The Baking Institute

The cake was very good, although I am always one for homemade cake, it wasnt too bad. We thought that the cake would be covered in fondant with the designs made from fondant as well. It was just covered in white frosting and he had used black ribbon wrapped around instead of making it all out of fondant. It looked good from afar, but up close you could see the ribbon rubbing into the frosting and it didnt look all that great. We didnt really have a choice of who our baker was, it was included in our package for our banquet.

We used The Baking Institute for our 5/5/12 wedding. Igor and his team were a pleasure to work with. From our initial phone call to set up our tasting to the final product on our wedding day, everything ran smoothly and they worked easily and professionally with us to create our perfect wedding cake. It was not only beautiful and exactly what we wanted but it was really delicious.
I would highly recommend them to other brides in the area and I would definitely use them again in the future.

We were very pleased with presentation of our wedding cake, but was not so pleased with the taste of the icing. It was not the typical butter-cream, but since it was included in the package we went with it. Nonetheless, our guest enjoyed it and asked to take slices home.

Our venue uses this bakery so that's where we went. We are very glad they chose them, as the cake was really delicious and we were able to choose the flavors & icings & design the outside of the cake. We ended up with a gorgeous 5 layer cake. The cake is mounted on some beautiful silver base which looked really nice. And of course the top layer was given to the bride & groom for their first anniversary. One of our guests is planning to order from there soon. Worth checking out!

The Baking Institute was recommended to me by a friend who had used them for her wedding. I'm so glad I listened to her. They were wonderful. I didn't need to follow-up all the time to make sure my cake would be done right and on time - they did their job professionally and beautifully. The banana cake was the most delicious cake I have ever had - even my vendors at the wedding were commenting that they eat cake all the time and this was the best they had tasted. I wanted a striped cake and it looked gorgeous. Would definitely recommend The Baking Institute!!

The Baking Institute was awesome! I went in for a tasting with my daughter and Fiance and we all loved the red velvet cake w/cream cheese frosting. All of my guests also loved the cake so much that they called me the next day to find out if there were leftovers! The cake was becautiful and matched our pink and ivory them perfectly. I would definitely recommend this vendor to a friend and plan on using them again soon in the near future.

The Baking Institute did a fantastic job with our cake. In our initial meeting/tasting we were trying to decide what we were going to use as a cake topper. We had gotten engaged in a hot air balloon and wanted to do a balloon on top, but every topper we saw was either way out of our price range or ugly. When we were discussing this with the baker he said he would make us a hot hair balloon out of cake to put on top and the top layer he would make look like the basket. It turned out really cool!

The flavor of the cake and filling we couldn't decide on so the baker made a suggestion to have three different cake flavors and two fillings in each layer. It tasted so good! It was moist and easily the best wedding cake I have ever tasted. The baker was so proud of the cake he asked us to send him a photo of us with the cake to hang in his...

We had a wonderful experience with The Baking Institute, our wedding cake was beatiful and delicious.
Highly recommend them and great to work...

The cake looked and tasted excellent.
Note: Confirm your appointment prior to arrival.

The Baking Institute was the prefered baker from our hall (Venuti's). I had ever heard of them before and I had wanted a bakery with a good reputation. However, when I saw the wedding wire reviews I was not worried. The tasting was well organzied. It was held in a display room when some pretty amazing cakes. The consultants was very helpful and not pushy. We went with the red velvet with the cream cheese frosting. The other cakes we tasted (white with lemon and chocolate with hazelnut ) were amazing but the red velvet was unbelievable. The cakes was moist and full of flavor. The cream cheese frosting had a touch of lemon and was the perfect combination with the red velvet. The final product looked just like the sketch that the consultant drew.

We booked the Baking Institute because they were included with our package for the hotel where we had our reception. Communicating with Tallie was very easy and she was quick to respond to any questions we had. When we met w/Igor, the head baker, he wasn't the most friendly person in the world, but I also realize that there are cultural differences as well. He was confident in his abilities and produced a beautiful and delicious cake for us. We showed him a picture and he was able to recreate it perfectly using buttercream (no extra charges for fondant). We did have to pay a bit extra to get the red velvet, but in the end we did save a lot of money booking w/an all-inclusive venue and the additional charge per person was minimal. Also, I wish we were allowed to taste more than 3 combos of cake, but luckily we knew what we wanted. We're glad we didn't have to serve sheet cake to our guests!

Yum, yum, yum! I am not a huge cake eater but oh my god is their cake delicious! They did a beautiful job and we are so happy that we decided on the Baking Institute!

The cake was fantastic. Exactly what we asked for. Delicious. They use all quality ingriedients. The cake tasting was so much fun and we ejoyed it so much.

The Baking Institute was great! The phone consultation and everything was PERFECT!
My husband and I were a 70 mile round trip drive from their location, so we did the entire consultation over the phone, and we don't regret not having a tasting. The cake was delicious and we received many compliments on not only how good it was, but also on the gorgeous design. The design I had originally wanted was a fondant, but I really don't like the texture of fondant, so they changed it to Butter cream for me!
Our cake was amazing, and at 5 tiers really stood out in the crowded room!
Thanks so much for an amazing added touch to our...

The Baking Institute was one of our options through our reception hall. I reviewed some of their work and chose to use them for our New Years Eve wedding.

My husband and I had our hearts set on a cake from their website that looked like luggage, since we love to travel. After meeting with them, they informed us that cake would not be near big enough for our guest count and we would have to purchase additional sheet cakes, totaling over $500. Once we heard that, we moved on to another design, which was entirely suggested by Igor. He suggested a 5 tier square cake (square, simple & white were the only three specifics I had in mind) with white icing, a ribbon around the bottom of each tier matching the bridesmaid dresses and adding a diamond monogram to the front of the second layer. He drew it up for us & it looked very nice and simple, so we agreed & left it up to them.

Let me tell you, am I glad we didn't choose the luggage cake, because the cake they designed was fabulous! It was so simple, but the simplicity made it a knock out. It was perfect, exactly how he drew and described it! The 5 tiers made it seem very glam and the simple square lines with the diamond monogram was stunning.

I give them an A+ for knocking it out of the park on our cake. Easy to work with, it took about 15 minutes at our tasting to decide what we wanted & to top it off, it tasted DELICIOUS! If you want a gorgeous & tasty cake, I would definitely give this...

Loved our cake. We met with Igor and I really didn't know what I wanted. I gave him an idea and he ran with it. The cake was moist and the filling flavorful. The design was simple & pretty, which is what I was looking for. But as I mentioned earlier the cake was moist which is a HUGE thing for a wedding cake. Most are dry and not good! Very happy with ours!

When I was wedding planning, the cake is the one thing that I had no idea what to do with. I had a meeting with the baking institute and did the taste testing. I usually don't like cake, but I just loved theirs! We went with white with chocolate bavarian cream filling and also chocolate with raspberry bavarian cream filling. When I arrived at my wedding, the presentation of our cake made my jaw drop. At our consultation, I had brought our invitation in and told them to just match the design on our wedding invitation. I couldn't believe how beautifully it was done when I saw the cake. I was so happy with it and I still reminisce about the gorgeous cake as I look at photos. All my friends who have seen the photo of the cake or have seen it in person comment on the taste and it's beauty!

Our cake was wonderful. Everyone commented on how beautiful it was. The combination of marble cake and french chocolate custard filling was incredible. It was served for dessert and everyone loved it. thank you

The initial meeting with Igor was short and sweet, and the whole staff was very easy to reach. However, I was a little disappointed when I saw our cake at the reception~ we didn't even cut it in front of everyone! We asked for a chic, crisp cake with grey flowers, and ended up with rounded edges and light purple flowers. Just make sure you double and triple check what you are getting!

My cake was provided by them thru the Venue Astoria Banquets....I was pleased and surprised that it was delicious and beautiful>>>>>I also had a sweets table and everything was so good.... Thanks Baking Institute for the delicious treats!!!!!

As stated in my previous reviews i like to keep things short and to the point, and that's exactly what happened with our consultation with the Baking Institute. i had actually booked our appointment online with the 3 flavored caked we wanted to try. Everything was great, it was just hard choosing between three different ones and what if there was another cake that could have been better? lol so we chose the better out of the three which was a marble cake with a hazelnut buttercream. absolutely devine. then we chose the decoration for our cake which was in the portfolio. Once again, with the package we had with our reception vendor, the cake didnt cost any extra unless we wanted to add more things such as candy flowers or another tier, so we stuck with the 3 tier round cake. As soon as i saw it sitting on the table i knew it was the right choice. Everyone loved the cake and were wondering who had made it.

As stated in my previous reviews i like to keep things short and to the point, and that's exactly what happened with our consultation with the Baking Institute. i had actually booked our appointment online with the 3 flavored caked we wanted to try. Everything was great, it was just hard choosing between three different ones and what if there was another cake that could have been better? lol so we chose the better out of the three which was a marble cake with a hazelnut buttercream. absolutely devine. then we chose the decoration for our cake which was in the portfolio. Once again, with the package we had with our reception vendor, the cake didnt cost any extra unless we wanted to add more things such as candy flowers or another tier, so we stuck with the 3 tier round cake. As soon as i saw it sitting on the table i knew it was the right choice. Everyone loved the cake and were wondering who had made it.

To make a long story short, the Baking Institute made us the best cake we'd ever had. We found a picture online and they were able to bring it to life and it tasted incredible! My wife doesn't even like cake and she was thrilled with how good it tasted. Highly Recommended!!!

Our cake was fantastic! Not only was it gorgeous, but it tasted great too! All of our guests raved about how delicious it was. And the best part was that the cake turned out exactly how we wanted it. It was stunning and we could not have been happier!!

Our venue provided the cake for us through The Baking Institute so we only had to pay for a sugar flower upgrade. We had some minor set backs such as waiting outside for about a half hour because no one was there when I went to drop off our cake topper and sample flowers. I was able to fit the throught their mails slot thought and everything turned out beautiful and delicious.

To set up a tasting, you have to go on their website and select the types of cakes and the types of fillings that you would like to try. There are some great options on there. Unfortunately there is no guidance. We didn't know anything about wedding cake, so we select three options that sounded good. When we went in for our tasting, we tried 3 different cakes that had obviously been frozen just a short time ago. We weren't really thrilled about any of the options. Igor then told us that it was because those options don't go well together. We felt like idiots. We asked what might taste good together and he rattled off a couple of options. He told us to pick other choices, let him know, and we could come in to the bakery, pick them up and drop them bring them home to try (we were on a tight schedule). When we called with our choices, we were told we would need to come in again to the Northbrook option.

During our tasting, we were trying to pick a design; Igor just kept telling us that "our cake would be beautiful" rather than actually giving any input about the cake itself. Nearly every option we like, he told us it would cost extra because it was fondant. We did find it frustrating because we were overwhelmed with options and looking for some direction. However, for those of you looking for a place that will do nearly any design you can think of, these are your people. They were really open to anything.

My biggest complaint was the problem we had just days before our wedding. Igor had told us to email the design we wanted. We did that nearly three months before our wedding, but we heard nothing. I went in and dropped off the color swatch and I still didn't hear anything about our design. On Tuesday or Wednesday before our Saturday wedding, we got a call from Igor that the design we picked was fondant and we they would have to charge us more. If not, we could just do a plain box cake. We were both furious. It was extortion at that point. We didn't have time to pick a new design, and heck - I could have gone to Jewel and picked out a box cake. My fiancé called back and complained very loudly. They ended up doing the design in butter cream.

I came by to drop off the cake topper and they were closed, so we asked what time they would be open to come by again. They gave us a time frame. I came by again on Wednesday and again, they were closed. I wasn't the only bride there. Another had driven an hour to get there. Fortunately for her, the topper she picked was small enough to put through the slot. She wasn't happy either - she had called and set up an appointment to drop it off. My fiancé called and by now, we were really upset. We were told that if it was a simple topper, we could just bring it and put in on ourselves! Absolutely not, we told them we would bring it out, and now with only two days left, they told us they would be there on Thursday when we got there. We again drove nearly 40 minutes out there, and again they were closed. There was a note on the door this time that they had stepped out for lunch. After about 10 minutes they came back.

Well, obviously we didn't have the best experience, but the cake did turn our beautifully. Igor told us at every chance he could how busy they were and bragged about how many cakes they do in a week. If you are looking for a personal experience, I would pass. If you know what you want, I'd be willing they could do a great job.

If you are like us, and they are the vendor for your wedding site (they have contracts with many different reception sites) plan on some headache.

Amazingly delicious cake! Easy cake tasting that had generous portions to try and choose from! Gorgeous selections of styles as well. We spent barely 30-45 mins with Igor and he handled all the rest of the details with the venue! Thanks for everything guys!!!

Yum!! My cake was DELICIOUS!! It was also perfect and beautiful and elegant. They were also SO easy to deal with and had SO many options!!!

I had them make a surprise Harley Davidson groom cake, and it was exactly as I had imagined. I emailed them a picture of what I wanted, and it was an awesome job
Both the groom and the main wedding cakes were delicious, I got many compliments from the guests. Sometimes I know wedding cakes can taste bland, but their cakes were fresh and delicious, and the frosting wasn't too sweet.
The only thing they can improve on I think is the customer service. It was hard to get a hold of them by phone and email, my wedding planner had to really push to get timely responses. They also weren't able to show me a demo of what my cake toppers would have looked like (I wanted cartoon replicas of me and the groom), and they didn't turn out quite as I had imagined in my head, didn't really look like us at all.

The baking institute made our cake as part of our reception package. Because of this, we did not visit other bakers, so keep in mind that I can't really compare. The tasting was in general disappointing. The woman who helped us was not very knowlegable about the type of cake or what goes well together. You can only pick a 3 to taste, otherwise you have to pay more (maybe this is normal?). The cake itself looked beautiful the day of the wedding and was exactly what they asked for. The cake was moist and the taste was good, but nothing to be too excited about.

Our cake was fabulous. My guests raved about the beauty and the taste. I asked for hearts to be put around the cake to match the cake topper and they were beautiful. Our cake was the talk of the wedding. Top notch!!!

Cantigny includes cake and the original baker retired before our wedding so we had to use the Baking Institute. The cake was delicious but the flowers were the wrong shade of red. Not a big deal but still not perfect.

Great cake! We had two flavors for our cake, one being carrot. Everyone LOVED the carrot cake, in fact we ran out! I was asked many times that night where the cake was from. We chose TBI because that was who our venue used, but very glad that is who we got to work with. And our cake was exactly how I pictured it. We had to pay a little more than our venue gave us based on our guest count, but it wasn't much-- very reasonable prices.

Our cake was delicious!!! It also looked exactly like what we asked for. I am not a fan of fondant, so I asked Igor if he could make the buttercream look as smooth as fondant. He not only said they could, but he delivered. No one could tell it was buttercream until it arrived at their table. Thank you so much for our gorgeous cake.

Two weeks before our wedding, our reception venue informed us that they had to switch our cake order to The Baking Institute. We had already done a tasting etc with their previous bakery, but that bakery quit on them, and all cakes were now going through the Baking Institute. Understandably, my fiance and I were a bit nervous. We had loved the cake we had already picked and really didn't want to change anything.

We decided to do a tasting with them, and the first one didn't go well. My fiance called to make an appt, which then they made him confirm over their website. Their website didn't have the flavors we wanted, but he had to chose something, so at our first tasting we didn't actually get to taste the flavors we originally chose and wanted. Very disappointing after driving all the way up to Wheeling on a Friday night.

Igor sat with us and made sure he understood what we wanted. Ultimately we got an extra tier on the cake as well, as he said the original design would never have fed the number of guest we were having. He said come back Sunday and we'll have a sample for you. So I did and the cake was amazing! We had chosen two flavors, lemon and chocolate, both with a rasberry preserve filling and buttercream icing.

The final product at the reception was fabulous! Looked and tasted exactly like we wanted. If I ever need a cake for an large event again, I would use The Baking Institute.

Igor and the staff at the Baking Institute made the task of picking out a wedding cake easy, fun, and so affordable (especially in comparison to the many other bakeries I looked into). My fiance and I went in for a tasting and quickly chose a chocolate cake with real raspberry and cream filling. It was delicious, and tasted just as wonderful at our wedding. As for the design, we were looking for something simple and classy without fondant. We looked at Igor's design book, and told him which designs we liked, but gave him creative license to do what he wanted based on what we liked. What we got was even better than we anticipated. Our 5 tiered round cake was still simple elegance, but it had perfect touches of jewels around the base of each tier, swirled designs of flowers, and a beautiful monogram in the center of the cake. It was absolutely stunning and the perfect centerpiece for our gorgeous venue. Thank you Igor! We can't wait to eat the top on our 1 year anniversary!

So I was a gluten free bride and I went on a few tastings to find the right place for our wedding cake. We saw a picture of our dream cake in a wedding magazine. The first cake place we went to said that ribbon could not be attached to fondant and that the picture was a fake cake. The second place only did gluten free cakes and they could not get a cake above 3 tiers. I then looked at the magazine to see where the dream cake came from. The Baking institute. My parents went for the tasting and they loved the cake. And the the price was less than the other places. When I entered our reception hall I went straight to the cake. It was so beautiful and the top layer was gluten free! Our cake was so popular we only had a few pieces left to freeze. They also made a very cute tasty top hat groom cake for a very good price. They make 50 cakes a weekend.

My cake was stunning!!! Igor and his team did a fantastic job and the cake and filing were delicious. He gave me great ideas and loved that his cakes were made of much more natural ingredients than other bakeries. They were easy to communicate with and very profesional. We froze the top tier and had it a month later and it was still delicious and I have never had other friends say that about their cakes. Highly recommended!!!

I could not have asked for anything better. Being someone that hates yellow traditional cake, I always knew that when I got married I would do something different. I decided on a five tier carrot wedding cake and The Baking Institute promised me that they could make me the cake of my dreams. THEY DID!!! The cake was amazing, gorgeous, so delicious and moist and I swear it was the best carrot cake I've ever had! Overall everything that was promised was delivered and I had an unforgettable wedding cake. Thank you!

We used the Baking Institute for our wedding on 6/10/11. Our wedding cake was included in the price of our reception hall through the Baking Institute so we didn't have a choice in choosing a bakery for our wedding cake, however I did purchase an additional groom's cake through them as well for the event. We really lucked out that our reception hall used this bakery as the cake was fantastic. It is honestly the best wedding cake I've ever had. We had a yellow cake with raspberry buttercream filling and a vanilla buttercream frosting and it was absolutely delicious. Not dry at all and the frosting was really good unlike so many wedding cakes. The design was gorgeous as well, we paid extra to have sugar flowers added and they were so delicate and pretty I didn't want to eat them! We had some left over after our honeymoon and it was still as good as it was the day of 2 weeks later. The grooms cake I had made was shaped like a police car and they did an excellent job creating it just from a picture and description I had emailed them. Everyone thought it was great as it really looked like a police car and it actually tasted great too. Definitely recommend them!

Thanks Margo and Igor for your help with our wedding cake. All the guests love the cake and thanks for helping us choose the right filling which complimented the cake. I will def be ordering more cakes from Baking Institute.


Azeem & Samreena
Wedding date: June 10th, 2011

The cake for our wedding was absolutely delicious!!!! People raved about the cake (red velvet with buttercream). The cake was included with our reception vendor so we didn't have to actually pay for the cake. However, EVERYTHING is an upcharge at this place. We had to pay extra for red velvet flavor. We also wanted to add 6-8 sugar flowers to our cake and that was a $1.50 charge per person! So for 6 sugar flowers on our cake, they wanted us to pay an extra $375 for 6 sugar flowers. Egor (not sure if that's his name) was rather difficult to work with. He seemed very impatient with us and was not very helpful.

Igor and the Baking Institure team did a great job with our wedding cake. The cake exceeded our expectation, we receive many compliments from our guests. The consultation and tasting were fabulous, and we enjoyed how easy they were to work with. Thank you Baking Institute!

I was super excited to have found this place. The cake tasting went great and I did not stop boasting about how good the cakes were, even recommending them to my friends that are getting married soon. The price was definitely reasonable.
The cake did look nice on the wedding day, HOWEVER it was not what it was supposed to look like, and they were an HOUR late!!! We paid for 7 sugar lillies, and only 4 was placed on the cake. The lillies were supposed to cascade off the cake but were just bunched together. The top and bottom layer was supposed to have fresh strawberries, but the strawberries were very sparse. The taste was average, but certainly not as good as it was at the tasting. We were told the columns would be clear to give the illusion that the top tier was floating, but the columns were white.
I did give this company a call to find out what happened and they stated that I received a beautiful cake. The reason that they could not put the lillies on the top of the cake was because of my cake topper. (Mind you they have had my cake topper for over a month and mentioned nothing about any possible change in the design of the cake) My response to that was that yes it was a nice cake, but not the one that I ordered. They did not want to hear the rest of my comments about the cake, instead they stated "We are very busy, and your check already cleared. E-mail us your complaints and we will get back to you when we can." So just FYI BRIDES BEWARE!! You may not get what you paid for, and they may not show up on time.

perfect cake for both my shower and my wedding...unbelievable!!!

This tiny bake shop is nestled in between what some may call middle-of-nowhere suburbia-offices, but don't judge a book by its cover! My mom and I came in for a tasting and left stuffed. Igor truly listened to what I wanted and the cake came out even better than anticipated. He even promised to bake me a cake top for my one year anniversary! At the wedding, my guests were taken aback by the quality and taste of our light cheesecake with raspberry filling. Definitely not your ordinary cake! After the wedding, my in-laws took the cake home and (on my command) ate it. My husband found out and made me call Igor to make sure he'd actually make us a cake in a year. Igor laughed it off - of course he would! All in all, I couldn't be more happy with the cake and entire experience. Igor and his crew come highly recommended! (Just don't tell them you're freezing the top of your cake) :)

We used The Baking Institute because our reception hall recommended it. We were excited about our cake tasting, however, were not overly impressed. It seemed as though the “tastes” of cake had been sitting all afternoon and were a little crusty on the edges because there was no frosting. Although this was not the best first impression, we were thrilled with the outcome of our cake at our wedding. The details of the cake were impeccable and all of our guests actually thought the sugar orchids were real flowers! Everyone was very impressed and complimented us on how beautiful the cake looked and tasted.

Our wedding cake was beautiful. It was included in our package with our reception hall, but we had to pay extra to have flowers put on the cake, which were worth it. The only gripe is that I sent in a picture of what my bouquet would look like (purple and yellows) to match the cake, but the flowers on the cake ended up being more red...

The Baking Institute did a great job on our wedding cake, it looked exactly how we had discussed it would look in our consultation. They had so many design choices and lots of cake and filling choices. Igor was very accommodating and was willing to work with us to make our perfect cake. The one complaint we had was that we ordered a cake topper from them and they were suppose to put it on the cake when it was delivered. When my husband and I went to cut the cake there was no topper, it wasn't until the next day that it showed up randomly. A missing cake topper is minor in the grand scheme of things, but we did pay for the topper and never got to use it :(

Our cake turned out beautifully! It didn't just look good, it tasted good too!! My only hangup was that they don't really have a store front. It's in like an industrial business district. So when you go for the tasting, it can be somewhat of a challenge to find. The entrance is on the side of the building. Once we got in the office, Igor was very professional and showed us the options we had and he had the cake and filling flavors we had prerequested on their website. Everything was very good, so it was a tough decision, but we went with the red velvet cake with vanilla buttercream. It was a hit at the wedding!

Igor was great to work with. I brought in a picture of a cake I liked and the final product was identical. Compared to other bakeries I scouted, The Baking Institute gives you more options for your dollar! Great Job!

Cake looked great but was a little dry. I cant say too much about anything else with them since we got the cake included in our hall package.

Igor and The Baking Institute created the most fabulous cake for my wedding! I brought them a picture of a cake I found and the made it perfectly! I was thrilled when I saw it and most importantly, it tasted delicious! I brought the top tier to my parents since my husband and I were going on our honeymoon and it was gone in less than a week!
Thank you Igor!

The Baking Institute is Amazing! Not only did Igor provide me with the most beautiful and best tasting cake, he did it with out ever meeting me in person! I basically sent him a picture of how I wanted the cake to look with the flavors via email and he created a beautiful cake for me! Thank you so much Igor for your wonderful service...I will definitely be recommending this bakery and using you guys again! Thanks again!

Delicious! The guests were raving about the cake and some wanted a taste of our first tier at our 1 year anniversary!

Absolutely delicious and gorgeous looking with the perfect colors. They were so accommodating! Gave us different cake for each layer and made the outside go perfectly with our decor.

Absolutely fantastic!!

Igor baked us a beautiful wedding cake! We told him our colors, and he imagined a lovely design on the spot. Some bakers aren't as talented with buttercream as they are with fondant. Not only was buttercream an easy order for Igor, but our cake's surface was so smooth, even the scrollwork, no one knew the difference until they tasted that sumptuous buttercream. The cake was fantastic. The chocolate sponge was soft but firm, sweet but not too much so, and the strawberry filling was so yummy! Igor uses natural ingredients, and you can tell. You can really taste the strawberry. We had a few hiccups along the way, but he was very patient and professional when any problems arose. Thanks, Igor!

As far as I am concerned this is the ONLY place to go for your cake. Absolutely delicious. After pricing cakes at other places and coming away with sticker shock, we went to see Igor at the Baking Institute. OMG! His cakes are perfection and the price was so far below anyone else it wasn't even funny. I tell everyone I know that if they need a special occasion cake, go to the Baking Institute.

Our wedding cake was awesome!!!! The only thing I didn't care for was the top of the cake. I was expecting for the bow on top to be more elaborate. Other than that, I love the taste and how moist the cake was. I will be ordering from them again!

I used them for my bridal shower and wedding, Both cakes were delicious! When you go in for a tasting the portion sizes are HUGE and you can take whatever you dont eat home with you. My wedding cake was amazing. Everyone was blown away by it. The cake was so beautiful i didnt want to cut it! The cakes are moist and fresh. Igor told me no preservatives are added which is awesome. I would use them again.

From the moment Mr. Igor Elyash recieved us at the bakery and had the test for different cakes to the staff and deliver on time. The delicious flavors in the cakes and the works of art so unique that make them an institute. My Daughter's Sweet 16 was the ocasion and butterflies was the theme. We just left the designing in Mr. Igor's hands and presented us with a masterpiece. It made my daughter feel so special and so happy. The down part was when it had to be cut. But we all enjoyed every moment of this beautiful and tasty cake. Thank Mr. Igor on behalf of my Daughter family and friends.

We ordered our wedding cake 3 weeks in advance and we had exactly what we wanted. Igor was very professional, responsive and creative- he was able to incorporate the design or our invitations into the cake design. Price was reasonable and the fruits were delicious. Cannot praise this company enough! Thank you so very much for making our day so special!

When we came to our testing, the owner was out of town and did not tell the other guy about us, so we had to wait for them to make the cakes and him to find our info. After all that, the cake was beautiful and EVERYONE loved it. We did not get to try it, but we have the top tier in the freezer for our one year! I am so glad we picked them.

The cake was real good!!! We picked the dark German chocolate with fresh cut strawberries and the flavor of it during the cake tasting was the same if not better the day of the wedding.

O...mi....god.....I am not a cake person and I LOVED OUR WEDDING CAKE!!!!!!!! These guys did the cake included in our wedding venue's package and I am soooooooooo happy they were the ones! We went with white cake with raspberry bavarian cream filling with buttercream frosting ^-^ Beyond delicious.

Also, the cake tasting was hilarious. I went by myself because my *then* fiance was at work and I was expecting maybe a bite of cake. Oh no, not at the Baking Institute. They brought out two huge pieces of cake. I almost died laughing. Igor was nice enough to box them up for me so I could take them home to my future husband to share ^-^.

Our wedding cake was delicious and almost what we paid for. We paid for an extra glittery confette to make our cake sparkle and that wasn't on it. However Igor was very nice, and patient. I wish he could of had some ideas to give us when choosing our cake. It was red velvet and very tasty. The missing touches and extra costs is dissapointing and I would suggest to be very specific, but overall very nice company.

I don't want to go on and on, but as I was looking through the pictures from our wedding, a picture of the cake caught my eye. Why? Because it was amazing?? NO!! Because it was not what we had asked for. Yes, the flavor was correct. Yes, the shape was correct as were one of the requested design elements. But, the items I emphasized the most...the number of tiers, the colors of the wedding added to the cake...the decorative sugar flowers on top of the top tier...MISSING. I don't think any bride or groom pays that much attention to the cake at the actual wedding, but since we went through such trouble to perfectly describe, in detail, in person, and via email everything we wanted, I can't help but think, what was the point? They missed almost everything we had asked for anyway. Thank goodness the flavor was correct. You only get to have your wedding once, and if your vendors can't understand that even with all their experience in the industry, who does? Needless to repeat, disappointing...

This is the BEST bakery I have ever had the pleasure to deal with. Igor was very helpful and patient with me during the wedding cake selection. He also did a groom's cake that turned out beautifully. My reception hall was also EXTREMELY impressed with both cakes when they were delivered, stating they have seen good wedding cakes, but the appearance and professionalism of this company they had never seen before. I will definitely be using Igor in the future for anything that I need a cake for and I would HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend him to anyone looking for anything from a simple cake to a luxurious elegant cake. Thank you for making our wedding day perfect with the excellent job that you did Igor!!!

They gave us a free tasting and I was able to send Igor a picture of the cake I wanted and it came out almost exactly like the picture. it tasted great! I was very pleased.

I loved my camaro cake(groom). Looked so much like the real thing. Would definitely use them again!! Tasted even better.

We picked The Baking Institute in Wheeling to create the wedding cake of my dreams. Not only is Igor and his staff extremely professional and creative, but their wedding cakes possess the most important thing that can sometimes be lacking in the world of wedding cakes – amazing taste!!! The Baking Institute was our first and only stop for taste testing. We went out to Igor’s studio and tried a handful of cake samples. His cakes melt in your mouth like butter and the flavor of his fillings cannot be described with words. We went with a 5 layer cake with 3 different combos – yellow cake and raspberry mousse, yellow cake and chocolate mousse, and marble with chocolate buttercream. At the tasting my husband was licking the plates clean, LOL. After speaking with Igor, sending him a few photos of different cakes and of my wedding dress, he created the most beautiful (and delicious) cake for us. It was perfection! Please save yourself any heartache on your wedding day and use Igor and The Baking Institute to create your cake. I will be calling him for any future events where we’ll need cakes or pastries.

We absolutely loved the cakes that the Baking Institute team provided for our wedding. They made a fabulous Topsy Turvy Cake which matched our color palette exactly and tasted wonderful (Black Forest Gateaux with fresh raspberry filling) They also provided a wonderful Grooms Cake for my Cubs Fanatic husband to be. It was a carrot cake in the shape/style of the Wrigley Field Sign. We received a lot of compliments for that cake also - even from the White Sox fans!!
The responsiveness to our requests was wonderful and Igor and the team were absolute professionals throughout the process. We will be using the team at the Baking Institute for any special occasions in the future and recommend them to future brides and grooms, especially if you want to have a wedding cake that not only looks fabulous, but also tastes wonderful and fresh.

I was disappointed on the flowers at the top of the cake. I envisioned it being a darker red. Other than the flowers on top, the cake was beautiful and tasted great, all my guests loved it.

We ordered our wedding cake and groom's cake from them. I think the groom's cake got more pictures taken of it than I did (the bride). The groom's cake was in the shape of a Chevy Camaro (the car) and everyone commented on how great it looked!! We called three places and the baking institute was by far the most reasonable priced also. Both tasted great! Thank you, we will definitely keep you in mind for future cakes, I already have an idea for my now, husband's birthday cake!

Our guests could not stop talking about how delicious our cake was. And my husband who does not like sweets at all, could not stop commenting on how great our cake was. They were very professional and explained to us the differences in the cake design and pricesThe cake came out beautifully and tasted amazing!

We ended up at the Baking Institute because it was one of the hotels preferred vendors...the cake tasting was the third one of the day and we were caked out....but by the time we tasted Igor's cakes, we were simply blown away. We ended up with a banana cake that tasted of the freshest bananas and his white chocolate and dark chocolate fudge/ganache was to die for. All of our guests were amazed by the cake. Like most people, we brought in our picture and Igor matched it up pretty well.

Our cake was exactly what we expected and more.I designed the cake and they created it just as I wanted only better.They also tasted really good! Be willing to pay for it though!

Dear Igor & Jesus,
Christine and I would like to take this time to express to both of you our sincere gratitude for all the efforts that you have shown us in the area of customer service. Throughout our search for an amazing tasting wedding cake, we encountered various bakeries that were average, and bakery owners that were unknowledgeable, pushy, unprofessional, and frankly unfriendly individuals to work with. However, when we encountered your location, we have to say that both you and Jesus were very professional, pleasant to work with, motivated, and very knowledgeable. Moreover, both you and Jesus were very compassionate when speaking about your product and brand.

Again, we would like to take this opportunity to express to you and Jesus our sincere gratitude. Truly your level of professionalism and value to illustrate to a customer that they are more than just another sale, is unmatched by anyone we have encountered within the baking industry.

Sincerely,
Michael & Christine
Lombard, IL

P.S. We are still receiving compliments about your fantastic pastries and amazing fresh fruit filled wedding cake. We will be sure to refer you to all of our friends and family, and reach out to you in the future for all of our dessert needs.

Everyone at my reception raved about our cake. It looked beautiful and tasted delicious. About a week before the wedding I decided I wanted to add sugared flowers to the cake, and Igor worked with me to get the exact flower that I wanted put on the cake, with no problems. I would definitely recommend the Baking Institute.

Igor was very pleasant, I showed him a picture of the cake I wanted replicated but in pink and brown with silver accents and he transformed the cake in the picture I wanted to fit my vision and it came out beautiful! The cake was delicious I was very impressed and it was also very affordable. I searched many places before I came across the baking institute at a bridal expo and he had me sold with there prices and quality of work, and of course the taste of the cake! I never had a cake that was so moist delicious and look so beautiful! You can't beat there prices, quality and Service! My cake was the Pink cake he was referring to I love pink and they made it happen!
Thanks for everything! - Monica

My cake was the most amazingly beautiful cake i have ever seen (yes even including on tv) it was perfect, i couldnt have asked for anything more! i showed two pictures to Igor and he delivered my dream wedding cake in such a wonderful price. i would definetly recommend the baking institute to EVERYONE! they did a faaaaaaaaaaaabulous job on my cake. email me at iqraailyas7@gmail.com if you would like to see a picture of the palace they created for me!

We had an easy time getting a hold of Igor at the Baking Institute. Since our cake was partly covered by our banquet hall facility, we were directed to do our tasting at the bakery. Our appointment time fit our schedule and within one weekend, Igor helped us with the flavor and the design of the cake. We had lots of options to choose from and he provided us with many helpful suggestions. Since we gave him a picture of a cake that we wanted ours to resemble, we expected him to do just that. Our cake came our even better than we imagined. All our guests loved it and couldn't believe that it was real. It was very simple yet classy. It was super yummy as well. A few of our friends that are in the wedding planning stages can't wait to stop in at the Baking Institute to pick their cake. Truly, we had no worries when it came to this part of the wedding planning. I would recommend this bakery in a heart beat, both for the appearance and the taste of their products. Our sweet table was yummy as well!

Things for stressed brides to keep in mind - come in with a picture of what you want your cake to be like and with the color of your wedding if you plan to incorporate that into your cake.

Don't do fundant because butter cream is just as pretty and your guests won't eat the foundant layer.

I want to thank the staff at the Baking Institute, especially executive pastry chef Jesus and coordinator Jesus Jr. for their professionalism. Eventhough my venue was far way, they were able to get my cake to the venue on time on a Sunday. I gave Jesus a picture from a magazine and they were able to replicate every detail on the cake. Every tier of my cake was a different flavor and the taste was incredible. The cake was extremely fresh and my guests could not have enough of it. It is one of the only places that actually cares about their product and will listen to the customer closely. They are always willing to work with you and your budget. I will definetely use this company in the future. Thanks again!!!


Highwood, IL
Grizell & David

Every bride knows that a wedding cake is not just a cake. It is an artistic creation that is a one of the key wedding attractions. A wedding cake should revolve around a brides wedding theme and dreams, while still tasting amazing. Knowing all this, it was not easy for me to find the perfect baker, that is why I was soo lucky to find Igor at the Baking Institute. Not only were all the flavors of my cake amazingly delicious, it was the cake of my dreams! Igor and his team were extremely helpful right form the beginning. They listened to all my ideas and helped me design a cake that tied together my entire wedding theme. To add to the delicious flavors of wedding cake, the Baking Institute also offered me a variety of french pastries. After all the choices were made, Igor and his team not only delivered everything to the banquet hall, but they also set up the entire sweet table in a beautiful design. All the guests raved about the fantastic pastries and wedding cake! Many guests even spent the night convincing me to let them take more home! I am very grateful and lucky to have found such an excellent baker.

Beautiful cake, custom made! Great selection of flavors. Very happy with vendor!!

I plan to use them for all of our future events and would recommend them over and over again for your wedding. I've also seen pictures of some pretty creative cakes that he's made that compare with those cake competitions you see on TV! You must get your cake from here!!

Great cake - limited selection, but you can bring in a picture of the cake! Busy busy busy - they are always busy at the location, Igor is pretty quick at responding to emails and calls but they should get another person. (seems like it's a one man operation.)

Our wedding cake was beautiful and all the guests were raving about how great it tasted. We also used them to do our shower cake which was equally as beautiful.

Our wedding cake was included in our package through Fountain Blue: We were able to choose between 2 bakers and we sure are glad we chose this one! From the minute we saw the photo of the cake we knew it was the one. We setup a cake tasting and were thrilled with the choices. We tried chocolate, yellow, and marble. While they were all good, we went with the marble with a vanilla custard filling!!! We decided against one part of the design on the cake and it was no problem to change it! When I first walked into the hall and saw our cake I was blown away. Not only did it look great but tasted great too. 1 month later I am still getting compliments on how good the cake was. I wish I could include a pic but it was amazing!! I would definitely recommend the Baking Institute!!!

This place is simply amazing. Igor was so helpful to us in deciding which cake to put in middle and decorated our cake exactly as we asked. He gave great advice and made us the most amazing cake ever. The cake we ordered was chocolate with fudge cream, but he made the top of it with yellow cake and strawberry whipped cream in order to avoid chocolate on a white wedding dress(good thinking on his part!)

Our cake was absolutely delicious! We still get compliments on how good it was and our sweet table was immaculate. We always get compliments on that as well. We even went back to get a small cake for Valentine's Day because it was just that good. I plan to use them for all of our future events and would recommend them over and over again for your wedding. I've also seen pictures of some pretty creative cakes that he's made that compare with those cake competitions you see on TV! You must get your cake from here!!

HONESTLY WAS THE BEST WEDDING CAKE I HAVE EVER HAD. WE HAVE HAD SO MANY COMPLIMENTS ON THE WEDDING CAKE. WE DID THE RASPBERRY FILLING AND IT WAS AMAZING!! PEOPLE ARE STILL CALLING US 1 MONTH LATER ASKING WHERE WE GOT IT FROM

Vendor was recommended by the Westin hotel.

Cake looked and tasted great.

All I have to say is chocolate fantasy mousse cake! It was unbelievable! I would recommend the baking institute to anyone!

It's been two and a half years since I got married and people still talk about our cake! It was beautiful and delicious (even a year later when we ate the top!) Igor was fantastic! I can't wait for my baby shower so that I can have another cake from him. I love, love, love their work!

The cakes, the service and price is unbeatable! My guests RAVED about my cake! This is by far the best bakery in Chicago

I used Baking Institute for one of my budget conscious brides and they met us, driving farther, and the cake was absolutely beautiful! We look forward to working with this vendor more in the future!

Prfect Day Wedding...

Igor makes the tastiest cakes and sweets! Is always a joy to work with and a great guide into the sweet treats world!

Great cakes, great sweets highly recommend.