Craveable Treats

Cravings, a gluten-free bakery that has been delighting fans at farmers markets and coffee shops for years, now has a permanent storefront in downtown Wilmington.

Owner Charlotte Evans has planted roots with her first brick-and-mortar location, at 240 Princess St., giving customers an inviting space to enjoy her celiac-safe treats.

Evans’ journey into baking wasn’t the typical childhood story of learning in the kitchen. She studied accounting, earned her degree and worked a corporate job before her curiosity about how to incorporate healthier ingredients into baked goods became her passion project.

“I’ve always been fascinated by healthy eating,” she said. “About 10 years ago, I did a fitness competition that kind of opened my eyes to the fact that there weren’t many healthy snacks on the market.”

Evans said that she needed to follow a strict diet while training for the competition, and the lack of snacks that fit within the parameters of the diet led her to start experimenting with recipes at home. Her earliest experiment was a simple muffin designed to help her stick to her competition diet.

“I made a protein muffin with whole grains, oats and blueberries and things like that,” she said. “I showed it to my fitness coach, and he approved it. So that was how I survived – a lot of muffins during that program.”

Before long, Evans was hooked on experimenting with replacing ingredients traditionally found in baked goods with healthier options.

“I started testing new recipes, taking out regular sugar, adding agave, oats, and more wholesome ingredients,” Evans said. “Everything happened to be dairy-free because I couldn’t have dairy, and then it happened to be gluten-free, not on purpose, but just because that’s what fit the diet. And then two years after having fun and testing things and having fun in the kitchen, I found out I was celiac, so it was kind of meant to be.”

Over time, those experiments turned into dozens of recipes ranging from muffins and brownies to cinnamon buns, pop-tarts, cupcakes, cookies and what is now her top seller: doughnuts. First-time customers are often surprised when they learn everything is gluten-free. In fact, because all of the kitchen equipment is new, none of it has ever touched flour.

Cravings baked goods are made primarily with almond flour, oats, potato starch and arrowroot powder. Unsweetened almond milk is generally used in place of dairy.

When it comes to ingredients, Evans takes a thoughtful approach, swapping in healthier alternatives without sacrificing flavor.

“Instead of canola oil, we use unsweetened applesauce or coconut oil,” Evans said. “In place of sugar, we like to use agave. I have used maple syrup and coconut sugar as well. And we use a lot of natural fruit to sweeten.”

She’s also tackled vegan baking techniques, using flax meal or aquafaba – the liquid from chickpeas – in place of eggs. Aquafaba acts as an emulsifier and foaming agent as well as a binding agent in baked goods.

“It’s really cool,” Evans said. “It’s more of an egg white substitution that you’ll fold into your recipe. We do that with our doughnuts, and that makes them lighter and fluffier.”

After years of wholesaling to coffee shops across the Port City – you’ll find Cravings items at Bespoke, Java Dog, Café Mata and Sundays Café at Wrightsville Beach, just to name a few – selling at farmers markets and taking special orders, Evans had grown a bit weary of working out of commissary kitchens and pondered taking her business to the next level. The availability of the Princess Street storefront felt like fate.

“As soon as I walked in, I knew this was it,” Evans said. “This is the perfect size, has great character and it was perfect timing. When I first started this, I had no intention of being a storefront owner; I just wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. It was something I could do that fit my lifestyle.”

Now open Thursday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Cravings offers an ever-changing menu of sweets and savory items. Seasonal scones, biscuits, cupcakes and her beloved peanut butter cookie cake – a thick, frosting-topped version of her popular chickpea peanut butter blondie – are customer favorites.

Evans points out that the items she sells from the shops are different from those she sells to her wholesale clients. She also takes custom orders for cakes and other baked goods and offers a variety of sample boxes for delivery and pick up.

The open kitchen at Cravings allows Evans and her fellow bakers to interact with customers throughout the day.

“It’s really nice to be in this space and to see customers again, because for a long time I was always in the kitchen,” she said. “So seeing people come in, old faces, new faces, that’s been a lot of fun.”

With Cravings, Evans has created a cozy gathering space where dietary restrictions and healtly choices don’t feel like limits, but opportunities.