The Story of Rebel Bakehouse, Told Through Its Pastries

Donna Aldana and Danica Santos built Rebel Bakehouse through bold twists to beloved flavors, which soon grew a cult following from pop-ups in Manila to their very own flagship store in Baguio.

“Hello, #718.”

A little over a week before Christmas, Danica Santos of Rebel Bakehouse had just updated her Instagram followers about her partner Donna Aldana’s latest Christmas panettone count: 718 done, 282 more to go. Before the holiday comes, Donna has a goal for herself to bake a thousand of the rich fruity bread.

Somewhat like an Aikido student swinging a sword a thousand times, Donna has committed to making a thousand of the panettones to push herself to learn and improve. By making a thousand, the self-professed “rebel baker” is continuously practicing to elevate her craft.

Selling them all would be Danica’s responsibility. It’s not much of a challenge to take on, if we’re to look at Rebel’s history of pastries flying off their shelves. In their very first pop-up at The Curator in Makati in 2023, long lines snaked out of the Salcedo café and they were sold out less than two hours before they opened, putting into perspective how sought after their pastries have been on the internet in the past few years.

But it took a while before momentum picked up for the rebel baker. To talk about their journey is to talk about their delicious pastries, a couple of brave decisions, and the success bolstered by social media.

In their kitchen last September, Donna was busy developing a new pastry flavor for a special IBAGIW festival menu lineup. To make the Pinuneg and Pulled Pork Galette de Rois, she runs a blade across the surface of the pie so that when baked, it reveals precisely symmetrical leaf and petal patterns spiralling outward. 

Aside from baking pastries, Donna once practiced as, and still is, a licensed doctor. “If I didn’t go into baking, I would’ve gone into surgery,” she admits. A surgeon’s hand still shows in their pastries, which reflect a precision to their make. Before she went into residency, she forwent the medical path and helped with her family’s business, and years after, pivoted to follow her passions in the kitchen. 

It wasn’t easy starting from scratch. But her skill, matched with Danica’s support on the operations side helped the baking business pick up steam. They were reluctant to become partners both in work and in life at first. The stigma with couples going into business together is that friction in the workplace would eventually cause a split. So, they assigned separate roles to complement and make up for each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

Four years ago, Donna first began selling basque burnt cheesecakes to friends. She would bake, Danica would help her pack orders, then she would be on the wheel to drive them out together, and Danica would personally deliver each order house to house. 

Years later, the couple moved on to creating even more inventive bakes. They share that Rebel’s Pride croissant should be one of their proudest, most audacious, and challenging creations. It also encapsulates their philosophy of mindful care and rebellious creativity, as the flavors always change about every quarter or so. When they opened their flagship store in Baguio last year, the first Pride croissant iteration was green tea honey flavored and dipped in white chocolate. 

But it was their leche flan danish that made them. “It helped us gain thousands of followers,” Danica says. “But a lot of chefs also got mad at that. They’d say ‘Why would you bake leche flan twice!’ But I think that’s what made it go viral.”

Starting without a physical store, Instagram became Rebel’s front of house. Danica was their customers’ attendant, sending hearts, smileys, and extra exclamation points to make up for the warmth lost in online translation. “Especially when we’d receive a negative review, [Danica] would make those customers her best friends,” Donna says. 

The #4 Chocolate Croissant would best describe the Rebel Bakehouse’s evolving relationship between their patrons and the pastries. Making it was a journey from two to four: Donna originally came up with a double chocolate version of the pain au chocolat, one dipped in chocolate, that quickly became one of the bakehouse’s bestsellers. Donna then pushed it further, hitting pause on the double chocolate version to start developing a triple chocolate iteration using dough mixed with ganache. “It, too, became a bestseller, but true to form, Donna decided to remove it from the lineup again to make room for improvement,” Danica says.

Enter the #4 Chocolate Croissant, where all elements of the pastry are made with chocolate aplomb: dark chocolate batons inside, a dough made with milk chocolate ganache, dipped in milk chocolate, and finally, dusted with premium cocoa powder. 

Donna has a habit of constantly looking for ways to make something a little more beautiful and a little more delicious, Danica shares. They both believe that there’s always room for another favorite in their customer’s minds, and will not settle for just one. 

So, while success on the algorithm is fleeting, the pair’s dedication to their craft and their community online has made Rebel’s pastries so beloved until today. Since starting from a spare space in Donna’s mother’s commissary, they now have their flagship store in Baguio, their own commissary in Mandaluyong to service their Manila pop ups, and are now eyeing a second branch in Baguio’s central business district.

A day after saying hello to panettone #718, Donna was already on her way to #850. It’s only about time she reaches a thousand, and she still has days to spare before her deadline. Besides the discipline, another reason why she had been making all the panettones is because she wishes to share her love for the sweet holiday bread to everyone.

Danica wasn’t into the challenge at the start, but once Donna started making them well, she easily converted into a panettone fan. It is not a popular bread, but, like with everything else, Donna’s answer to a “no” is to create something that would turn the response into a “yes.”