I scream, you scream, we all scream for donuts, and the creations at Zombee Donuts just might have you spooked. With Halloween right around the corner, a visit to this unique donut shop in Fullerton will get you in the spirit.

An Inspired Bakery

Since opening on Feb. 8 of this year, Zombee Donuts has been a hit among the locals. The owners of the shop are a mother-daughter duo who were inspired to open this bakery after a visit to Oregon’s Voodoo Doughnut five years ago.

“We always wanted to open a bakery, we just didn’t think that it would just be donuts,” said Marie Theodore, owner of Zombee Donuts.

After trying out Voodoo Donuts’ zombie donut, the “Walking Dead” fans decided to save their money to buy a shop of their own. After six years, they purchased a building previously used as a hair salon and spent eight months transforming it into the boutique-style donut shop.

A Better Experience

Theodore has experience working in donut shops since she was 15-years-old and wants her daughter, Vanessa Gonzalez, to have the opportunity to work for herself.

“I’ve made a lot of money for other people,” Theodore said. “I wanted her to have the opportunity that the harder she worked, the more she could make for herself.”

Zombee Donuts prides themselves in using the best ingredients in making quality donuts. Instead of cooking their donuts with lard, like most other donut shops, they use palm oil. This ingredient choice allows for a vegan option and does not leave the filmy coating on the roof of your mouth like typical donuts do.

“We wanted to make the themes fun and kid-friendly,” Theodore said. “And of course we use the best ingredients and we care more about quality.”

A Unique Mix

The donut shop offers 25 to 30 different donut flavors, not including their seasonal recipes. Not only does each of their donuts have a clever name, they are also a unique mix of ingredients. Their most popular donut flavor is the sweet and salty Maple Bacon Bar.

“We created all of the original ones together and then because she’s really the operator, she’ll come up with things now,” Theodore said about Gonzalez. “We kind of feed off each other, I don’t think we even remember anymore who invented which ones.“

They also offer seasonal flavors, which are $2.25, and the vegan option of the day — which was bacon-flavored coconut with caramel topping when I visited the shop.

A Difficult Process

Although she loves her job, Theodore said that making donuts and running a bakery is a lot of work.

“People don’t realize that everything has to be the right temperature. The oil, the batter, everything,” Theodore said.

Gonzalez is in charge of baking the donuts and begins the process at midnight every day in order to have a fresh batch each morning. After a detailed process that includes mixing the dough, letting it rest, cutting it and giving it time to rise before baking it, the donuts are ready around 4:00 a.m.

Popularity

Even though they only have 10 employees, little advertising, and a small shop, business is great at Zombee Donuts. Between students, workers and families, they get between 100 to 300 customers each day.

“A lot of people go to donut shops every single day,” Theodore said. “We have people driving from L.A. to come to Zombee Donuts.”

The donut shop also gets quite a bit of business through its catering service. They provide their fun and tasty donuts at birthday parties, weddings and even served them to the Anaheim Ducks team when they played for the Stanley Cup.

In preparation for Halloween, Zombee Donuts tests new seasonal donuts that include Frankenstein heads and vampire faces. Theodore recommends customers order donuts ahead, as they expect to sell out on the big day.