When Matthew Garrett has a stressful day, he heads for the kitchen.
“I noticed that I would come home from a stressful day and cook for my partner. I’ve always been a feeder, I’ve always liked to cook and play, but I have no professional training. [I am] completely self-taught,” he says.
What used to be a hobby led to the creation of Moonshine Doughnuts, a small business he runs with his partner, Simon Underwood.
“We’ve been doing Moonshine Doughnuts for about three years now [since 2011]. It started just as a hobby at the farmer’s market and Edmonton has been very receptive and people encouraged us so we just continued to do it," says Matthew. “It was a trend I noticed about four years ago; it was something that was starting to show up more and more frequently in bigger cities. I know that Edmonton is usually behind the times, so I thought I would bring Edmonton a bit into the future with fancy gourmet doughnuts.”
You might know these doughnut connoisseurs as Heritage Baked Goods, their former moniker. If you’re not familiar with their mouth-watering baked doughnuts, now is the time to change that. Some of their doughnuts are gluten-free, some are egg and dairy free, some are free of all three, and all are delicious. They sell them in packs at farmers’ markets around the city, keeping demand high throughout the year. Flavours like hibiscus and gimme gimme s’more keep the people happy.