Wedding Cake!

Hello All,

In typical last-minute fashion, Kerensa and I just started seriously looking for a bakery for our wedding cake. Here are the one's I have on my list and have already contacted:

Cake Girls
Taste of Heaven (out of the wedding cake business, it turns out)
Sweet Thang
Cafe Selmarie
Bittersweet
Swedish Bakery
Letizia's Bakery
Bombon

Are there any other obvious wedding cakey candidates that I ought to be considering for this event?

As always, I am grateful for you suggestions and advice.

Seth

I don't know for sure if they do wedding cakes, but Fox and Obel's cakes are very, very good, and I think they are on par with Bittersweet and Bombon (if not below) pricewise.

We got ours from Lutz. I found their prices very reasonable and the cake was delicious. We went with yellow cake - 1/2 the layers were strawberry mousse, 1/2 were chocolate.

I go for our anniversary and get slices of each to celebrate with. They always have them.

IMO, Selmarie does not execute as well as a large cake as they do at the cafe.

I do not have experience with wedding cakes there, but you might add Il Giardino to the list.

Seth,

In high school I worked for Cheesecakes by JR and we did quite a few wedding cakes, most comprised entirely of cheesecake.

I have no current affiliation with JR (I'm not even recognized when I walk in), except for the fact that I love their cheesecake, especially the pecan-caramel and chocolate-chip varieties. Their variety of cheesecake is short and dense with a bottom crust as opposed to the Eli's variety which is taller, fluffier and often with a full crust.

I think they're now known as "JR Dessert Bakery"

JR Dessert Bakery
2841 W. Howard Street
Chicago, IL 60645
773-465-6733
888-206-6643
http://www.jrdessertbakery.com/

Best,
Michael / EC

Vanille Patisserie will certainly do wedding cakes. It won't be cheap, but they'll happily do it.

Check out Alliance Bakery. I work there, and we do lots and lots of wedding cakes. You can call to schedule a tasting if you'd like.

1736 W. Division
www.alliance-bakery.com/
(773) 278-0366

kafein wrote:We got ours from Lutz. I found their prices very reasonable and the cake was delicious. We went with yellow cake - 1/2 the layers were strawberry mousse, 1/2 were chocolate.

I go for our anniversary and get slices of each to celebrate with. They always have them.

IMO, Selmarie does not execute as well as a large cake as they do at the cafe.

Yeah, we went with Lutz and were very happy (but that was a long time ago ).

Hammond

Just a few...

Le Royale Icing
35 Chicago Avenue
Oak Park, Illinois 60302
708-386-4175
http://www.royaleicing.com

Marked for Dessert
1812 W. Greenleaf Ave.
Chicago, IL 60626
773-761-3800
http://www.markedfordessert.com

House of Fine Chocolates
3109 North Broadway
Chicago, IL 60657
773-525-5700
http://www.houseoffinechocolates.com

Oak Mill Bakery
8012 North Milwaukee Avenue, Niles, IL 60714
847-318-6400
4747 North Harlem Avenue, Harwood Hts, IL 60706
708-867-9400
5635 West Belmont Avenue, Chicago, IL 60634
Phone 773-237-5799
5747 South Harlem Avenue, Chicago, IL 60638
773-788-9800
www.oakmillbakery.com

Roeser's Bakery
3216 W. North Ave.
Chicago, IL 60647
773-489-6900
http://www.roeserscakes.com
(also: http://www.chicagoexoticcakes.com)

Dinkel's Bakery
3329 North Lincoln Avenue
Chicago, IL 60657
773-281-7300
http://www.dinkels.com

Original Ferrara Bakery Inc.
2210 W. Taylor St.
Chicago, IL 60612
Phone: (312) 666-2200
http://www.ferrarabakery.com

Bennison's Bakeries
1000 Davis
Evanston, IL 60201
847-328-9434
http://www.bennisonscakes.com

Reuter's Bakery
7177 West Grand Avenue
Chicago IL 60707
773-889-1414
http://www.reutersbakery.com

Weber's Bakery
7055 West Archer Ave.
Chicago, IL 60638
773-586-1234
http://www.webersbakery.com

New Hong Kong Bakery
2824 S Wentworth Ave
Chicago, 60616
312/808-0088

Pticek & Son Bakery
773-585-5500
5523 S. Narragansett Ave.
Chicago
http://pticeksbakery.com

Ace Bakery
3200-3202 S. Halsted
Chicago, IL 60616
312-225-4973
http://www.acebakeries.com

Work of Art
1332 N. Halsted St.
Chicago
312-280-1718

Lutz's made a lovely Black Forest cake for my wedding BUT they refused to deliver it to the reception! Happily, I was able to press a friend into pick-up duty for me. This was '92, so I have no idea what the policy is now.

Whoever you pick, don't forget to ask about this important detail.

Giovanna

[I should take a moment to point out that I work with the brother of one of Vanille's owners, and the cakes she made for him were both beautiful and delicious in abundance.]

Wow! Thanks for all the amazing recommendations.

We have about 7 appts scheduled over the next 5 days, so I expect that we'll choose our cake within a couple weeks. With all these additions, I'll have to schedule another weeks worth fo cake tasting. We went to Sweet Thang last night for a consultation - very delicious mousse-y cakes and a very charming baker/owner who sat with us for an hour talking cake design and flavor.

LAZ, do you personally recommend all the bakeries listed in your voluminous post? Are there any that stand out above the rest in teh wedding cake dept?

I was a judge in the Chicago Area Retail Bakers Associationwedding cake competition a few years ago. After sampling some 18 cakes, I never wanted to eat wedding cake again.

I remember the New Hong Kong Bakery's entry as being particularly good. (Which is not to say that I can vouch that their regular retail product measures up, or that if it did then that it still does.)

I haven't tried all of these, but I've heard high recommendations for all of them. In particular, Le Royale Icing and Marked for Dessert are very highly sought after.

One comment on the items I judged: I generally found an inverse relationship between the elaborateness and beauty of the cakes and flavor. Some of the cakes were stunning -- but dry and tasteless. (I recall well that the best tasting cake was very simply decorated with chocolate curls. Unfortunately, I can't recall the name of the baker who made it; I believe she worked out of her home.)

So I would definitely recommend arranging a tasting before ordering.

Wedding cake by Alice Yuen of New Hong Kong Bakery

Thanks for the great followup LAZ!

Mike and I used Bittersweet for our cake and were severely disappointed. We gave the owner a very specific picture of the cake we wanted, paid extra to accomplish it and were given a cake that was no where near what we wanted. After much confrontation, I was refunded the additional cost and received a fairly mediocre anniversary cake to compensate for our trouble.

We got our wedding cake from Swedish Bakery two years ago and were very happy with it. I thought it was the best tasting wedding cake I'd ever had. They also gave us a certificate for a free anniversary cake, sparing us the eating of an old frozen layer from the original. Kinda makes me want to order another one this year!

I'd like to add that it's probably for the best that Taste of Heaven isn't doing wedding cakes anymore. While my cake was certainly tasty, it wasn't really what we ordered. It was even the wrong shape (round vs. square as we ordered), the ganache layer was missing, and it was quite expensive. If I had it to do over again I'd have ordered from someplace else.

The last time I got just a birthday cake from Taste of Heaven, he decorated it (quite shabbily and in a nauseating lavendar) while I waited (even though it was ordered two weeks in advance) and wrote the wrong thing on it. To make matters worse, the cake itself just wasn't very good. It was too heavy and tasted old - and it was his signature "Jeannine" cake.

As far as the somplace else, I have tasted a few great (and really lovely) cakes from Sweet Thang and Alliance both. I cannot address any customer service for Sweet Thang (other people's cakes), but I can tell you that I've always had great service from Alliance for birthday cake orders.

We got our wedding cake from Rolph's Patisserie. It was pretty good and I would recommend at least a tasting. Also, Here's a suggeston for the top of the cake.

Lutz delivered with no issue to our reception at the Irish Ameican heritage Center. I think the fee was around $10.

This was in 2003. I believe since they also now give you a certificate for an anniversary cake.

I hate to be the buzz kill, but the thing you taste in the tasting will not necessarily be the wondrous cake you envsioned for your wedding day. anyone can make a cake look stunning with a slather of fondant but that doesn't mean your guests will enjoy it or that they ( the bakery you selected) can make it on a larger scale. I say, avoid all the new kids on the block (except for Bom Bon in LV) and go with a tried but true bakery. Our friends who have very high standards (having lived in France, Italy and Germany) were completely thrilled with their cake from the House of Fine Chocolates. It's old school, it's classy, they know what they're doing. I recently bought a very "special" birthday cake from somewhat newbie Angel Food on Montrose--it was the best looking cake I'd ever ordered--stunning--and at $60 it was the costliest thing I'd ever indulged in other than my own wedding cake (which was ordered in CO and not relevant here). It was inedible. Sawdust with buttercream. Thankfully the owner graciously offered me a credit, but I wished I had gone with the much less sexy and much more reliable Dinkel's for the cake.

And while I am on a rant, I have yet to meet anyone (as a guest) who enjoys/understands fondant i.e. that you're not supposed to eat it, which seems bizarre and cruel to me--here's an equisite thing but don't chew it or consume it, just peel it back. Harrumpmh. If you go with a buttercream make sure your caterer or whomever is handling the food knows that it has to be at room temp to be enjoyable. Cold butercream is not pleasant either, one might as well dip into a can of Crisco or Ponds Cold Cream.

And if all of this cake business is just making you crazy, I say, have root beer floats with local root beer and local ice cream. No one will ever forget that (and serve little cupcakes to off set the "where's the wedding cake?" comments)

good luck and congratulations in advance!

bjt

Hi,

This is my cousin's wedding cake from this weekend. I am 99% certain they said this came from the Upper Crust in Lisle, IL. If I am wrong, then I will update this post with the information:



The cake was a centerpiece at the reception and at room temperature when it was served. This chocolate cake had chocolate mouse and whipping cream as the filling. The frost appeared to be chocolate ganache. The look and the taste were reasonably well matched. The bridal couple and their guests were not disapointed by this cake.

Upper Crust
Upper Crust Inc
1045 Burlington Avenue Suite 3
Lisle, IL 60532
http://www.uppercrustpastry.com
630-322-8282

That's a remarkable cake - I like the violent-themed figurines. There was one that we saw during our search which had the bride dragging the groom to the altar by his necktie that I found cute; kerensa less so. We ended up choosing Sweet Thang - I'll post at length about the search process soon.

Perhaps I am too much of a Freudian, but that sure looks like a "groom's cake."

we got our wedding cake - tres leches - from paris on milwaukee ave.

it was absolutely outstanding and under the 500$ mark.

Erik.

I second Rolf's Patisserie in Lincolnwood. They did my wedding cake 4 years ago and it was both gorgeous and delicious.

It was chocolate chiffon cake with a raspberry mousse filling, frosted in a chocolate ganache. Yes, a chocolate brown three-tier wedding cake, which my florist decorated with ivory roses.

Was just reading this post and had to put in a good word for the woman who made our MARVELOUS wedding cake:

Katering Desserts
Kate Friedlob
Chicago, IL
773.528.0884

At the time, she ran a business out of her home - which I'm guessing is still the case. Her work looks great and tastes great!

For our wedding package, the cake is included. I just learned that our venue is contracted with Rolf's Patisserie. Reviews seem mixed in general, but the weddingbee forum gives them positive reviews. I don't really want to spend the extra money of canceling this out from the package and bringing in a cake from an independent bakery. Please tell me that it will be okay!

Pucca wrote:For our wedding package, the cake is included. I just learned that our venue is contracted with Rolf's Patisserie. Reviews seem mixed in general, but the weddingbee forum gives them positive reviews. I don't really want to spend the extra money of canceling this out from the package and bringing in a cake from an independent bakery. Please tell me that it will be okay!

We were faced with the same exact situation when we got married. Rolf's wasn't even close to my first choice, but we went with it anyway and it turned out fine. The cake looked great and everyone seemed to like it.

SushiGaijin wrote:we got our wedding cake - tres leches - from paris on milwaukee ave.

it was absolutely outstanding and under the 500$ mark.

Erik.

We also had a tres leches cake, from La Baguette, that was outstanding...and under $150.

No doubt yours was prettier, though!

stevez wrote:

Pucca wrote:For our wedding package, the cake is included. I just learned that our venue is contracted with Rolf's Patisserie. Reviews seem mixed in general, but the weddingbee forum gives them positive reviews. I don't really want to spend the extra money of canceling this out from the package and bringing in a cake from an independent bakery. Please tell me that it will be okay!

We were faced with the same exact situation when we got married. Rolf's wasn't even close to my first choice, but we went with it anyway and it turned out fine. The cake looked great and everyone seemed to like it.

Thanks for the reassurance. I appreciate it. It never dawned on me to ask prior to submitting our contract. I am amazed at how many venues are contracted with Rolf's, so I guess it can't be as bad as I am fearing. *fingers crossed*