London-based Crosstown Doughnuts is launching a vegan range to tie in with National Vegetarian Week (15-21 May).

The first vegan doughnut will be released on 19 May, and the bakery will then release a new vegan sourdough flavour into its stores each week.

“Our objective was to create a vegan doughnut every bit as delicious as any other doughnut we make,” said Crosstown director JP Then. “We wanted to move away from the misconception that vegan options aren’t as good as ‘the real thing’.”

He added that any vegan alternative is always going to invite comparison, “and we’re confident that they live up to it – our vegan doughnuts are the real thing, just made with different ingredients”.

Crosstown has used coconut butter and chia seeds to replace butter and eggs in the dough, with oat milk, dark chocolate and silken tofu in the glazes and fillings to achieve similar tastes and textures to Crosstown’s vegetarian doughnut flavours.

The first of the new range will be a  chocolate truffle ring – vegan sourdough with a dark chocolate ganache and dark chocolate truffle filling – followed by a classic vanilla glazed ring and the company’s best-selling cinnamon scroll.