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I had their ginger cream scone, and it was awesome. There were huge, sweet and spicy chunks of candied ginger inside the buttery, flaky bakey.

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pizza fun

These may have already been covered by other people's recommendations, but I'd strongly endorse the scones (Take a Hike + Ginger), cupcakes (carrot and especially the various specialty offerings - last year's Oaxacan chocolate and Half Acre varieties were killer), cake balls (go for the sprinkles-covered ones), and the s'mores brownie. The cookies, on the other hand, are nothing special, although I've found that to be the case at most local bakeries. Maybe cookies are just too "mundane", but It doesn't seem like the bakeries I've tried put much effort into them.

I'm sure I'll be way off base on this one, but this screams "here comes another cake-related reality television show" to me.

Just a gut feeling.

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Tweetyspacing @karlklockars.
Writing about craft beer at GuysDrinkingBeer.com
"You don't realize it, but we're at dinner right now." ~Ebert

Wasn't there already a pilot shot, some months back? I thought that was a known fact.

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Maybe that's where this hunch is coming from. I don't consciously remember seeing that anywhere, but it might have been processed in one cortex or another.

Either way, perhaps "Cake Hearts" or "Bleeding Cakes" or "Heart of Cakes" or "Heart Cake Boss" or "People with Tattoos Making Cakes" might be on its way.

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Tweetyspacing @karlklockars.
Writing about craft beer at GuysDrinkingBeer.com
"You don't realize it, but we're at dinner right now." ~Ebert

We'll that's just the World needs, another peak into the lives of surly, inked up, cake-jockeys.

The real irony is that when you take a mostly flavorless, poorly crafted cake as the base and add over-manipulated piles of fondant the end result inevitably tastes like sh*t. IMO it's all about the cake and not the decorations. Where are the real bakers and pastry chefs?

For the record I have never had a product from BH that was even remotely edible.

Zombie cakes! Give me an freaking break!

Actually, cake is the thing I probably like best at BHB; I felt like I could really taste the clean quality of the organic ingredients (or just as likely, the absence of other junk). The scones/muffins etc., well, I walk down there and grab one and a cup of coffee, it's fine, but if I go and get a bunch for the whole family, the resulting sticker shock is usually enough to get me baking every weekend for the next month.

That said, the armored shell of quarter-inch fondant was not one of the things I especially liked about the cake.

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Watch Sky Full of Bacon, the Chicago food HD podcast!
New episode: Soil, Corn, Cows and Cheese
Watch the Reader's James Beard Award-winning Key Ingredient here.

Yes -- I definitely have to say that I'm all about making my own Take A Hikes now!

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pizza fun

What have you tried?

The last time I was at Bleeding Heart Bakery, I had a slice of chestnut mousse layer cake, and it was absolutely dreadful. Or, to use Beauner's words, not even remotely edible.

To add insult to injury, it was criminally priced at $7.00. Yes, for one slice of cake.

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"we must all understand that we're not all going to agree on everything, so let's just accept it -- hell, let's cherish it -- and move on." - ronnie_suburban

Per a client's beggings and pleadings, we tried to recreate these. Michele even posted a recipe online at some point, but the result was not exactly the same as BHB (for the record - I liked mine better, but my client is addicted to the BHB version). They seems too crumbly no matter which flour (organic ww), oat (Bob's Red Mill, Quaker), soy milk (various) or Earth Balance spread we used. Any insight?

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i enjoy this bakery, and i understand it's not for everybody. i recommended it to a friend and he hated it, but that was because he didn't pay attention to the tags and had bought vegan cake item by mistake. i go to the oak park location now and was so glad to finally have a decent bakery close to home. none of the other bakeries in the area do anything for me. i usually get a few cupcakes, cake balls and croissants, but i have tried the scones,brownies and tarts also. everything is delicious and full of flavor, so i am kind of baffled when i read some of the comments. i love the red velvet and chocolate decadence cupcakes. i even like the peanut butter and chocolate vegan cupcake, and i am not a fan of vegan baked goods. i like a denser cake and maybe that is why their cupcakes are my favorite. as for the high prices,organic and locally grown ingredients aren't cheap, so people shouldn't expect the products to be the same as other typical bakeries.

I'm not the most expert baker, but I would guess that the crumbliness would be most affected by the wetness of the dough, so you might try adding a bit more soymilk? I do remember that when I make these, they're rather wet before I throw them in the oven.

Last time I added some apples from a U-pick orchard -- it was sooo good!

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pizza fun

I was wondering when you would speak. For the record, I'm not the hugest fan of BHB either, I really, really want to love them. I've had their croissants at the Daley Plaza market & they are amongst the best I've ever had in the city. That's enough to make me try their red velvet mentioned above.

I don't generally like dense cake with frosting. Quick breads, muffins, & pound cakes it's fine, but the horror of a cake with the density of pound cake covered in frosting is not my idea of a good time.

FWIW- I've had the pleasure of trying dollbabytina's stout cupcakes & they weren't dense. They were delightful & I don't particularly care for chocolate or a ton of frosting either.

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Ava-"If you get down and out, just get in the kitchen and bake a cake."- Jean Strickland

Horto In Urbs- Falling in love with Urban Vegetable Gardening

$16 for $32 Groupon deal today - http://www.groupon.com/chicago/

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"A fruit is a vegetable with looks and money. Plus, if you let fruit rot, it turns into wine, something Brussels sprouts never do."
-- P. J. O’Rourke"

I thought Michelle's comments seemed very sincere! I love the fact that she takes the time to talk and address any issues people have expressed here. I didn't see what she said as excuses, I saw her try to explain the truth.

I'm a professional pastry chef. Spent 10 years cooking in my families catering/bakery business, then the past 18* years as a pastry chef only. The items that were sited in the article about the sinks, garbage etc... don't surprise me in the least. Crazy things happen constantly in professional kitchens!! Items break from abuse, sinks clog from stupidity, refrigerators break down. Sometimes you have a ton of delivery's on one day clogging your garbage bin with boxes, sometimes your neighbors "borrow" use of your paid for cans. You can't always prevent stupid people from doing stupid things and get business done. It's hard to baby sit every employees work. You trust them until they prove themselves incompetent. You'll drive yourself crazy as an owner if you don't trust your employees............but sometimes, they fail you. You teach them from there, but you can't always prevent problems.

I've worked in kitchens with-out running water or electricity for the day, when we should have been shut down. But since no health dept. inspectors knew of our dilemma so we kept working. You have to, you have commitments and deadlines to meet... and your employees depend upon their daily income.

As far as the comments about the quality of their products...........I have made several purchases from them. I didn't personally like any of the items I choose. BUT I will tell you, I will not even attempt to bake organic or vegan! It's DAMN HARD TO DO WELL!!! Most bakeries use tons of mixes and products straight from buckets. That's what she's competing against and there's no way she's going to beat the texture and moisture factors those artificial mixes provide. Those mixes are idiot proof. They take no skill to mix or bake. AND our American society now uses those mixes as their standards of what a baked good should be like texturally.The type of product Michelle is doing is very demanding, it can never be the same texture as a mix no matter what!

I would suggest to Michelle to change around her workers tasks. I'd never let an intern or anyone with less then 10 years of skill man my oven. Let the interns scale up all your products, batch them, decorate them, pack them, do all the grunt work etc... But keep your most experienced person on the mixer and the oven. Those two positions are the most important for maintaining quality control. Interns don't understand that an item continues to cook out of the oven, just like a steak. A cake in a hot pan continues to cook longer then a steak.

Recently, I interviewed at the goddess and grocer, for the pc position. The nightmare stories from their last pastry chef confirms to me what Michelle ran into with selling her work wholesale. Very often chefs keep items until they are sold, with no regard to shelf life. They watch the bottom line too often instead of the quality. That especially happens with regards to baked items. Because most Chefs lack the expertise/knowledge about serving and storing baked goods. If they get a complaint on dessert it's not their problem because they didn't make it, they blame the maker. Never do they see they've contributed to the problem. I've heard stories of moldy creme brulee's being served because no one kept track of the dates once the product was in the serving line cooler.

I also don't think it's fair for people to anonymously knock others. If you want to have a real voice then you need to post using your real name.

I'm Wendy DeBord.

Wendy, you admit that you don't like Bleeding Heart's products.

At the end of the day, isn't a good product what any commercial enterprise seeks to put out? A good product?

The problem with Bleeding heart is that its ownership seems far more interested in managing its PR, be it positive or negative, than in putting out a good product.

They should focus on what matters- real customer satisfaction, rather than media perception of customer satisfaction.

I'm still YourPalWill.

The two aren't mutually exclusive. BH is rightfully concerned about their PR, even though I don't necessarily agree with her approach, but I think it's pretty obvious that she cares a great deal about her product.

I had a really bad meets comical (or maybe it was the other way around) experience at the tiny Oak Park BHB today. Two fuzzy/surly chicks who couldn't even tell me if the big stack of doughnuts were cake or yeasted (wait, first one of them told me, "doughnuts? where are they?") or whether they were Sweet Potato or Plain. I didn't mind that so much, it was weird and surly and stoner-y or whatever (is this how you get your Vegan pastry on? with people who don't even know their product?) but then the kicker was that she rang it up and the schlumpy looking doughnut cost me . . . hold on to your little wax paper wrappers here doughnut fans . . . $3.50. That's six times the price of one glorious little caramel topped cake doughnut at Swedish Bakery.

I balked. I blinked. But then I told myself that I needed to support this bakery which is Indie and doing the organic thing and local and . . . I walked away, walked to the car. Trying not to feel like a fool. Do ou know that feeling? I took a bite: Blech. Awful. Dry, stale, bad. Day old? Maybe. Sweet potato? Maybe? If tiny orange flecks mean that's the flavor.

I am not sure what I paid for in the $3.50 price range, but the sum of its parts made me feel totally, completely ripped off. (For the record, I worked in the organic food industry for many years and so I am always willing to pay more when it makes sense.) I didn't have it in me to go back and complain because I needed to get home and I felt like dealing with the two that just "served" me would be an exercise in a Monty Python episode, without the laugh track.

I hate it when doughnuts aren't fun, funny or tasty.

bjt

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"eating is an agricultural act" wendell berry

Plain and simple...BHB stinks, from the attitude of ownership (which trickles down to the workers) to the p-ss poor product they sell at inflated prices.

I'm all for, indie, sustainable, organic, yadda yadda, but it had better be good and at BHB it ain't.

When I want to get my doughnut on in the near west burbs I head directly to Dunk Donuts in Melrose Park - this place is about as "indie" as it gets. Go for Sour Cream or Maple Cake (both less than a buck).

Dunk Donuts
1912 W Lake St, #A, Melrose Park, IL 60160

Not that I look forward to paying $3.50 for a doughnut, but considering the rest of BHB's offerings and price points, one shouldn't be surprised at the price. And not to beat a dead horse, but the use of organic ingredients, along with making small batch doughnuts daily, with different flavors daily, is going to jack up the cost- making the price higher.

I'm an aspiring pastry chef. I've dealt with perplexed reactions to flavors I've experimented with and alternate consistencies of products that people are used to because of the popularity of boxed mixes. It's hard to get people to come around, especially if they've been eating boxed 'vanilla tasting' mix all their lives. I can see why BHB is a Love It or Hate It place; Michelle pushes the envelope and some people don't want to be pushed. I frequent BHB but I'm not in love with every item. Is that a dig on them? No. That would be like getting angry at a farmer because I don't care for eggplant.

I've eaten and made many pastries using organic ingredients(professionally as well), and the texture and flavors are different, but not in a way that I could imagine anyone mistaking for stale or dried out. When high quality ingredients are handled properly, they make a superior product that anyone-boxed cake eaters or not- should easily notice.

And consistency should not be an issue either, especially for an experienced baker who is making small batches.

Bleeding Heart should be as committed to consistent quality as they are to organic ingredients.

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Logan: Come on, everybody, wang chung tonight! What? Everybody, wang chung tonight! Wang chung, or I'll kick your ass!

I have found an approximate 50/50 chance of getting stale product here in the past.
This, as noted, has nothing to do with organics or experimental flavors.
(My current chance of getting stale product is 0%.)

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I love animals...they're delicious!

does anyone know if the Oak Park shop is baking in-house? I got the impression that they were not at all since the servers were so totally clueless. Plus, it didn't smell like a bake shop. I ask because if it is not baking in-house, that means the pastries are coming from wherever the heart of BHB central is and unless they are baking at 4 am and driving it across town as the sun rises (which I don't get the feeling they are) I reckon I was eating "day old" doughnuts in a matter of speaking. I have never met a doughnut that tasted right or good more than 4-6 hours after it was made, I don't care if you are using organic ingredients or not. Cake doughnuts are more forgiving, but not so much. Maybe BHB should stick to things that travel and sit well and avoid the more persnickety things like doughnuts?

bjt

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"eating is an agricultural act" wendell berry

Everything I recall reading said the baking was being done in the original location, with product being transported to Oak Park.

As far as I'm aware, BHB does all of their baking out of the Damen/Belmont location. Oak Park and Smash Cakes (formerly Chaos Theory Cakes) are just retail storefronts.

That's the only location I've ever been to (I used to live nearby) and I actually rather like certain things like the Take-a-Hike scone, but I've definitely had 50/50 luck with stale goods when buying slices of layer cake, brownies, etc.


Doughnuts are the new cupcake. Chicago lacks any trendy doughnut places (like Doughtnut Plant in NYC or Voodoo Doughnut in Portland) - I'm sure they're just trying to fill the void.

-Dan

There are two things that are consistent at this place, if you ask me:

1. A fairly good chance you'll get stale product

2. A good chance that the owner will rip you a new one ( or on a good day, accuse you of having some ulterior motive) if you bring the stale product to her attention. If she's not there, you'll likely be met by complete indifference by her staff.

Honestly, for those that defend this place, what other bakery or business would you continue to frequent if you were subjected to these two things regularly?

Twice was enough for me.

Once was enough for me!

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i used to milk cows

I read all these comments about stale food, clueless staff, a mean owner who yells at you, over priced food, and a good chance that what you get will not be fresh and well........... I think the next time I am in the area I will stop in. It makes no sense at all, and I wonder if others have the same feeling, but I just wonder how a place could be that bad, and people still go. Its like being told not to touch a hot stove, I just gotta do it.

Years ago (maybe 4) I bought a cake at Angel Food for my friend's birthday. It was so gorgeous and it was kind of expensive at $60 for a small-ish cake. But what broke our hearts was that it was really, really dry. I waffled on whether to say anything (I hate confrontation) but the next day I called the owner and told her and she was apologetic and gracious and mailed me a gift certificate for $30. A few weeks later I used that gift certificate to buy a couple dozen cupcakes from the bakery and this time they looked and tasted great. In the end, I felt good about Angel Food Bakery. We all make mistakes or have unlucky baking days but when you are a business owner, there's lots of different ways you can handle a customer saying the product wasn't up to snuff.

bjt

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"eating is an agricultural act" wendell berry