Woodland Bakery is a small bakery in northern New Jersey that specializes in all kinds of treats but is especially known for their crumb buns. The owner, Gretchen, has her own youtube channel where she posts videos and tutorials on how to make tons of the things that she sells (I’ve already made the amazing key lime pie).
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Welcome to part 2 of my Chicago Bakery Roundup. Part 1 was all bakeries I visited my first time in Chicago but this post covers the ones I visited for the first time ever. I really enjoyed all of these places and can’t wait to go back to Chicago to try more offerings from them.

New Wave Coffee
3103 W Logan Blvd, Chicago, IL 60647

This coffee shop was right around the corner from the friend’s place that I stayed at and I ended up going in one day with another friend because we were in the area and needed someplace to go. I saw some cupcakes on display, I think they are all vegan (including the one I got), and decided to get one. The woman working the counter was extremely friendly and had a great sense of humor, so I really have to compliment that.

The cupcake is a (vegan?) lemon cupcake with lemon frosting, lemon zest, and a lemon wedge. It was incredibly soft, moist, full of lemon flavor. The frosting was the perfect amount of sweet and had a cream cheese taste to it. Oddly enough this coffee shop cupcake was probably the best cupcake I had my entire trip to Chicago, along with the atmosphere and kindness of the staff, I really have to recommend this place.

Hoosier Mama Pie Company
1618 1/2 Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL 60622

Despite riding the bus in the opposite direction for 20 minutes, I was able to get here before they closed for the day. I’ve heard great things about their chocolate pie but I didn’t want to weigh myself down with chocolate after all the bakeries I visited that day so I went with a safe choice: a small buttermilk pie.

Hoosier Mama Pie Company offers small pies and normal sized pies. They have a small shop front that offers seating or they will box it up to go. I took mine to go and split it with some friends.

It had a soft but crisp crust that gave way easily, managed not to be dry and have a nice flavor. It had a creamy, custard like buttermilk filling that was tangy without being overwhelming. I loved it and want to go back for their decadent chocolate pie. This might be the one place that could turn me into a pie lover.

Swirlz Cupcakes
705 West Belden Avenue, Chicago, IL 60614

Swirlz was recommended to me by a reader so I decided to head on over.

They say you can always tell a bakery by how they handle their “basic” flavors, such as vanilla. Vanilla also happens to be one of my favorite flavors so that’s what I decided to get here. It’s a vanilla buttermilk cake with a whipped Italian frosting. I am not a fan of whipped frosting so I can’t properly judge it but it was super light and had good flavor. The cake was flatter and wider than most cupcakes, which I enjoyed, it let me get a full bite of cake with a full bite of frosting without any kind of awkwardness. The cake blew me away, it’s one of the best vanilla cakes I’ve ever tasted. It was light, soft, moist, packed with vanilla flavor, and completely enjoyable. It tasted fresh and had a great frosting to cake ratio. I’m eager to try all of their flavors on my next trip.

Bittersweet
1114 West Belmont Avenue, Chicago, IL 60657-2798

I was a bit disappointed with Bittersweet. I walked in and was surrounded by beautiful pastries and lots of people sitting at tables eating. I grabbed a vanilla cupcake and lemon macaron to go.

The lemon macaron was good but I couldn’t find the lemon at all. It just tasted like a yellow macaron with a swiss meringue buttercream filling. There might have been lemon curd but I didn’t see or taste it at all.

The vanilla cupcake was dry and the frosting was piled high and really thick and sweet. It was just too much and completely unsatisfying. I hate giving places bad reviews but I really just didn’t enjoy this place.

I was back in Chicago at the end of June and beginning of July, hanging out with friends and enjoying all the bakeries. So many bakeries that I’m splitting this post into two parts.

This first part is covering all the bakeries I went to in my first trip, and first post about Chicago bakeries, which can be found by clicking here.

I wanted to try their other flavors, give the places I didn’t like a second chance, and if it wasn’t a cupcake-only shop I wanted to try their other offerings. Overall, I liked the bakeries just as much, if not more, than last time, but I did have a couple disappointments.

Molly’s Cupcakes
2536 North Clark Street, Chicago, IL 60614

Last time I was at Molly’s I got the Chocolate Decadence cupcake, looking back I don’t know what I was thinking when there were so many other options. This time, I got cookie dough, lemon meringue, and the butterscotch caramel.

I wish I got the cake batter one and will have to get it next time I’m in Chicago.

My favorite was the cookie dough, which was a chocolate chip cupcake with vanilla buttercream, a cookie on top, and a soft cookie dough filling.

The lemon meringue was super lemony, light, and had a toasted meringue topping (which I could have used more of, but it was still delightful).

Finally, my least favorite was the butterscotch caramel. It tasted like burnt caramel and I just didn’t like it at all. I was really hoping it would be amazing but I was mostly just disappointed, maybe it was having a bad day but I don’t think I’d get it again.

Bleeding Heart Bakery
1955 West Belmont Avenue, Chicago, IL 60657

I was looking forward to Bleeding Heart Bakery the most. They have such a huge selection and I really wanted to go back and try their cake balls. The photo above only shows the stuff I got the first trip. A s’mores brownie with vegan marshmallows and graham cracker pieces baked in and a veruca salt cake ball. On another trip I got a chocolate mint cake ball, a chocolate hazelnut cake ball, and another flavor I can’t remember. On top of all that, I got a lemon bar.

The bars and brownies are huge. I’d really recommend splitting it with someone unless you had a big appetite that day. The brownie was dense and packed with chocolate, the graham crackers got a little lost but the marshmallows were melted and toasted and really stood out. The lemon bar was a huge slab of lemon filling with a delicious shortbread crust. I recommend both of them highly.

The cake balls are a great deal at just $1.50. They are pretty deceiving in size, one is definitely enough. I tried to eat 4 and felt stuffed and saved the rest for later. Every single one was great, my favorite being the veruca salt (a salted caramel cake ball, also available as a cupcake). They are also a great way to sample flavors that you can then buy in a cupcake version.

Sweet Mandy B’s
1208 West Webster Avenue Chicago, IL 60614

I was a bit caked out by the time I got to Sweet Mandy B’s, it was my fifth bakery in one day, so I wanted to switch up my order a bit and got butterscotch pudding. It was thick, smooth, and packed with brown sugar flavor. It was layered with whipped cream and a cool treat for a hot day. I got a large size to share but they have them in smaller, single serving sizes as well.

Sprinkles
50 E Walton St, Chicago, IL 60611

I didn’t like Sprinkles much on my first visit. I liked the key lime cupcake and hated the milk chocolate. This time I went with a staple flavor, Vanilla, because it’s also one of my favorite flavors.

I was pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed it. It wasn’t the best vanilla cupcake I ever had but I wouldn’t hesitate to stop in and enjoy it.

More Cupcakes
1 East Delaware Place, Chicago, IL 60611

I’m sad to say that More Cupcakes was the most disappointing of them all again. Last time I had a cupcake that had too much frosting and made me feel kind of sick by the end of it so this time I went with something with a lot less frosting, the salted caramel.

The frosting was a swiss meringue buttercream with a small amount of sea salt sprinkled in the middle. This might have been the only salt in the entire cupcake unfortunately. The cake was very dry and the center was just a big hole where the caramel had kind of soaked into the cake but still didn’t manage to flavor or moisten it. I want to like More and would love to give it a third try, but so far I have just been disappointed.

On the upside, the staff is really friendly (but the staff at all the bakeries I visited was extremely friendly as well).

SweetBox Truck is the newest cupcake vendor in Philadelphia, boasting fresh cupcakes (baked daily) made with fresh ingredients and made completely from scratch. The truck can be found at 3500 Market Street in University City, though the location may change (keep up on Facebook and Twitter for up to date information).

The cupcakes come with the standard flavors of chocolate, vanilla, and red velvet but there is also a list of rotating flavors like cookie dough (a vanilla cupcake with a cookie dough center), chocolate peanut butter (chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting and a fudge center), Philly Hostess (a chocolate cupcake with chocolate ganache, Philly written in red frosting on the top, and a vanilla cream center), and a lot more. You can find the full menu on the SweetBox Truck facebook page.

The schedule for the truck can be found by following along on Facebook and Twitter.

Oh, and the cupcakes? They are fantastic. Pictured above is the vanilla cupcake with vanilla buttercream frosting. The cake part is super moist, has strong vanilla flavor, and is light, probably the best vanilla cupcake I’ve ever had (and I’ve tasted a lot, considering my favorite flavor is vanilla). The buttercream on top is creamy and fluffy, there isn’t too much piled on and there isn’t too little, and it isn’t overly sweet but it definitely isn’t lacking either. You’d think it ends there, but it doesn’t, on top of how great the cupcake tastes it also looks great, something very few bakeries (at least in this city) have been able to accomplish, let alone excel at like SweetBox Truck has.
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Sweet Freedom Bakery
1424 South Street (between Broad and 15th)
Philadelphia, PA 19146
http://www.sweetfreedombakery.com/

Sweet Freedom Bakery is a vegan, gluten-free, and allergy-friendly bakery.

The full list is: gluten-free, vegan, dairy-free, egg-free, soy-free, corn-free, peanut-free, refined sugar-free, and kosher.

Instead of those things, Sweet Freedom uses natural sweeteners (like agave), products derived from coconut (sugar, milk, oil, flour), as well as a huge range of other ingredients, which are all listed for each of their products on their website.
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This is my friend Asif, we went to New York City yesterday and ended up in the Lower East Side, so we went to a couple of my favorite bakeries in the area: Doughnut Plant & sugar Sweet sunshine.
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Before I start, this isn’t the only cupcake truck in Philadelphia. There is another one called Call Me Cupcake that I have yet to try.

I tried doing a joint review of Buttercream with Call Me Cupcake, however I went out to the Call Me Cupcake scheduled stops (I tried three different spots) and the truck was nowhere to be found in any of them. They didn’t update their information to let people know they wouldn’t be where they said they would and I wasted a few hours traveling all over Philadelphia, needless to say they won’t be getting any of my business.

The good news is, Buttercream is fabulous enough that I don’t need any other cupcake truck.
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Food trucks have been around for a bit now, but recently Philadelphia has been treated to some food trucks specializing in sweets. There are two trucks devoted solely to cupcakes (who I’ll be talking about later this week), but this truck, Sugar Philly, is devoted to all kinds of desserts.

The menu ranges from french macarons to custards to cakes. They offer traditional flavors as well as seasonal flavors, currently pumpkin is seen in a lot of items, like the pumpkin custard and pumpkin chocolate caramel macarons.

The truck has been parking in university city, on 38th and Sansom, but today they made a stop in Love Park, just a few blocks from where I go to school, so I had no excuse not to go over and grab some macarons.
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I’m so sorry I haven’t updated in a whole week and then I come back to you without a recipe. I’m in the last week of my job at a haunted house and I’m working 5 days a week, sometimes until 2 or 3 in the morning, on top of school and I haven’t been in the kitchen. I promise next week will have a lot of delicious recipes.

Until then, I thought I’d share some of the cupcakes I ate and photographed from Philly Cupcake, a cupcake shop in Philadelphia and I wanted to tell you about them.
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So my trip to San Francisco has not gone the way I planned at all but I’m doing my best to enjoy it (and I have been!) I got to hang out with a friend and met a few people, I ate frozen yogurt for the first time, and I saw a few sights.

I promise I’ll have a recipe for you by Tuesday or Wednesday as soon as I get back, until then I have a couple more bakeries to talk about.
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