Apiecalypse Now!

When you ask Jen Bundock how she got into baking, she jokingly talks about her days as a “procrastibaker.” “I was in grad school and any time I felt like not working on my grad degree, I wasted some time making food,” she says. Being vegan, Jen experimented with baked goods and savoury treats that tasted great without any animal products. Soon after, she toyed with the idea of starting her own vegan operation. In 2011, she started selling her baked goods at local farmers’ markets in the Distillery District and at University of Toronto under the name Apiecalypse Now! In 2014, the operation moved into a bricks-and-mortar location in Mirvish Village.

While Jen initially focused on making delicious baked foods, she noticed so many other great vegan bakeries had popped up since she started Apiecalypse Now! “I was friends with most of the people who owned them and we were all part of a pretty close-knit community who all came up at the same time.” So when she received noticed in late 2014 that the building where she ran Apiecalypse Now! was to be demolished, she took the opportunity to switch gears and fill a new niche, avoiding competition with her fellow vegan bakers.