The contents of a pink doughnut box are usually pretty predictable — chocolate- or sprinkle-covered rings that offer a bit of sweetness and chewiness to get you through your morning. But at Eizel’s Bakery, a pop-up in the South Bay, some of the doughnuts are glazed with crackly caramelized sugar while others are filled with saucy crustaceans. Another Korean-inspired, doughnut-adjacent treat erupts with garlicky custard when you bite in.
Of course, Eizel’s isn’t the first bakery to try to reinvent the doughnut. But the way the pop-up blends classical pastry techniques with a wildly multicultural palette of flavors and ingredients sets it apart from the crowd.
Like so many other home bakers, Eizel Mafnas started her pop-up in 2021 as a way to connect with her community during the pandemic. Then, as now, she juggled the bakery with an IT job at the Stanford Children’s Hospital. “I thought, what’s the harm in starting a business?” says Mafnas. “If it works out, great I’ll keep doing it while it’s still fun for me. Three years later, I’m still having a lot of fun — though it is a lot of work.”
Mafnas began by selling brownies, using a recipe she refined over years of baking for family and friends. Now, the business has evolved to include Bombay chex mix, bacon jam empanadas and, as of this year, a creative collection of both sweet and savory doughnuts.
A couple of Mafnas’s doughnuts are inspired by the flavors of the Philippines, where she grew up. “I’m most proud of my ube doughnut,” says Mafnas. “I wanted to make something for the person who hasn’t had any exposure to Filipino culture.” The purple doughnut features ube in three ways: She fills ube brioche with creamy ube jam and sprinkles the outside with ube polvorón, a common shortbread she grew up eating in the Philippines. Another doughnut features calamansi, or Filipino lime. The final product feels like a hybrid between sponge cake and key lime pie, oozing with tangy custard.
