Where to get custom cakes?

I'm looking to get a cool dinosaur cake for my soon-to-be 4-year-old's birthday coming up. I think it would be neat to get a cake that's shaped like a dinosaur. It doesn't have to be as elaborate as the cakes in Ace of Cakes but something along those lines. I 'm putting together a list of some bakeries to call and ask but if anyone has any good experience with a baker of this kind of cake, that would be great! Thanks.

Check out "Cake Girls". They do custom cakes with unconventional designs. I have not used them and cannot vouch for them, but they might be right up your alley.

Cake Girls
2207 W Belmont
773-404-3147
http://www.thecakegirls.com/

Best,
Michael

I got my wife a custom cake from Bittersweet Bakery a few weeks ago. I don't know what they can do in the way of shapes - the one I got was round. I do know, however, that it was among the best cakes I have ever eaten: perfect level of moistness, frosting with out-of-this-world taste, etc. As for shapes, I walked by Alliance Bakery the other day and they had some unbelievable cakes shaped like fashionable handbags in their window. Based on a quick perusal of pictures they've posted on Flickr, I'm sure they can do a dinosaur. I can't vouch for the taste of their cakes, though.

Bittersweet Pastry Shop & Cafe
www.bittersweetpastry.com
1114 W Belmont Ave
Chicago, IL 60657
(773) 929-1100

Alliance Bakery - Bakery
www.alliance-bakery.com
1736 W. Division
Chicago, IL 60622
(773) 278-0366

Gladstone Park Bakery has bunches of designs to choose from. I have seen cakes in their display case looking like everything from a slice of watermelon to a cheeseburger. Very nicely done, and probably more inexpensive than some of the botique bakeries in town.

Gladstone Park Bakery
5744 N Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL
773-774-4210

Probably off-topic: I usually do a homemade cake for my son's birthday, a lot of the "shaped" cakes are actually pretty easy if you have the right bag of tricks, and it's fun to have something that's imperfect, especially when he participated in the creation - the kids love it...here's one for a dinosaur. If you aren't in a time-crunch and can do this, my reccomendation is that you freeze whatever cake you're using before you start working with it (we had a disaster one year with a pirate-ship cake)

Family Fun has a website dedicated to cake and cupcake creations.

I've seen some crazy-looking custom cakes in the refrigerator waiting to be picked up at Chiu Quon on Argyle. I don't know anything about cost or how they taste, but they look great!

Chiu Quon
1127 W Argyle St
Chicago
773-907-8888

Deerfield Bakery makes beautiful custom cakes if you live in the area. While I enjoy Deerfields there are many detractors on this site. Here is a post with a picture of my little guys custom Elmo cake. viewtopic.php?f=14&t=15101&p=147325&hilit=deerfield+bakery#p147325

They also give you a smash cake for the birthday boy/girl.

Deerfield Bakery
813 N Waukegan Road
Deerfield, IL 60015
847-945-0068
http://www.deerfieldbakery.com

I would second Cake girls and also offer up a new option.

Tipsy Cake
1043 N. California
773-348-4418
www.tipsycakechicago.com
http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/s ... ts/061020/

Ask for Naiomi

TipsyCake & Deerfield's would be my first choices for a shaped children's cake. They can do great designs, don't charge an arm and a leg and turn out cakes that most people like (I personally don't like Deerfield's, but I know many who do and for a kid's party I think it's a great option. We had a client who got a monkey cake from there that was really cute.).

Marked for Dessert does gorgeous cakes.

Tipsycake, easy. I ordered a birthday cake for a friend's birthday that was around Halloween. We got a gorgeous, nicely-decorated cake. I forget the flavours we went with, but I do remember the important part -- the cake tasted great and everyone loved it.

TwoBuckDuck got another $2 from me. Lamingtons, here I come! (This link is good for today only!)
http://www.twobuckduck.com/Wednesday.html

Pie Lady wrote:TwoBuckDuck got another $2 from me. Lamingtons, here I come! (This link is good for today only!)
http://www.twobuckduck.com/Wednesday.html

A variant of Groupon? Have you used them before?

Would also highly recommend TipsyCake.

pairs4life wrote:

Pie Lady wrote:TwoBuckDuck got another $2 from me. Lamingtons, here I come! (This link is good for today only!)
http://www.twobuckduck.com/Wednesday.html

A variant of Groupon? Have you used them before?

It is in the vein of Groupon. I've ordered a certificate from TwoBuckDuck, but have not used it yet.

The GP wrote:

pairs4life wrote:

Pie Lady wrote:TwoBuckDuck got another $2 from me. Lamingtons, here I come! (This link is good for today only!)
http://www.twobuckduck.com/Wednesday.html

A variant of Groupon? Have you used them before?

It is in the vein of Groupon. I've ordered a certificate from TwoBuckDuck, but have not used it yet.

Yes, for ComedySportz. I had no problems, and I like supporting duck-related causes.

Cakegirls was just destroyed in a fire early this morning

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010 ... lames.html

We were celebrating a coworker's 30th anniversary with the company the other day. We knew she liked red velvet cake, so off I went to find a bakery that would deliver a full sheet of red velvet cake to us on a Monday (and took Amex). Dinkel's, my usual bakery for cake orders, doesn't do red velvet. I narrowed it down to Alliance Bakery and Tipsycake. I went with Alliance only because I went to voice mail at Tipsycake. The verdict: some of the best cake we've had.! The cream cheese frosting was delicious, the cake was moist. It wasn't cheap -- almost $190 including delivery. It was definitely worth it. (and since budget cuts have taken away our monthly office birthday cakes, I didn't mind spending a few more dollars on an approved cake event!)

Alliance Bakery
www.alliance-bakery.com
1736 W. Division
Chicago, IL 60622
(773) 278-0366