Inside what looks like a witch's cottage on wheels is a mobile bakery.
Aptly named, Broomsticks Bakery is a food truck that has started going out since the last week of September to sell its baked goods.
The food truck was designed to go with the witchy name that her friends helped her come up with.
“I liked the idea of when I’m in the kitchen, it's kind of like alchemy, it's kind of like magic,” owner Shaina Dwiel said.
The truck, which is open in front of Harmony School on East Second Street on Fridays, serves from-scratch baked goods. Dwiel said the truck tries to cater to all by having gluten-free and vegan options.
Dwiel tries to make the baked goods a little healthier than typical bakeries by using natural ingredients, no artificial sweeteners and adding things like nuts or nut butter for protein in the food.
Dwiel mentioned a chocolate doughnut she made using almond butter, maple syrup as the sweetener and raw cacao for taste.
Dwiel baked throughout high school for her mother’s dinner parties and said she learned to bake a lot of things from scratch when she moved to Bloomington and lived in a co-op.
“I’ve been wanting to bake and sell my goods for a long time, and it's never seemed right,” Dwiel said.
She said now that her kids are in school, her husband convinced her to open a food truck, but she still wants more flexibility in her schedule than owning a store front would provide.
The inspiration for the name comes from the Three Broomsticks restaurant in the "Harry Potter" series.
The trailer was made by Bloomington company Carpenter Owl, and Dwiel said every detail was thought out.
This is apparent from a large glass window that allows customers to see the baked goods, the patterned curtains, which are made from Guatemalan fabric and the handmade broomstick that hangs outside. Dwiel said the roof of the trailer is made of ceilings of old railway cars and the siding is old pickle barrels.
She said she made the bar that hangs off the outside by herself from an old tree.
She preps her items beforehand but also has a small oven in the truck to bake on-site.
The menu changes each time the truck is out, but she said she bases it off what’s in season or popular at the time. A couple weeks ago she was offering apple cider, pumpkin scones and apple muffins.
Tuesday, she was offering the scones again along with sweet potato cinnamon rolls, carrot cake bread, blondies and cheddar crisps.
Tuesday was also her first day parking on Kirkwood Avenue, but she said she plans to park there more often.
Seniors Makala Morales and Tess Ruzga said they visited the food truck because when they were driving by they thought it was a tiny home and wanted to check it out.
Morales has Celiac disease,so she said she was excited about the gluten-free options. She was eating the blondie and said she loved the texture.
“I got the carrot cake with maple cream cheese, and I will say I’m at a solid 12 out of 10 right now,” Ruzga said.
They said were excited about the new truck and said they plan to be regulars now.
