bittersweet pastry shop

This wasn't my favorite vendor. This vendor was actually arranged through my location vendor and the cost of the cake was included in the overall cost for my event. (Hence no rating for Value)

First I had issues with the vendor that they didn't' return emails for a few weeks. My wedding was planned in under 4 months so responsiveness was important. I finally had to call and they had to "squeeze" us in for our tasting due to the few week delay in response. They had originally wanted to schedule my tasting a month before the wedding until they realized my wedding date.

The tasting was fine. The cake at bittersweet is fantastic. The icing (except for the cream cheese) is not. I'm not sure how to describe it, but it does not taste good and leaves a oily residue after eating.

The bigger problem came after the tasting after I emailed the person we were working with and got a response that they didn't know who we were. I immediately emailed my location vendor representative and she sorted this out. It turned out that my representative at the bakery had suddenly left and they were struggling to catch up.

In the end it all worked out. The cake was beautiful and the carrot cake/cream cheese frosting was good, but the other cake was just so so because of the icing.

Bittersweet was our cake vendor through our venue, which included in our package a basic cake.

We met with Amy for our tasting, who went over our options for flavors (they were all delicious!!) and after bringing in a picture of a cake we really liked, Bittersweet was able to create the exact style we wanted.

Also, instead of having to save our top layer for our anniversary in the freezer, Bittersweet was nice enough to give us a voucher to get a free cake for our anniversary. Can't wait til our 1...

Truly outstanding! Best wedding cake I've ever tasted in my entire life.

Bittersweet Bakery made a gorgeous three-tier white gumpaste ruffled cake for my Sept. 22, 2012 wedding and it tasted just as delicious as it looked. I chose a coconut cake with creme brulee custard filing and fresh strawberries. We had a slight snafu at the tasting as the bakery did not secure coconut cake before hand but Amy went above and beyond, cutting into a pre-made cake for us to taste. She then followed up with a small cake we picked up at a later date made with our chosen ingredients.

My sister, who planned our wedding, pre-delivered a cake stand she embellished with chandelier crystals. Bittersweet was very specific with cake stand requirements, which helped my sister know what to create; Bittersweet used her custom design without a hitch. On the wedding day, the bakery gave us a five-hour window for delivery to the venue. I believe that worked out fine for the caterer and florist, who decorated the cake with fresh flowers.

As for the amount of cake, I also had a dessert buffet which resulted in leftover cake. In addition to the three-tiers (10-inch, 8-inch, 6-inch rounds), I ordered two 10-inch side cakes that would be served but not put on display. Both of the side cakes were not eaten at the reception but we served them the next day at our Sunday brunch. I had a total of 127 guests so I would recommend no side cakes if you are also having a dessert...

We got our wedding cake here, and it was very beautiful, tasty, and all around a hit at our wedding. The tasting was nice and flexible, we left full of cake and they even gave us some soup to round out our "dinner"... they were very flexible with our changing numbers, and delivered the cake on time. It was on beautiful display when I arrived at the venue, and it tasted great! We picked out hazelnut cake with vanilla creme brulee filling and fresh strawberries--everyone loved it! The only bummer was in the hustle my cake topper was forgotten, but it didn't ruin my day or my happy tastebuds. We plan on getting a tiny cake here on our 1-year anniversary as well...

Bittersweet made the most amazingly delicious wedding cake for us! It was three layers of banana cake with vanilla creme brulee filling and fresh strawberries. As someone who doesn't always like cake, this was one I was looking forward to for months - I think I bragged about it to anyone who would listen after our tasting - and I'm sad I didn't get to eat more on the day. Now I have to wait a whole year to eat the topper!

In regards to the process, Bittersweet was wonderful to work with. We actually had this tasting immediately after our other option (not totally recommended...that's a lot of sugar), which was Amy Beck Cakes. Amy Beck was sweet, but the flavour combination we came upon at Bittersweet decided it for us. Our coordinator at Bittersweet was Amy C., who took the time to talk through design options and sketch out a cake that we would not have thought to consider otherwise. This was awesome, because we really felt like we were getting a unique cake, just for us. She only laughed a little when we gave her our Lego people topper; her emails and calls were always quick and on time; and, best of all, she worked out a great solution to get the cake we wanted within our price range.

Best tasting cake... I must have tasted 10 different bakeries and we kept thinking, "bittersweet tasted so much better"

We worked with both Judy and Amy from bittersweet - Judy recommended different flavor combinations (not even on the menu!) and helped us stick to our budget (offering lots of options). Amy helped me change around the cake decorations... I was hesitant to confirm these over the phone and not see them in person, but it turned out beautifully and tasted AMAZING. Can't wait to eat the frozen slice in the freezer next year!

We lived less than a block from Bittersweet, and decided to look into it for our wedding cake. The tasting appointment was amazing - so many choices and you were able to mix and match tons of cakes and fillings to come up with combinations that really suited your tastes. Judy really listened to everything my fiance and I wanted to incorporate into our cake, and Bittersweet really delivered. Not only was our wedding cake gorgeous, but our groom's cake came out even better than we imagined...they added all these details that we didn't even think of that took the cake to the next level. People still compliment us on how wonderful the cake was, and we know we made the right choice!

I loved my cake from Bittersweet. It was honestly one of my favorite parts of the wedding. I showed Judy a photo of a cake I had found in a magazine, which had ivy tumbling down the tiers, and she assured me she could recreate it. What she actually did was create a much more beautiful version with various shades of green which looked spectacular. It was incredible to look at and each of the three tiers was truly delicious. The price was also a very pleasant surprise. I would recommend Bittersweet to anyone.

People are still talking about our wedding cake. My husband and I have very different tastes when it comes to sweets, so we thought this was going to be difficult. The way Bittersweet set up the cake tasting appointment was amazing. So many choices! My husband and I both found out favorite flavors right away and to our surprise, we chose the exact same combination. Delicious! We also had them make our University of Iowa themed grooms cake. It was fabulous looking and tasting!

Bittersweet made a great cake for our wedding. We were having a dessert table, but still wanted a small cake to cut. I went in to the store and was able to pick out the cake size, flavors, and decoration within 30 minutes. The delivery was on time and the cake looked better than we'd expected. And of course, it was delicious!

We came in not really knowing what we would like and Judy gave us books of wedding cake photos to look through- this process helped us greatly. The cake tasting was so much fun and tasted amazing. Our guests said it was the best cake they have had!

First and foremost, our wedding cake was DELICIOUS. Two weeks later, it is still moist and amazing (yes, we're still eating it). And it was BEAUTIFUL!! We had an odd request in our design - we wanted prairie flowers native to Illinois that bloom in the fall. We provided pictures and crossed our fingers - we didn't really care if it turned out or not; the meaning behind it was more important than the visual. But the cake knocked our socks off - it was just gorgeous and much more beautiful than we thought it could be. Overall, we were very very happy with our cake from Bittersweet. We also shopped around a bit and found that their prices are pretty standard. The only reason we didn't give five stars is that we found the woman we worked with unpleasant, bordering rude. We didn't receive a final invoice, so I called two days after the balance was due (and five days before the wedding) to see what was going on - turns out, that woman was no longer at Bittersweet and the invoice was lost in the transition. BUT they didn't lose our order! It was in the queue when I called and I was able to make the payment over the phone. We would have given all five stars if it weren't for this particular person, and she's no longer there, so we definitely recommend you go for Bittersweet for your cake!!

We have heard so many great things about bittersweet so we went in for our tasting! It was soo amazing! The different options for flavors and decor! They offered us a free 6" cake to try with any of our flavors - what a nice bonus!

We decided on a 3-tiered cake and when placing our order chose which flavors were for which tier. At our wedding - the cake was beautiful, but the flavors were all wrong! We werent too upset, bc it was still very good, but it wasn't what we ordered. They apologized and offered us a $50 gift certificate to their bakery. $50 isnt anywhere near what we spent on our cake, but better than nothing.

This is my favorite bakery! There cakes are AMAZING! They have these to die for Macaroons! Try them if you like something sweet! We always get our birthday cakes from here!
We get the banana cake filled with vanilla creme brulee, fresh bananas and finished with a dark chocolate glaze. YUMMO!

I've always wanted my wedding cake from here, but we are on a budget so I tried another bakery to save some money. We had a horrible experience with them that I ended up going back to our original choice... BITTERSWEET!

Tonight we met with the cake coordinator, Sue Ann.
We were about 10 minutes late because of traffic and they were still so accommodating! The nice girl first offered us coffee or tea in addition to the water they already gave us. Then we met Sue Ann and she had offered it to us again.
She was very professional and didn't mind we were late. Remind you we stared with her about 6:15 and they close at 7:00. We both had our own plate with cakes and all these assortments of different options. She explained each one patiently, gave us the time we needed and checked on us a few times in between. She LISTENED TO ME! Not like the other bakery we went to. We ended up selecting a BEAUTIFUL 4 tiered cake (Butter cream) but there butter cream looks like fondant but doesn't taste like it! It's sooo smooth, does it get any better than that!?!?
Sue Ann had such great pictures of there beautiful work that had our ideas going. When we were done she went over our cakes that she had asked us to mark. She asked us what was it that we liked about each cake and then she got her drawing paper out and sketched our dream cake!
I have to say that this was the same price that the other bakery was! Compared to the other place, BITTERSWEET hands down won! Their professionalism, patience, listening skills has exceeding our expectations! She really got it and we can't wait for our dream cake! We have all the trust in them that it will turn out beautiful!
I was searching for a very long time with all the other bakeries. No I haven't been to many others but I can tell you that Bittersweets pricing for their wedding cakes is a lot lower than some of these other places! Trust me, save yourself time!! Check them out if you haven't. You'll see what I'm talking about! We got a BEAUTIFUL cake with tax and delivery for UNDER $500! WOW! For some reason I thought it would have been a lot more for what we got!

Thank you Sue Ann!

Thank you!

Delicious, great customer service. We had so much fun during the tasting when they brought us each individual platters with little cakes, fillings, fruits and buttercream to taste all sorts of combination. Working with SueAnn was great -- she put us at ease, and I never worried about the cake at all. It was beautiful, and everyone loved it. I also like that we will get a fresh top tier sent to us on our first anniversary. Highly recommend.

We live in the neighborhood, so we were familiar with Bittersweet--they'd provided a beautiful cake for a family birthday celebration a few years earlier. So we were pleased, but not surprised, when the cake our consultant helped us design was both "simply" beautiful and absolutely delicious. Did our guests like the cake? Oh, yes! They devoured every last slice . . . and crumb! Scrumptious!

The team at Bittersweet is outstanding. My daughter tasted and thus created her own cake. She also picked the design on t.he cake and it was truly hers. There were two groom's cakes and my daughter further individulized the cakes by making one a White Sox and one a Wisconsin Badgers. Everyone on the team was very helpful

delicious, great! a little pricey, service can be a little 'short' otherwise great!

The wedding cake was great. Very tasty and looked fabulous!

GOOD SERVICE AND FAST

This bakery came as a package deal with our wedding catering and venue. We had few ideas in advance of our tasting - they gave great combination options in terms of cake, filling, fruit and icing - this was one of the more fun parts of wedding planning, for sure. I cant speak about the billing/payment as this was part of a package deal I had. Everyone at the reception loved the cake, too. I highly recommend.

Let's face it. Most wedding cakes look like crap and taste even worse. Bittersweet solves both of these issues. No, I did not choose a traditional cake, but my guests feasted on a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting tier as well as 2 tiers of fudge cake with mocha and dark chocolate filling, all topped with buttercream (what else) and chocolate glaze. Amazing.

I did not really have a good experience with choosing our wedding cake. We chose this vendor because they were on the preferred vendor list and it was less expensive in that we would not have to pay a cake plating fee. During our cake tasting, I felt that the lady helping us for our appointment didn't really help at all. She seemed to not like that I brought a picture of the cake I wanted. She did not make any suggestions on cake and filling combinations. She just brought us the cake and fillings and went to the back. For one of the cake details (sugar flowers), she told us that they were very expensive and we should get flowers from our florist, but would not tell us how expensive...I was very offended by this attitude. The cake turned out to be very delicious, but the overall experience leading to the outcome was not a good one.

We booked our cake with Bittersweet after having a terrible experience with another bakery. Everything about this place is awesome. If you've never been inside, I recommend you go for lunch one day. Their food is really good (more than just pastries) and it is just wonderful to sit in there and soak up the French-inspired atmosphere. The cake tasting experience is exactly what were looking for. It is elegant, low-key, no pressure (they leave you alone to discuss the cakes and then come back and go over it with you so you can feel free to express your opinions), and fun... not to mention delicious! Our cake was exactly what we had in mind. It was beautiful and tasted amazing! I don't even like cake and I could not get enough of this stuff! Everyone raved about how pretty is was. Highly, highly recommended!

Delicious and beautiful! What more could you ask for in a wedding cake!

Super cake, super service.

Bittersweet designed a beautiful cake for our wedding based on some very vague ideas provided by us. We asked for an autumnal cake with reds and oranges, and could they please include maple leaves? The cake we received was not only exactly what we had in mind, it was the most delicious wedding cake I've ever tasted. They don't sacrifice flavor for beauty!

In addition, if you send them one of your professionally shot photos of the cake after the wedding, they'll make you a free replica of your top tier for your first anniversary!

The cake was amazing! Everyone was talking about it and I can't wait to eat the top of it in a few months. I think this place is expensive however it was included for our reception. I would highly recommend this place!

We had brought in a picture of the cake that we wanted, and Bittersweet was able to exactly replicate the cake, and it was very intricate. Everything tasted wonderful and looked beautiful and we could not have been more pleased with the results.

Our cake was phenomenal! Super nice staff. I highly recommend them! Can't wait for our first anniversary to have the top tier...

They did a great job and would take on any challenge... The tateing was a ton of fun and very educational. The cake looked beautiful on the day and also got lost of compliments. They made it very simple and easy to choose the right cake and the right look.

Bittersweet is EXCELLENT! Beautiful, delicious, fabulous cakes. We couldn't have had a better wedding cake!

I loved everything about our cake. We picked a very non traditional cake. We chose hazelnut butter cake/banana butter cake with creme brulee and chocolate mousse filling. It was a butter cream cake and each tier was dipped in chocolate. Every loved the cake.

I am not a cake person, but our wedding cake was so fabulous that we ordered a smaller version for our first anniversary.

As delicious and beautiful as their cakes are, their service is equally as bad. We had an appointment with the designer who evidently overbooked. My husband and I sat there for close to two hours while she assisted a woman with a birthday cake for a 5 year old. We finally had our tasting and were quite impressed with the quality of the cake, however the whole experience left a bad taste in our mouths. When I read a review and found out that another bride had a similar experience we decided not to use Bittersweet.

Not a bad thing to say. Loved our cake and they were nice to work with.