Owner and baker Allyson Moore always loved to bake, but she never expected it would become a necessity or a career path. However, after dealing with continuous health issues, she took an allergy test and found out she was allergic to gluten, beef, dairy, egg, olive, corn and tapioca. She altered her diet to eliminate those products, but found that many gluten-free products contained soy and tapioca.
Tired of spending hours at the store poring over product labels, Moore took matters into her own hands.
“I was unable to find many foods that I could eat, so I started making it myself,” Moore said.
In 2012 she began selling food she baked in her own home at the Oxford Farmer’s Market. The name of the business came from Moore’s nickname for her husband Carter, who is also the taste-tester. For a while she worked out of Findlay Kitchen in Over-the-Rhine before opening the Hamilton storefront, which Chubby Bunny shares with the Chickpea Chicks, in November 2019.
Offerings at Chubby Bunny include muffins, cupcakes, brownies, cookies, donuts and cakes. Everything is made from scratch with natural ingredients, and it is free of gluten, eggs, tree nuts, peanuts and dairy. Soy and artificial coloring allergies are also accommodated. Because many allergies can be triggered by even the slightest hint of an allergen, Chubby Bunny avoids cross-contaminating utensils. For further information, the website, chubbybunnybakery.com, provides nutritional information on all products sold.
As with many businesses, post-COVID inflation has caused a strain on what could be an expensive endeavor to begin with.
“Our biggest challenge as of late is inflation on cost of ingredients and packaging supplies,” Moore said. “Our cost to produce the product has gone up drastically since the COVID pandemic and continues to increase.”
She said the added costs are worth it to serve people like herself who have special dietary needs and provide them with things they can’t normally find.
“The best part is being able to tell people the product is safe for them to eat when they are so used to being told no,” Moore said.
Chubby Bunny Bakery is located at 216 Main St. in Hamilton. It is open from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Fridays and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays.
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