Created the exact cake I wanted for my August wedding. It was beautiful and perfect. And everyone including someone who has been in the bakery industry for 25 years also said it tasted delicious. Check out the photo. Purple and white sparkly flower cake. read more

I searched all over Chicago for a bakery that would be willing to make a custom dessert for my August 2015 wedding. Specifically, my husband and I were looking to serve an Australian dessert called pavlova, which is very delicate and meringue like, and served with chantilly cream and mixed berries. Most bakeries immediately said no, because it was not a cake, so I started to lose hope that it would be possible. When I contacted The Baking Institute, Igor not only said that it would be possible, but asked if I had a recipe I would prefer for him to use, and quoted me a price that was significantly cheaper than the other bakery that had said they could make the dessert. The final result was delicious, and Igor worked with the Chef at our wedding venue to make sure that the presentation would be compatible with serving and that the meringues did not get soggy while the other courses were served. I would highly recommend the Baking Institute for any custom desserts--- we did briefly taste their cake during the tasting and I was underwhelmed. I'm not a huge fan of fondant, though, so that was probably part of it. read more

I just recently celebrated my birthday and ordered a cake and assorted miniature pastries from the Baking Institute. All I have to say is say is that the cake and pastries absolutely made my birthday! I met with Igor at the Baking Institute prior to my big party and got a chance to taste some of the cakes, fillings and pastries. I decided on a yellow cake with hazelnut filling. It was so amazingly delicious! AND, I brought Igor a picture of my birthday dress and he was able to decorate the fondant to look just like the lace on my dress! I was really impressed! In addition to the amazing cake, the Baking Institute made all these little amazing pastries...little napoleans, mini cakes, chocolate dipped strawberries...yum! All in all, I would highly recommend the Baking Institute for your next party. You will not be disappointed! I rarely write reviews, but felt that this one was absolutely necessary because I was over the moon with the Baking Institute! read more

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. read more

My husband and I did a kind of multi-theme wedding and we were very specific and particular about exactly what we wanted on our cake. The Baking Institute did awesome! They gave us exactly what we wanted without any additional questions or problems. The day of the tasting when we explained everything they immediately started drawing out a sketch and we knew we would not be disappointed with the outcome. We were still very surprised and happy at how perfectly our cake turned out. It also had the exact flavors we asked for as well! Highly HIGHLY recommend. read more

I just recently got married and ordered my wedding cake from Igor. When we went into the tasting we had a different cake in mind but from Igor's suggestions we decided to go with a cake he had on display. We went over design, style and colors in detail which he wrote down and showered me with promises for the cake. I also emailed him a photo of my wedding dress color and design which he said he would replicate onto the cake detail. We paid in full and in cash the day of the tasting and took home a receipt that said paid. 3 weeks before the wedding we received emails that we had to complete our payment or that they would not make out cake. We tried calling and emailing several times and no one could find a record of us paying or reply to our messages. We had handed the money to igor and he claimed he had forgot to mark it. This was not even the worst of it all, when I receive my cake which I saw on the wedding day, it wasn't even the cake I ordered. Wrong design, wrong color, wrong everything. We have been contacting Igor for 3 months now and he is reluctant to return our calls or do anything about his mistakes. Now that we finally got a hold of him he says that he is the designer and he made changes according to what he thinks looks good. He did not even think to inform us about this but took the money, promised everything, and delivered nothing. He also says he won't compensate not even a penny because he thinks it was a beautiful cake and these are his words. I do not recommend any one to go here especially for your wedding cake. Igor is not only rude and way over priced, he does not even give you the cake you ordered. Please stay away. read more

Baking Institute is one of the three bakeries that our wedding reception site gave us to choose our wedding cake from. We made an appointment for a cake tasting at Baking Institute on a Saturday afternoon. We arrived on time and they were running behind. They made us wait about 15 minutes without even a chair to sit on. When they were finally ready for us, we tried 3 flavors/combinations and were very disappointed with all of them. The cake was dry and not flavorful. On top of it, the associate was extremely awkward, unenthusiastic, and unhelpful. It was not a pleasant experience - from the service to the actual taste of the cake. Needless to say, we decided to get our wedding cake from one of the other bakeries. (Read our rave review for Oak Mill Bakery!) read more

Cake was great. Order was massed up. We ordered two cakes and some pastries to be delivered at the event hall. During the event when we asked for cakes, staff brought only one cake and pastries. We could not do celebration with other cake for friends. Found out that Baking Institute made a mistake and never made second cake which was printed on a next page. After calling to Igor, it took 2-3 days to figure out why second cake was not made. Yet he has not refunded money for the cake not delivered for the event. I would be careful for future ordering. They accepts advance cash. read more

Ignor created a beautiful cake for our wedding day! THe details turned out more perfect than I imagined. It is a shame it had to be cut up and eaten. We received multiple compliments on how delicious the actual cake and frosting tasted. Our guests, as well as us, were surprised at how moist it was. It was perfect! read more

Our cake was included in our catering package with our reception venue, so apart from the finished product, I really do not have a basis for comparing The Baking Institute with its competitors. The less-than-perfect rating is really due to our tasting, which was hands-down the most underwhelming vendor appointment we had. First off, it was a little disappointing that you are only given a very limited number of flavors (three, if I remember correctly) to try for free. When we arrived at their office, the guy we met with showed us to our table without introducing himself, and after we had tasted the flavors we requested, he asked us how we wanted our cake designed without any real guidance. We scrambled through the relatively small portfolio they had to see what our options were. After our appointment, we did some more research and e-mailed them for updates to our design. The bulk of the rating is, of course, based on the finished product. Our cake was beautiful and designed just as requested, and both flavors were delicious. Even those among our guests who generally do not like cake raved about how good, fresh, and tasty our wedding cake was! read more

Our wedding cake was awesome! It was so fresh,moist and everyone raved about it. It was three tiers and for 60 people. I called to thank them and asked if they do cakes for other occasions. The answer was yes and I will have to order future cakes from them Thank you for adding to our day read more

Beautiful cake and delicious too! Highly recommend the mocha Bavarian cream option.

Couldn't have had a better experience! My fiance (now husband) and I met with Igor at the Baking Institute, and within 20 minutes we had picked out our wedding cake. While some of these reviews intimate Igor is hard to work with, I found him direct and extremely helpful. The man knows his stuff. The cake was absolutely breathtaking on our wedding day and beautiful too! Got SO MANY compliments on it!!! If you want a gorgeous and reasonably priced wedding cake, I don't know why you would look anywhere else! read more

Baking Institute - My beautiful cake! - Bakeries Near Me - Northbrook, Illinois

This company was recommended to me by Cotillion banquets and they were so right to do so because baking institute was amazing! The cake was beautiful, tasted soooo good, and they were so pleasant to work with. They had a huge variety of flavors and designs. The price point was great. I was beyond happy with their service and they will now be my new cake place! Thank you baking institute. read more

I gave a 90th Birthday Party for my mother in September 2018. She and I met with the owner well before the event, and showed him pictures of what we wanted the three-tier cake to look like, separate pictures for colors and design. He drew the proposed cake design on the order form, and assured us it would be beautiful. We tasted cake types and chose the cake and fillings. The party itself was held in hotel ballroom, with an added cocktail area. I would have paid anything to have a beautiful cake for this significant birthday, and I told the owner himself that. The day of the event arrived - and the hotel coordinator told me to brace myself for the cake. Well, she was right. The cake that was sent was a hot mess as far as the outside decorations went. The colors were smeared as if a child finger-painted it, and the flowers on it looked like two headlights staring at us from the center tier. The plaque that was supposed to say Happy Birthday and my mother's name was crooked - my mother's name was not even fully on the plaque! It was clear that whoever wrote it mis-judged the space, because the last two letters of my mother's name were smaller than the rest, and the last letter was actually OFF the plaque. The pictures show that it leaned to one side. We (the coordinator and I) called the company, and asked them to come to fix it. They came in the back door, and added more horrendous flowers to a horrendous cake, and never even called me or the hotel event coordinator to come and see if I was OK with the fix. At 5:15pm (with guests arriving at 6pm), the hotel coordinator ran out to a nearby grocery store and got them to hand-write a new plaque (funny, the grocery store person got it straight and spaced correctly!). When she came back at 5:30, she and I (in my party dress) ripped off the horrible original plaque and flowers, and replaced them with cut roses and the new plaque from the grocery store. I greeted guests while the coordinator was still hiding the cake with roses. AWFUL!! I will add that the inside of the cake was very good, and it was all eaten. My mother never saw the original cake; she and the guests saw the last minute fix. I did not ask for a refund because the cake itself was very good and we ate the cake. But I emailed the business afterwards to express my disappointment, and sent them pictures of what arrived, and their "fix". It has been eleven days since the event - to date I have never heard from them, and certainly have received no apology, expression of concern, or effort to reach out (I live across the country could not easily go there). I have waited before posting this to see if they would. If you use this business, be very aware. read more

Whoa, we ordered a Chocolate cake and it the cake was soooo very delicious that now we are hooked and the best part was it was eggless. As a vegetarian, I never had such a cake ever in the past. read more

The Baking Institute made our wedding cake for our March 7th wedding. Not only was it stunning, but it was by far the most delicious wedding cake I've ever had. It was extremely moist, which is sometimes hard to achieve with a cake that size. I highly recommend going with them! Igor is very easy and extremely talented! Thank you! read more

We are very happy this this place. We met for a consultation with Igor, and he was extremely knowledgeable and helped us pick a great combination and design for our wedding cake. He personalized the cake to match with my dress, and I was very impressed by his creativity. I would definitely recommend the Baking Institute. read more

We had a positive experience with our tasting here and this was the place we intended to use for our wedding cake. Their tasting schedules are flexible with weekend tastings even on Sunday. Once we made the decision to order our wedding cake here, I followed up and spoke with Heather on the phone who said to send her samples of the cake designs I was interested in so we could get a quote. There was a day between when I sent these pictures to her and our conversation. No response to the first email. I followed up 8 days later with another email. No response. Two weeks later and we've decided to go with another bakery. The lack of response doesn't bode well with me and concerns me on a customer service level. There's enough to worry about with our wedding and plenty of other places that want our business. I can see them not getting or overlooking one email but two is unlikely. It really is a shame because their cakes are tasty. read more

The Baking Institute was easy to work with and provided us with a beautifully, delicious cake. Actually we heard from people that it was the best cake they had ever tasted! That is quite the compliment. Unfortunately, I got too wrapped up in the night to have a piece myself so I can't validate that personally (and during the cake-cutting with my husband was too focused on him and that moment that I didn't savor it), however, it was made exactly as I had pictured it and I trust others opinions that it was yummy. The creative designer drew us up a cake in moments during the cake-cutting since I didn't want a pre-designed cake which was also very impressive. read more

Where do I begin? I used them for SEVERAL occasions from 2013 until my recent cake order i put in for MDW. I will continue using them in the years to come and as my little ones grow older. I've ordered baby shower, wedding cake, baptism cakes, house warming cakes etc etc you name it they got it. IGOR and his team are amazing! Very accommodating and very professional. I keep coming back here for one reason and one reason only other than because of the phenomenal taste and looks. The real reason is because one day (years ago) i had a tasting with Igor and he gave me his HONEST suggestions. Like he truly cared for my cake i wanted. He wanted it to not only taste how i wanted it to and look like pictures i showed him but he gave me his honest suggestions and didn't sit there trying to waste time having me upgrade or never rushed me etc etc he got my vision from the start and i respect him and his honest suggestions. From that day forward which i will always remember i continue using them and ONLY them for BIG occasions. Thank YOU IGOR and team. Keep up the great & honest work you do! read more

Horrendous experience with them. I will delete my review if/when they return my calls and emails. My wedding was on September 1st. I ordered a cake and submitted pictures of what the cake was to look like. My colors were blush and dark green. I instead got a blue and green cake that was leaning so badly, my wedding venue refused to put the cake topper on as they feared that it would topple over. Besides the color and the fact that it looked like it was going to fall over...it was the ugliest cake I have ever seen (looked nothing like the picture I had submitted to them). I paid over $800 for a cake that many of my guests negatively commented on. I've emailed them several times. They said they were gathering data about what happened and would get back to me. That was about 2 weeks ago. I want some sort of compensation for this disaster, and I have retained an attorney to see to it that I get my money back. I was hoping to handle this outside of court, but they haven't been responsive. As of Monday, I will be taking legal action. read more

BRIDES BEWARE!!! 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, but later I found that you get what you pay for. 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. 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) They stated that I received a beautiful 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. read more

We used Baking Institute because it was part of our venue contract for our wedding in September. We went for the cake tasting and it went well. The cake choices were absolutely delicious. Our wedding cake looked absolutely beautiful and the way we wanted it. We ordered fondant on the outside and marble with strawberry Bavarian crème inside and it was delectable. Great job! read more

We were beyond happy with our wedding cake from the Baking Institute for our June 2017 wedding. They are partnered with our reception venue and we had the best experience. We did not have any idea what we wanted our cake to look like. The samples were amazing and the process was incredibly straightforward. We chose a white and chocolate layered cake with chocolate buttercream. It looked and tasted incredible! We ended up switching our cake design a few weeks before the wedding and they were more than accommodating. They are extremely kind and talented. We would highly recommend The Baking Institute!! read more

I ordered a baby shower cake for my best friend from the Baking Institute and it was the hit of the party. It looked exactly the way we ordered it and it tasted amazing. I love the way design cakes look but have never liked the fondant layer. I was surprised of how tasty this fondant was, one of my favorite parts of the cake. I would definitely use this bakery for future cakes!!! Loved it!!! read more

My cake turned out to be AMAZING! Everyone said it was moist and delicious! The design, though it was simple, came together from 2D on paper to 3D in real life was exactly how I pictured it! It was so much better in real life, of course! They were extremely easy to work with, professional, and very reassuring. It was no fuss no muss. I was no stressed at all. I trusted them with my cake. The cake tasting appointment took no more than 45 minutes for me - I tasted the cake, looked at previous designs, chose the elements that I liked from certain cakes, and Tally helped me put it all together into a small drawing. When I first saw the cake, it was actually a surprise for me because I haven't looked at the drawing in a year. I was so amazed at how beautiful and big the cake was! I loved it! I definitely recommend them for weddings or any special events that require a cake. They will definitely be getting my business again! read more

I just got married this past weekend and used the Baking Institute as the bakery for my wedding cake. When my fiance and I walked in a few months ago for our complimentary tasting Margo was our designer and the reason my rating is a 4 Star is because Margo was not very patient or helpful in deciding what we wanted. When I showed her pictures of what I wanted she always had something to complain about and no recommendations. I stood my ground and got the cake that I wanted and it turned out to be elegant and beautiful. And the cake tasted amazing! My fiance and I both got exactly what we wanted in the end. read more

Amazing is all I have to say, My fiance insisted that we get a carrot cake wedding cake and boy did The Baking Institute deliver! The cake was gorgeous- all five tiers of it! Guests kept coming up to me during the reception and commenting on the cake and asking if it was real! The taste was something else all together - moist, delicious, and the carrot cake was something that surprised and thrilled our guests. Overall top notch in every way, Thanks Baking Institute!! read more

My son just got married at Abbington Banquets in GlenEllyn, Il. The wedding package included a cake from the baking Institute. I kept my expectations realistic since they didn't pay extra for the cake. I also called to order a grooms cake at the last minute and they were able to accomodate (at reasonable cost). Both cakes were beautiful and tasty. The grooms cake, which was a Mexican "day of the dead" theme was a huge hit! I asked the bakers to use artistic license and they did a great job! read more

We had them make our wedding cake as part of a package deal through our banquet hall The Cotillion Banquets and figured that the cake probably wouldn't be that great since it was included in price of banquet hall. However, when we went to meet with Igor the owner and tasted some of the samples and saw some of his designs, we were truly amazed. He was able to create the cake of my dreams (the kind I had seen on Pinterest) and it also tasted great too. Overall, Igor might come off as a bit cold when you first meet him, but don't let that scare you off because he is truly great at what he does and at the end of the day all that matters is that you have a beautiful and delicious wedding cake. I would definitely recommend them for your next event! read more

Our experience for our wedding cake with the baking instutute was great. When we arrived for our tasting, we met with a cake designer. I did not have any idea what I wanted except for the fact that I wanted fall colors since ours was a november wedding. I brought a picture of our flowers. The cake designer drew a picture of what she envisioned for our cake and we were thrilled with the concept. When we arrived at the wedding hall our cake was there and was stunning. it matched our centerpieces perfectly. The cake was delicious and everyone loved it. I would highly recommend the baking institute. read more

This place is ridiculous! Stay away! After explaining to Igor and his assistant multiple times that I wanted a cake with flowers on each layer, the day of my wedding I got a cake that was plain on the first three layers with no decorative flowers as I had explained! They will not listen to what you want but will do what they want. Very unprofessional! read more

I would rate them ZERO if I could! My wife and I were extremely unhappy with everything that they did for our wedding. It started with us driving an hour and half for a tasting and them not having ANY of the samples ready. We were not able to finalize anything out there and it was a wasted trip. My wife went out once again to do the tasting and finally settled on the design and flavor. The day of the wedding, we found that someone who worked for the institute posted pictures of the cake upon delivery and they made it to our guests before we even got to see it. The cake was not even CLOSE to the picture that was given to them. My mother and mother in law were frantically trying to remove all the crap on the cake and make it look presentable before guests arrived. The flowers and overall cake was not worth 100$ in my opinion. I would have rather ordered from Jewel. At least you get what you order and it looks good. So once we got over all of that, we were coming up on a 1 year anniversary which they offer the top tier free. Once again, my wife called and told them what kind and what date she would get it. She heads out there and once again the cake is not ready.... Another wasted hour and half drive. After multiple calls and emails by my wife, I finally stepped in and spoke with Egor and Heather. We planned to have the cake dropped off on a Friday and we expected to get it...No one showed up and no phone call. I call again and go back and forth with them for another week or better and finally got them to committee to dropping off the cake again. SIDE NOTE: I had to call them every time because they have no follow up. So even though our anniversary was on Feb 16th, the cake made it to us on March 15th. We go to share it with our family and they made the WRONG cake. This cake was not even close to what was picked out by us for our wedding or told REPEATEDLY to them through out are almost month long conversation. I do not recommend working with this company and if your venue gives you another bakery, PICK IT! I called and spoke with Heather again today telling her of the mistake and all I got was," I cant believe they messed it up". I did not get an I'm sorry or what can we do to make this right... I will wait and see if that call ever comes. read more

Our reception venue, Venuti's, included our cake from the Baking Institute. We went to a tasting and thought it tasted good, but felt like we were pushed a little to make certain decisions with our cake that would cause an upcharge. I ended up changing my mind after we left and found another cake on their website that would have no upcharge and looked really nice. It had 5 tiers and was white with silver on the edges. It was beautiful on the day of and tasted great! We had a bunch of leftovers, so my in-laws took them home and I just had a piece yesterday! It was a great cake and tasted good, which is all I was asking for! =] read more

The cake was even better than I was envisioning! Igor was able to incorporate elements of my wedding dress into the design, which was very special. Everything we talked about at our meeting was executed perfectly. It was just beautiful and went perfectly with our decor. Even better, it tasted phenomenal. We are so glad we went with the strawberry Bavarian cream filling. Thank you for a wonderful cake; everyone really enjoyed it! read more

We had our wedding two weeks ago and our wedding was at The Empress, the cake was included from Baking Institute. The cake was absolutely delicious! We decided to upgrade and added real fruit! People were so impressed with how good it was! The staff was so friendly in making sure to capture exactly what I wanted. They even called me to confirm they got the ribbon that I sent them in the mail to use on the cake! When I got to the reception it looked even better than I had imagined!! Thank you read more

Our wedding cake was created and provided by The Baking Institute. The cake was delicious and it looked beautiful! It complimented the event and fit very well with our reception venue and decorations. read more

WE loved our cake! We got so many compliments on it and it was exactly what we were hoping for. Only thing I would suggest would be sending the bride and groom home with large pieces of cake to enjoy the night of cake tasting. However, our cake was a hit on the day of the wedding. We got married at Venuti's so they sent us here and you won't be let down. read more

The Baking Institute did a beautiful job on our wedding cake! Not only did they sit down with us for the tasting to talk through various cake/frosting flavor combinations, but they also incorporated all of our design requests. Compliments poured into us all night on how beautiful the cake was and how delicious it tasted! read more