The Baking Institute was a partnered vendor with our reception hall, and honestly, we didn't expect it to go as well as it did. Our first meeting wasn't great, and we were unsure about moving forward. Thankfully, they allowed us to come back for a second visit--and that visit completely blew us away with their incredible customer service. The baker took her time listening to our vision and thoughtfully sketched out a cake design that perfectly fit our theme. She also offered insightful suggestions that really helped bring our ideas to life. On the wedding day, the cake looked absolutely beautiful and tasted even better. We chose a white cake with a French custard dulce de leche filling, and we had guests who normally dislike sweets devour their slices! We can't wait to enjoy our anniversary layer next year. read more

Baking Institute - Bakeries Near Me - Northbrook, Illinois

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Amazing cakes. We got our wedding cake from the baking institute and it was amazing- so tasty and beautiful. We went with the cannoli frosting and a yellow sponge cake. Everyone at our wedding said it was some of the best wedding cake they had read more

Baking Institute - Cake tasting - strawberry with white sponge cake, cannoli frosting filling with chocolate cake, and yellow cake with buttercream - Bakeries Near Me - Northbrook, Illinois

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Excellent vendor to work with. They are very responsive and accommodating to designing your dream cake. The tasting process was very good and thorough, with plenty of examples of finished cakes, lots of details about the different flavors, and detailed consultation about color choices and design. The finished cake I got exceeded my expectations, both in look and in flavor. It looked spectacular in photos, was very refined in the look, and was incredibly moist and flavorful. I would definitely get more cakes from here for a special occasion, if I need everything to be reliable and delicious! read more

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The cake was delicious and delivered on time and looked beautiful. The communication was always extremely prompt, They were very easy to work with. I am very happy. read more

Baking Institute - Bakeries Near Me - Northbrook, Illinois

Igor was very detailed and helpful during our tasting. Initially we picked 3 flavors but he added a 4th one. Definitely worth a spot to check out. We have 100 guest @4.50/pp plus $400 design and cake total was around $970 with delivery. Pretty reasonable and they have many designs! read more

Baking Institute - Marble, lemon, tiramisu and chocolate cake tasting! - Bakeries Near Me - Northbrook, Illinois

Worked with them for our wedding cake. I am gluten free but not many of my guest were, they suggested doing a GF topper and regular cake for the bottom two layers. They also suggested making the two types of cakes different so that the servers would have a visual distinction between GF and regular. I really appreciated them being able to accommodate my diet and also offer advice for my event. Of course the cake was beautifully decorated and absolutely delicious, our guests raved about it all night. read more

We can't say enough good things about the Baking Institute! They made the most beautiful cake for our wedding that fit nicely with the decor. They also had a great variety of flavors to choose from. We went with the Lemon Zest and Chocolate Raspberry Heaven and couldn't get enough of both of these flavors. The tasting experience and choosing our cake design was also wonderful. I was able to bring my parents with us for the tasting, so it was a really memorable experience for all of us. They were very detailed with all of the cake design options. They even asked for a picture of my wedding dress and they helped pick out a cake that fit the wedding dress/vibe of the wedding. It was very personal and custom! I would highly recommend working with the Baking Institute for your wedding cake! read more

Baking Institute - Wedding Cake from the Baking Institute - Bakeries Near Me - Northbrook, Illinois

Me and my Fiancé are getting married June 2,2024 and we went yesterday to our cake tasting and we were so excited and the lady we were with, her name was Ciera and she was so spaced out and awkward. First issue was that they served the cake on a paper plate with clear plastic utensils like c'mon couples come to take photos, at least make it look presentable. Second issue was Ciera herself, she didn't introduce herself or anything and didn't even give us descriptions of the cake flavors ( yes we chose the flavors but that was a month ago and it was all thrown on 1 plate so we couldn't tell what was what) and everything was extremely rushed and she didn't try to make it special at all for us and we were in and out of there in 10 minutes. Honestly if we weren't spending so much already on our wedding I would have gotten up and left and chose another place to make our wedding cake. read more

Baking Institute - Bakeries Near Me - Northbrook, Illinois

Myself and my family have been ordering cakes from here for the past 10 years. Baby showers, birthdays, graduations, holloween, Easter, etc. All of which adds up to thousands upon thousands of dollars of business. Today, I received the delivery of a cake, I paid $620. The cake was to celebrate one of the most meaningful promotions of my career, and I couldn't have been more disappointed. The cake looks like someone without experience took 5 minutes to throw it together. Posted are the photos of what we requested along with what we received. If there was any doubt about what was ordered, a follow-up phone call should have taken place to us 2 weeks ago when the order was placed. Or a 1 minute Google search would have yielded the proper details if the photos and original request were unclear. OR call us for clarification if there were doubts. Today, after multiple calls, emails, and photos were sent, we were told we would receive a full refund. However, it was not the initial response we had received, AND it doesn't change that the moment is ruined. The detailed fondant work " IS " what draws us to this bakery. If I just wanted a cake without the special decor, I would have bought one from Costco. By the way, Costco cakes taste delicious and moist for a mere $30 dollars. This is the business, this is their specialty, you only get one chance to get it right for the moment. read more

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Horrible service! I provided an inspiration photo for what I wanted my wedding cake to look like and they did a horrible job executing what I asked for. I also paid extra to have the cake look this way - when I called to ask for my money back since the cake looked horrible I was told by the general manager Igor that in his opinion it was beautiful. I was very unhappy with the cake and the service of this place and would not recommend. read more

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RUN FOR THE HILLS!!! This place is the worst business I've ever come across. Unfortunately they were contracted with our venue so we had to go to them but if I could go back I would pay extra and find my own bakery/cake place! We met with them and chose a cake. I specifically wanted a cake they've done before so I knew what I would be getting. The only request we had was to add extra empty tiers to the cake so we could add floral. We paid extra to our florist to provide these flowers to fill in these tiers. The cake we ended up getting looked nothing like the cake we ordered!! The pearls were falling off and were all over the floor of the venue and the design on the actual cake looked like a half assed version of the original design. They also never put the extra tiers in even though I contacted them multiple times before the wedding to verify the design. They were very dismissive and just kept sending me pictures of the original design. Since the wedding, I contacted them several times via email to refund me my money for the extras that I paid for but never received. I was ignored until finally they said they'd send me a check. It's been two weeks and I still haven't received anything! This place is absolutely horrible and I question how such a business is allowed to operate like this. What they're doing is illegal and a scam!!!! RUN!! read more

Brides RUN! FIND ANYWHERE ELSE. I do not want you to go through what I went through so I'm begging you to read. Let's start from the beginning. We had our tasting Irog (not the nicest person in the world but oh well), the cake flavors were great. We booked the Baking Institute a year and 2 months before our wedding and everything was going great till about 6 months before the wedding we asked them to come early and they said that is not a problem at all. When I got the new contract our cake flavors went correct (maybe a simple mistake) emailed the baking institute back and they fixed the flavors and the correct time was still on the form. THE DAY OF MY WEDDING. The cake was supposed to be at my venue at 2:00pm. Not only did they NOT show up until 7:30pm they didn't even bring the right cake. One of the flavors tasted like it was 2 weeks old, while the other flavor wasn't even correct. The decorating of the cake was NOT what I approved of. Keep in mind I gave them 3 pictures so they couldn't mess it up. When we first called at 2:30 they said they were an hour away. The second call said they are almost there. The third call to the 50th call NO ANSWER AND NO RESPONSE! Marie and Igor gave me excuse after stupid excuse on why my cake was 5.5 hours late, favors where wrong and the excuse of the cake decorating was "well that's standard". I did NOT approve "standard" PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE GO ANYWHERE ELSE. DONT EVEN CHANCE THEM RUINING YOUR SPECIAL DAY! read more

We chose Baking Institute to bake and design our wedding cake. We worked with Igor, who was very helpful in making the right choices for the design and flavors. We went with a 4-tier cake with one layer being marble cake with raspberry mousse and the other two layers with marble cake and white chocolate mousse. Both combinations were outstanding and loved by our guests. There was a small upcharge to choose mousse filling, but it was definitely worth the cost. We loved Baking Institute so much that we decided to order another cake for our baby shower. We highly recommend Baking Institute for anyone who is looking for a delicious cake for your wedding or any other special occasion. read more

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This review is nearly four months overdue but I wanted to give credit and thanks to the wonderful staff and Igor (Head baker) @ the baking institute. The baking institute was one of our vendors for our wedding this past year and they did a great job with our cake selection. At first when My husband and I arrived for our first appointment and cake tasting, we weren't sure what type/flavor or design of cake we wanted. After looking at several Pinterest photos, the task of choosing seemed daunting. There's just so many things to consider when choosing "The Cake" but Igor helped smooth that whole process over by simply asking some basic questions like: What's our color scheme? What does my dress look like? What cake flavors do we like/don't like? What are the flowers we've chosen? And from all that info, he was able to design a cake that was to both my husband's and my liking! Overall, everyone enjoyed the look and most importantly the taste of the cake. I would highly recommend this place to anyone considering a purchase from the baking institute. They are by appointment only so please call ahead. read more

Baking Institute - Our finished wedding cake from the baking institute. Thank you Igor! - Bakeries Near Me - Northbrook, Illinois

Our reception hall, The Cotillion, uses the Baking Institute for their wedding cakes as part of their reception packages. Originally, they double booked our appointment and had to reschedule for another day. When we finally went in, we expected to meet with a designer or baker, but we met with an office person. She provided zero creative advice and more or less just took our order. We tasted 3 different cakes with a variety of frostings and ended up ordering an almond cake with a hazelnut frosting. We wanted something different than your standard wedding cake and achieved just that. Overall, we were happy with our cake, but would have liked some sort of guidance from an expert and did not receive that at all After all, I have never ordered a wedding cake before and had no idea what I was doing. I provided them my own sketch of my cake and they used this to make our cake. It came our beautifully and tasted delicious, but we basically ordered from their "menu" of options. We skipped the fake flowers and let our florist, Kimberose, decorate the cake with real roses and I'm so happy we decided against the edible flowers. Real roses were the way to go! Would I use them again? Possibly. read more

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It was a rough start with the baking institute in Northbrook but they came through with flying colors on our wedding day. First of all, don't expect a big fancy bakery. Totally disappointing! They are located in a dingy, remote industrial park. The inside of their office is dark, dank, and unassuming. There are several old fake cake examples to look at while waiting for the most disagreeable sales person ever! Brought pictures, told the guy what we wanted and he proceeded to minimize all our requests. Even saying that we don't need to put frosting flowers around the whole cake...so weird...especially if it's in the middle of the dance floor and not against a wall. The cake samples they brought out didn't have frosting and I feel that is really peculiar. We left dumbfounded and confused. After talking to our coordinator at the banquet place and she called over with our concerns, things got better. The cake ended up being beautiful and delicious. read more

Baking Institute - Bakeries Near Me - Northbrook, Illinois

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I tried reaching out to Igor/Baking Institute Company regarding the customized cake I had ordered for my wedding day last Sept. Unfortunately, there have been a few things that were created on the cake that I did not choose. First, I requested a white marble cake that has some grey swirling design and I requested the color Lilac effect going down the cake, but instead, they created somewhat a blue marble-colored cake. The silver bling stand that I chose was not the cake stand they provided. As I had paid "extra" to customize my cake and discussed the cake details with the lady during our cake tasting, it was far from what I was given on my wedding day. I emailed the company several times and no response whatsoever. They had completely ignored my complaints. I will never recommend this baking company to anyone. read more

We ordered our son's wedding cake from The Baking Institute and it exceeded our expectations. Some of our guests said that the cake was one of the best they'd ever tasted. I went to Northbrook for the tasting and everything was handled exceedingly professionally. I highly recommend The Baking Institute! read more

The Bad: We ordered 16 dozen chocolate desserts for our wedding reception of 350 and we received almost no desserts and the ones we did receive were cannolis and tarts we had not asked for, especially since we are very strict about eggless desserts. The Good: We emailed them and the owner reviewed our claim and within 24 hours of the initial email, responded admitting that their delivery driver made a mistake and gave us the wrong order. The owner promptly issued us a refund. Going forward, I would encourage folks to check that they send the right quantity and order. I think the company acted with integrity after the error and did the right thing, so I would consider working with them again. read more

Worst cake ever! Not only was it not what the bride ordered, it was leaning so badly that the reception hall was afraid to put her topper on it for fear it would tip over! My first thoughts as matron of honor when I saw that cake were WTF?!? My sister was introduced and immediately almost started crying when she saw it. And how could she not, when it was right in front of her. The cake tasted so nasty my 4 year old wouldn't even eat it. She should have used Berkots or Fleckensteins because if the cake looked jacked up, at least it would've tasted good! read more

Baking Institute - Does this look right to you? Looked ready to fall over and wasn't supposed to be like this. Tasted so bad little kids wouldn't even eat it - Bakeries Near Me - Northbrook, Illinois

We had a great experience with the baking institute. Our wedding cake was absolutely beautiful and looked exactly like how we wanted it too. It tasted delicious too!! read more

Baking Institute - a three tiered wedding cake - Bakeries Near Me - Northbrook, Illinois

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Our reception hall (Abbington) partners with The Baking Institute so it was included in our wedding package. We went for the tasting and was surprised to see that for the flavors we picked it wasn't real fruit filling and it was a cream instead. It turned out they charge extra for real fruit filling which I was upset about. We decided on raspberry flavor and white cake because that was the only filling that actually tasted like something. I brought pictures of cakes that I liked so the lady sketched out the details from both cakes that I liked. Fast forward to the wedding day...I never saw it but my mom and our wedding coordinator did, but the WRONG color ribbon was put on the cake. Our color was regency purple and they put a baby blue color ribbon on it so it wasn't even close. Our wedding coordinator, Tara, was sweet enough to go to Walmart to buy the right colored ribbon and their chef put the ribbon back on our cake. They are lucky I was taking pictures at the time and didn't see it with my own eyes. Aside from that, the cake tasted good and after the right color ribbon was put on it, it looked beautiful. read more

Baking Institute - Our cake with the RIGHT colored ribbon - Bakeries Near Me - Northbrook, Illinois

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I was referred to this bakery by the Banquet that I am having my daughters baptism. As a cake that is included with the booking of a banquet I was skeptical as to how good the cake might be. I booked a tasting with Baking Institute and it exceeded my expectations 100%. The cake flavors I requested to try were so good that it made my selection a hard choice. Im not a big chocolate cake fan but the flavor of these were so good! nothing I've tried before. The cake is very moist, not too sweet, and it just taste so good! I'll definitely book a cake with them. Customer service was also great, we were greeted and helped by Cierra who was very detailed with everything and informative. The place is very clean and professional. read more

I just had my wedding last Saturday in downtown Chicago and I had them make and deliver my wedding cake. It was a white cake with French custard inside and It was absolutely delicious!!!! Very moist and the French custard was nice and light. excellent customer service from everyone we interacted with! My sister also had her wedding cake done here and they did a phenomenal job with hers as well!! They deliver all around the Chicago land area so don't like the fact that they are in northbrook discourage you from ordering your cake here!! For the quality and how inexpensive the price is it's a huge bang for your buck! Well worth it's don't hesitate from getting your cake here they have been in the business a long time and they know what they are doing! They also offer free tastings! Amazing! read more

Baking Institute - Wedding cake - Bakeries Near Me - Northbrook, Illinois

The baking institute did our wedding cake and it turned out gorgeous. Before we had a tasting, we submitted our top 3 choices to taste. During the selection process, we met with Igor and were able to taste all three. We then looked through a book to select a style or shape and then talked out any detail we wanted. I knew exactly what I wanted, so Igor created a sketch and our wedding cake couldn't have been more perfect! The sugar flowers constructed were flawless and the flavor of our half and half cake with banana purée filling was top notch. Thank you so much for making our wedding so much more special! read more

Baking Institute - Our wedding cake! Thanks Igor! - Bakeries Near Me - Northbrook, Illinois

This place is nothing short of amazing! I was hosting a corporate dinner and provided a picture of a unique cake and in 24 hours they delivered it to my door! The cake was so delicious that everyone asked where it was from! Ask for Heather! She was fantastic! read more

Baking Institute - Our Wyndsor Cake suitable for Royalty! - Bakeries Near Me - Northbrook, Illinois

My wedding cake was phenomenal! Igor made my simple but yet elegant 4-tier octagon shaped cake come to life! It was so delicious my guest were asking if he delivers out of state! It was light but yet fluffy basically melted in your with each spoon full. Very pleasant to work with! Cake tasting was good! I have absolutely nothing negative to say! Thanks Igor- This bride was truly happy! read more

Baking Institute - My Wedding Cake Sept 7, 2012 - Bakeries Near Me - Northbrook, Illinois

When was the last time you had good wedding cake? For me, it's never. Wedding cake is always dry with gross filling and buttercream that tastes like it's made for diabetics who have to eat sugar free dessert. Shockingly, that's not that case with baking institute. I had LOW expectations for this cake. I just used this place because they worked with my banquet, The Cotillion. Guests actually came up to me during the wedding and raved about the cake specifically, which took me by surprise. When I finally tried the cake, I was blown away. The cake was MOIST, the buttercream was rich and creamy, and the filing was delicious. It was fruity and didn't taste artificial. For the record, I got white cake with raspberry filling. One star off because their customer service sucks. They called me one day and asked me to call them back. When I called back, they seemed confused and squirming around to figure out why they called. Also, when I was figuring out the design of the cake, their pricing was ridiculous. They also wanted $1000 extra to do sugar flowers in between layers of cake, which is what I originally wanted. If you are using them with the Cotillion, just know they will charge you extra for every little thing. They also weren't super helpful on what they could do under the contract with the Cotillion that wasn't an extra up charge. Picking out the design was painstaking and took forever. read more

I brought in photos of what I wanted ". 4 Different designed layers, in 2 flavors. They were delicious, and it turned out EXACTLY how I wanted. I can't remember the name of the gentleman we worked with- he cut out the layer pictures and stacked them on top of each other so they would get it right. He said the different layers wouldn't look good together but I LOVED it. I do appreciate the concern though. I am so happy I didn't change my mind. I would definitely recommend :) read more

Baking Institute - Our wedding cake turned out phenomenally ! - Bakeries Near Me - Northbrook, Illinois

First off, our appointment for cake tasting was not that great. The lady was really impatient with me and was not very friendly. I showed her a picture of a bow I really wanted on the top of my cake. She said she could do it exactly like that for $50. She sketched out what I wanted and I paid the money. When I saw the actual cake on the wedding day, I was extremely disappointed. You know how a bow usually has two loops and 2 ends? This one was supposed to have 4 loops and 4 ends (it was a square end). Instead, it had 4 loops on top of 4 more loops = 8 loops. There were on ends... you couldn't even tell it was a bow! Also, there were 3 layers. We had agreed (and I think it is common sense that the bottom layer is the biggest, then the middle is the next, and the top is the small- with all of the layers increasing in size a proportional amount. This was not the case! The bottom layer was big, then the middle layer was significantly smaller (like half the size of the bottom layer), and the top was proportionally smaller to the middle. The ginormous difference in size b/t the middle and bottom layer looked ridiculous. I would highly NOT recommend this place. I was SO upset w/ my hideous cake!!! The lady at the appointment even bragged her cakes had been on Oprah several times... I find that hard to believe! read more

I worked with The Baking Institute through the Glendale Lakes Golf Club for my recent wedding. They have so many choices and options that it can seem overwhelming, but they are readily available to answer any questions you may have. I chose to do a standard cake without anything extra (included in my wedding package), and the cake was absolutely beautiful. It definitely exceeded my expectations, and it tasted AMAZING. Usually people don't remember the cake at weddings, but I've definitely have had people continue to compliment it afterward. The in person meeting was amazingly quick, and I felt confident in their abilities from the very beginning. Fantastic, amazing work. I can't wait to eat our anniversary cake in a year! read more

Beautiful cake! Picking the design and flavor was a quick and easy process. We had so many compliments about it and everyone wished they could have had a second piece! Highly recommend them for your wedding. read more

Baking Institute - Bakeries Near Me - Northbrook, Illinois

Our wedding was also at the Cotillion, which uses the Baking Institute for their cakes, as mentioned in other reviews. The Baking Institute was a super-easy vendor to work with. We scheduled a meeting and used their online form to pick out three combinations of cake type and filling. The appointment went super-smoothly. We got to walk around their showroom of cakes and taste the three types we'd picked out. My wife came with a ton of photos and examples of what we were looking for, and we went through that with Igor who is quiet but very professional. In all, this meeting took around 20-30 minutes and no further work was required on our part -- so I was thrilled. We ultimately went with a white cake with apricot custard french cream. It was delicious, popular, and met all of my wife's requests -- so she was thrilled. Wouldn't have asked for anything more. read more

Baking Institute - Our cake -- white cake with apricot filling. Met all of our design requests and tasted great. - Bakeries Near Me - Northbrook, Illinois

Cake was not what we ordered. They promised that it would color and design would match my sisters scarf which she emailed to Igor weeks before the wedding. When we walked into the reception hall... found a plain white cake with barely any colors from wedding. When my father called to complain... he was told that he the designer did what he felt was right. If you decide to order from there... be ready for a surprise cuz if Igor isn't in the right mood... he'll do what he wants. Disappointed! read more

We recently hired them for our wedding and the cake turned out great! The taste was super yummy and it looked beautiful

This was a birthday party for my 2 yr old. We had the 5 little monkey theme. The baking institute did a great job of of the design. We got a simple chocolate on chocolate cake which tasted amazing. The design was really good but the taste was the best thing. Everybody loved the cake. I highly recommended getting your special occasion cake from here. read more

Baking Institute - 5 little monkeys theme for my 2 yr old - Bakeries Near Me - Northbrook, Illinois

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My sister ended up getting a totally different cake from what she ordered and the store would not respond back afterwards. He decided to do what he wanted and disregard any details that my sister gave the designer. Would not recommend. read more

I've never talked so in depth about cake in my life. I'm just glad Enrique was there to help me understand and help me through my frustration. An hour later I was walking out satisfied with an idea of what my cake would look like and the price. If you're getting married at Astoria like I am please NOTE Astoria only pays for a basic traditional looking cake that can be either four tier circular or three tier square. Any additional tiers, specialty decoration and sugar flowers cost extra. I got a four tier circular cake with a branch on it and large lotus flowers, to match the manzanita branches being used in my centerpieces. I feel like Enrique did his best to help me and my fiancé understand prices but he tried often talking us out of thinking about getting the more elaborate 5 tier cakes on display. It was obvious he didn't want his staff to deal with the hassle of creating that type of cake THAT THEY OFFER. That was a turn off and made it seem like he didn't want to do the work, but at the end of the appointment when he realized I was super frustrated with the basic traditional cakes I was being shown he worked with me, drew out a sketch of a cake for me with my requests and it was perfect and in budget. Out of pocket we paid $240 extra. Overall the appointment ended up going well and Enrique was a nice and funny guy. read more

If I had the option to give 0 stars I would. I asked for a quote on a cake on 06/07/2019. They were quick to respond so I give them credit for that. I sent a picture of the cake I wanted and communicated back and forth until the 12th with a final order including fondant cupcakes. Then I sent a follow up because normal bakeries will send you an invoice and at least ask you for a deposit. They said "we cancelled your order. We emailed you back on June 8th. We don't take late orders. WHAT?? So I pointed out how I have an email from them on 06/12 confirming the price and how I gave them the okay on the order and advised I will pick up. Response to that? "We will need the payment today then for $302.50 if you want this order." WOW!! It just gets better. Remember I said I already sent them a picture of the cake and gave them a final head count. So now they told me they need to take the bottom tier out and cannot put the little elephant decoration in the front. I'm a baker and the elephant is just a fondant glued in the front which has nothing to do with a headcount of a cake. It's a decoration. They responded that if I want a cake like the picture I sent to them (06/07/2019), it will be $220 now vs the $82.50 they quoted me back on 06/12/2019. A cake can be shrunk to 6 inches with a 4 inch cake decoration on the top. I told them on the original order that this was for 10 people(meant for a centerpiece decoration surrounded by cupcakes) and they mentioned nothing of this before. I don't care how good there cake might be but service is key. Would not recommend this place. Trust me, I have ordered many cakes in my life and never ever received service this bad and didn't appreciate the person responding to me so short with no apologies. read more

As I walked in to my venue I first spotted my cake and I was more than impressed! The Baking Institute out did themselves! It was absolutely gorgeous! :) read more

Baking Institute - Bakeries Near Me - Northbrook, Illinois