Meet Bloorcourt bar The Steady’s award-winning vegan doughnut bagel (bagnut? doughgel?)

Meet Bloorcourt bar The Steady’s award-winning vegan doughnut bagel (bagnut? doughgel?)

(Image: Courtesy of Donut Showdown)

It takes a skilled chef to churn out great-tasting baked goods without using butter, milk or eggs. Last week, Toronto pastry whiz Vanessa Robak, the resident vegan-doughnut maker at Bloorcourt bar and café The Steady, proved her mastery by besting two other North American chefs on an episode of Food Network Canada’s weekly televised bake-off, Donut Showdown. Robak (with partner Baden Cunning) swayed the judges with three unique doughnut recipes, including a wasabi doughnut with sesame seeds and candied ginger, a champagne-glazed pastry with a Pop Rocks garnish and—most intriguing, perhaps—a bagel-esque hybrid with poppy seeds on top and cream cheese icing in the middle. The Steady has been serving its winning pastries throughout the week. (Check the café’s Twitter feed for future updates on daily doughnut flavours.)