that flavor. When that flavor goes roll, it pretty much seems like something you need to roll with.
Alt Bakery is a small business that wears its personality on its sleeve. Their Instagram feed is full of behind-the-scenes shots—dough rising, vibrant frostings being piped, happy customers—that make for a warm “kitchen-to-table” vibe. They’ve even embraced their inner goth-baker aesthetic, playing with hashtags like #allblackallthetime to show off dark chocolate creations with attitude.
Another thing the Alt Bakery is doing is having a good time with it. They really know how to throw a shindig when it comes to marking the important stuff. Not long ago, they did a 20% off sale brought on by their third anniversary — I think of it less as a sale and more as a birthday gift to the customers. At least it came with fun instructions: use promo code BDAY20 at checkout and, oh by the way, your sale order will also include a chocolate chunk cookie.
The tale that accompanies the bakery is no less remarkable. In a piece highlighting the bakery’s work, founder Jasmine Bivins shared with Voyager Raleigh that Alt Bakery was born from a desire to offer something more inventive and nutritious in the vegan space. Bivins aimed to go beyond the typical healthy choices we associate with vegan food and deliver indulgent flavors that, honestly, anyone—vegan or not—would enjoy. This mission shines through in each treat they make.
Even though they are tagged as being in Charlotte (think #charlottevegan), Alt Bakery serves the world from its online, delivery, and local pickup interface. This setup places their unfocused business directly in the home of quality and creativity. Foot traffic is not a bakery’s friend; customers want to buy everything in glass cases, and only the things that look great in glass cases, which is not how baked goods are meant to be. Alt Bakery takes advantage of being a delivery service that has a locally pickuppable interface to blow sweet kisses of creativity right to your door.
In the future, followers of the Alt Bakery’s Instagram can look forward to many more of the same rotating specials, creative sweet-roll innovations, and all the many ways that pastry chef Jasmine and her team use to say ‘thank you’ and ‘celebrate’ with our taste buds (those are the Instagram posts you want to pay attention to, by the way, because they’re usually the lead-up to some kind of amazing discount).
The Alt Bakery team is dedicated to expanding their reach and serving up these creative, rewind-worthy designs to many more of us—that part’s clear. And whether you’re fully vegan, trying plant-based, or just plain loving every outrageous, delicious way that pastry can be fun, there are some new, tasty options waiting for you.
For information about updates, offerings, and ordering, their Instagram profile is the place to go: https://www.instagram.com/altbakery/.
If you find yourself in or near the greater Charlotte area, be sure to look out for our local pop-ups and the pickup information for our goods—they sell out fast!
Alt Bakery demonstrates that the art of vegan baking is alive and well—thriving, in fact—and that it can be every bit as hedonistic, wholesome, and cozy as its non-vegan counterparts.