West Sussex bakery Cactus Kitchen Gals shows people that 'anything can be vegan'

Sophie Cohen, owner of Cactus Kitchen Gals, began the business in Brighton in 2017 with the intention of being a catering company. But after taking part in Worthing' s Food & Drink festival and selling out in two hours, she opened the first fully-vegan eatery in the town and built up a loyal following during the cafe's three years.

Despite the cafe's success, Miss Cohen was forced to move elsewhere after Worthing Borough Council submitted plans to demolish buildings in the High Street and replace them with a creative hub.

Her business also naturally transformed during lockdown, when she started focusing more on baking bespoke celebration cakes. Her move to Riverside Industrial Estate in Littlehampton means she now has more space to build on this side of the business and is already planning to expand in the future with the hope that the Littlehampton vegan community will grow as it did in Worthing.

She said: "I don’t want to just bake things forever because I’ll get bored, but I don’t want to go back to what I was doing because I feel like that’s been done now.

"There’s still tonnes of things in the vegan food industry that haven’t been done.

"Physically where my shop was, there are now three vegan businesses within a five-minute walk, which is great and exactly what we need, but it does mean that I’m like ‘okay great, what’s next?’.

"A lot of our customers would come from Littlehampton and Rustington, and they would often say that there wasn’t as much in this direction.

"There’s something about it here, it reminds me of where Worthing was four years ago."

As she no longer has a site for people to dine-in, the business has taken a new form online. Customers can still get their fix of vegan treats by ordering products from the website, which can be posted or collected from the Littlehampton premises where they are baked. Miss Cohen also sells her products at a number of local markets and vegan festivals across Sussex.

The aim of Cactus Kitchen Gals is to 'show people that anything can be vegan'; currently, the business's most popular product is a Biscoff rocky road.

Miss Cohen said: "One of the biggest compliments I’ve ever had is I did an event in Eastbourne and people were like ‘I’ve been looking for you for ages because they said there was a vegan stand but everything just looks normal.'

"That’s the point!"

For anyone who is interested in adopting a vegan lifestyle, or who has completed the challenge of Veganuary and aims to stick to the pledge, Miss Cohen's advice is to 'find your people'.

She said: "Find people who support you, and be excited by food.

"If you like the creative aspect of it, there’s so much to do. There’s so much information on the internet, it’s unreal.

"There is quite a lot of trial and error. There’s been tonnes of experiments where I’ve gone ‘oh this looks awful, but it tastes good, so we’re nearly there!’

"I’m still finding my way with baking and playing around with it."

Miss Cohen believes the key to discussing veganism with others is to talk about it 'in quite a relaxed way'.

She said: "I don’t really shout about veganism. If I’m at an event, I don’t have anything saying ‘I’m 100% vegan’, but most of my customers are vegan and know that I am a vegan company.

"If you eat cake that I made, that doesn’t mean you want to be vegan, I just want to show people that there are other options available.

"The biggest thing is that there are so many people with allergies.

"A lot of people are like 'I’m lactose intolerant’ and I’m like ‘we’re all lactose intolerant because we’re not baby cows.’"

While the business no longer has the facilities to welcome customers inside, Cactus Kitchen Gals' products can still be found at multiple locations in Worthing, and Miss Cohen hopes to collaborate with Littlehampton businesses soon too.

The company, which originally started on Instagram, 'looks completely different than it did five years ago, but the values have remained the same.'

Miss Cohen said: "I just want to make great vegan stuff, and I’m doing that, so I’m excited about it."

Cactus Kitchen Gals' products — including monthly subscription boxes and bespoke celebration cakes — can be ordered online from the website. You can also find the company's baked goods at Worthing supermarket Hisbe Food, as well as cafes Bird and Blend and The Orchard.