Meet Alexondria Bennefield | Vegan & Allergy-Friendly Baker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Alexondria Bennefield and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Alexondria, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
Hello everyone!! My name is Xan and I am the Founder and baker for Benne’s Sweet Treats. I’d like to share my journey with you about why I decided to start making allergy-friendly treats. One of my main reasons is because I have several allergy-sensitive, vegan, and vegetarian family members. I also remember there was a completely separate table at my school for kids with allergies and I always felt it was horrible that they were made to sit in isolation because of something that they had no control over. I had to watch kids be affected by allergies my whole life in one way or another and not be able to enjoy the savory treats that I’d always taken for granted. My whole life, I have always watched my mom and great-granny in the kitchen cooking big family dinners and baking those sweet delectable desserts that filled the air with an aroma that I have always equated with home, love, and family. It was that feeling that always made me feel warm and cozy at home. You could tell that they put their love into everything that came out of the kitchen and it sure always tasted that way. Yuuummmmy!!!
From watching them at a young age, I became obsessed with the baking shows on Food Network and Netflix. Rae Drummond’s “The Pioneer Women” and Paula Dean were two of my favorite shows. From them, I learned even more about cooking and baking. I loved the feeling of family that they had on their shows. This is something that I’ve wanted to bring to other people’s homes through my baking. So I started practicing my craft and was soon baking every week and would share my delectable treats wherever I could. I would share my treats with my neighbors, family, and friends. My family would even take my creations to work with them, and I’m proud to say they were a smash hit! Then when we started to get involved with charity work, my network expanded and I was able to share my idea of home, love, and community, with many of the people that live on the streets or that stayed in shelters within our community.
During my high school years, cooking and baking became my outlet and stress reducer. Baking a simple cookie became my solace. I started simply by the creation of the different baking war shows on Food Network my creativity grew and grew.
I, like so many others, have struggled with allergies my whole life. Originally I was allergic to only peanuts and seafood. However, now in my mid-twenties, I began to notice allergies to other products. It wasn’t until this past year, where I developed my own severe allergies to a lot of your everyday and basic cooking products. Many of the items that are in my/our most beloved baked goods such as, milk, all milk products, gluten, and peanuts. When all this began, going out with family and friends, was so challenging for me to find good food to eat. As an avid food lover, I enjoy all types of foods, yet I found that the same foods that I had always loved and enjoyed so much made me severely ill. I was devastated!! I felt that I was now severely restricted and could no longer do the one thing that brought me peace of mind. The food was challenging enough but the baked goods, the baked goods were a complete disaster. Finding good quality, moist, and delicious baked goods were now an impossibility. Or so I thought……
So, back into the kitchen I went, my family began to call it “The Lab” lol, and I got creative. I started playing with my old receipts and substituting all of the new vegan, plant-based, allergy-friendly items that I was now required to use.
It was then that I remembered all of those kids that I grew up with and how they couldn’t enjoy the simple pleasure that I had always taken for granted, and it lit a fire in me. I was determined to make something that I could enjoy again. This challenge gave me a new purpose in life. You could say I was obsessed with making something great again!
It took me months and a lot of searching, playing with products and combinations but I finally found the perfect balance. I decided to try my new product on my mother, who I’m going to add here, is the most finicky and picky eater on the planet who never tries anything new or different, so she would never try any of my desserts because they were “allergy-friendly”. So I swapped a batch of her reg desserts with a few of my own. When she came to tell me how good they were, BINGO! I knew I had achieved something great! If she said it was good and it was allergy-friendly, oh my! She couldn’t believe it.
So, I decided to start an at-home, online bakery that would allow, people like myself, the ability to eat delicious, sweet treats within their dietary restrictions. Thus the idea of Benne’s Sweet Treats was born. We make everything from scratch and it tastes like it too. Our goal for the products that we make is to make you feel as if you were at home with every bite that you take. Everything in our store is plant-based and allergy-friendly.
Having allergies or dietary restrictions can be so frustrating. Going vegan or plant-based can be challenging because its something new and you don’t know what to expect, but it can also be quite rewarding when you find a vegan restaurant or bakery, or a plant-based restaurant and/or bakery that makes you forget that you even have allergies and you think that you’re eating like you used! That is what Benne’s Sweet Treats aims to do. Make you forget you even have allergies, yet ensuring that you are eating within your dietary restrictions.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
My goal as a bakery is to provide a service for those who struggle with allergies and dietary restrictions. However, my treats don’t stop there. The sweats that I make are not only vegan friendly, allergy friendly but they also appeal to the day to day consumer who doesn’t have any allergies at all. People who don’t have any allergies have tried my delicious detectable and have been pleasantly surprised that they can’t tell the difference between something that is allergy friendly, vegan, and something created in the the normal fashion. The thing that I pride myself on and what inspired me to start baking was because I hated the dry, brittle, and tasteless flavor of many of the current Vegan options. Almost like, because one doesn’t consume animal products, they don’t have the desire for flavorful food and desserts and that’s far from the truth. What sets me a part from other vegan bakers is the fact that I became vegan out of necessity due to developing five food allergies within the last year. I have found that most vegan bakeries make treats for Vegans and maybe people who have gluten allergies or prefer to be gluten free, however I haven’t found many if any that cater to people with different food allergies. For example, I am someone who can not eat peanuts yet quite often Vegan foods are made utilizing peanuts as a substitute. I make treats that are not only plant based, Gluten-free, and allergy friendly, but my treats taste good for the every day consumer who don’t have any restrictions of any kind. I’ve found most can’t even tell the difference. I want people to just be able to enjoy good food, so I make my desserts so they can enjoy them no matter is they have dietary restrictions or not!

I got to where I am today by having drive, ambition, and a passion for making a positive difference in the lives of others. Two weekends ago I was able to make treats for a young 7yr old girl who has 5-pages of allergies and had never had a dessert in her life, I created a Vanilla, almond, coconut, cupcake with an apple filling that was soy-free, milk, spice, egg, gluten-free, and plant based. And She LOVED it!! This one dessert made me so proud and it filled my heart with joy to be able to create the first dessert that this young lady has ever been able to eat. Can you imagine being 7yrs old and have never had anything sweet?! Never had a bday cake, a cookie, pie, or doughnut? I was beyond honored to be able to change that for her! I have a pure passion for what I do. My food tastes good because I infuse love and generations of recipes changed and modified to now suit my needs.

Before I started my own bakery, I worked at PPCC and MSU Denver doing marketing and communications. Before I worked for the two higher education institutions, I worked at Walt Disney World in Orlando FL for over a year and a half. It was there that I learned the importance of customer service and providing a magical experience. Their I learned how to give my customers the magic they want to feel in their day to day lives. Every time you order from me I want it to be an experience! Magic is what I strive to provide for each of my customers every time they get a delectable treat from my bakery. I want my customers to feel the love and soul that I put into my craft. The love they felt when they ate a treat straight off the plate in grandma’s kitchen.
I have always been a champion for the underdog being a minority. Now with my bakery, I am able to speak up for those who have food restrictions and allergies as well!

It is easy? No! Having a specialty bakery can be expensive, but I try to keep my prices to everyday lower prices that you would find anywhere. I am not here to make anyone feel robed by the price they have to pay but for them to feel comfortable and be able to eat sweats even though they too have dietary restrictions.

When starting a business there are so many obstacles for you to over come. You have to think of perception, packaging, costs, starting up, where to be seen, how to establish trust and more. It can be overwhelming at times to think of all of these things, but what keeps me level is meditating and breaking things down into small pieces in my mind, like iron man did when building his armor. I try to think of the different out comes that could happen in each situation and pick the best option for my brand and consumers. I have learned that not everything can be rushed. Some things will take time, I will make mistakes, but with each mistake there is an opportunity for growth and a lesson learned! You have to learn from your mistakes and look at and for a different out come. Without mistakes you can’t advance.

Something that I cherish is communication and customer service. I communicate with my customers on everything that happens with their orders, so that they are never left in the dark. Customers know when their orders are received, worked on, out for delivery, arriving and delivered. There is never a question on what may or may no be happening with their order. I found that this brings customers and especially new customers a kind of peace and happiness.

What I want people to know about my brand is that I am here for them. It doesn’t matter if you have five pages of allergies or zero dietary restrictions. The flavors will always be there and I will always be there. This is a family w r and every member and new member will have love.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to dedicate a special thank you to my parents who raised me Adia Higgins and Michael Higgins for being supportive of me and my dreams. Without their love and support I wouldn’t be the women that I am today. They have taught me so many valuable things that help me in my business every day.

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