Bakery Buzz: Sugar Hills Bakery

A while back, I got a groupon for1 dozen cakepops at Sugar Hills Bakery in Algonquin. I thought I would use it for sure, because it's not that far away from where I work. Well, of course, I let it go until it was just about to expire, and I ended up using it on a day that looked like this:

I also got horribly lost (not a big surpise, for those of you who know me). The GPS took me way far out of the way and wouldn't get back on track. So I drove around for an extra half hour at least before I finally found the bakery. By that time, I was not going to go home without my cakepops, so I braved the weather and headed in. Also, by the time I got inside, all I wanted to do was grab the cakepops and go, so I didn't really get a good look at the inside. It seemed nice, though, and looked like they had a lot of different treats.

They also had a bunch of different kinds of cake pops to choose from. I just got an assortment - I had the girl pick for me; I was too frazzled from the drive to make any decisions. I ended up with a box that looked like this:

Of course, I had to try one right away. Lucky for me I picked a peanut butter pop. It was pretty tasty, but a little too big for me.

If you like your cake pops giant and want to check them out, head over to Algonquin, just make sure your GPS is taking you to the right place!

Sugar Hills Bakery
644 S. Main St. (Rt. 31)
Algonquin, IL 60102

http://www.sugarhillsbakery.com

Bakery Buzz: Bleeding Heart Bakery

Confession: I have been wanting to go to the Bleeding Heart Bakery in Oak Park for quite a while. It's a pretty tiny bakery in Oak Park. They have kind of a punk/edgy (for a bakery) vibe going on and use a lot of local and organic ingredients. They sell (among other things) lots of gourmet cakeballs.

Then a few things all worked out to make my bakery visiting dream come true:

1. I purchased a Groupon for 1 dozen cakeballs.
2. My brother-in-law got a job at a church in Oak Park.
3. I went to church with my sister at that church in Oak Park.
4. We went to the Bleeding Heart Bakery after church.

We got there and spent a lot of time examining the flavors available that day:

• Pumpkin
• Vanilla
• French Toast
• Chocolate Peanut
• Oaxaca (Spicy Chocolate) 

Hmm...How would we ever decide which ones to taste? Oh that's right, we had a Groupon for 12...we could try them all!

Well...just as we were about to purchase our dozen cakeballs, we were told that they weren't accepting Groupons that day. They just didn't have enough cakeballs. So even though between the 4 of us there, we bought 11 or 12 cakeballs, we couldn't use the Groupon! Ahhh...super frustrating.

But, I did enjoy my cakeball {Oaxaca - and they weren't kidding when they said it was spicy!} and this just means I have to go back another time to use my Groupon. I think I'll try the one in Elmhurst next time - it's a little bigger and maybe they will have enough cakeballs to let me use my Groupon!

If you want to get your punk rock pastry on, visit Bleeding Heart at
1010 North Blvd. Oak Park, IL 60301

Maybe call first to see if they have enough cakeballs: 708.358.0559

Bakery Buzz: Gigi's Cupcakes

A few weeks ago, my family and I took a little trip to Nashville, Tennesee. None of us had been before, and we had a great time checking out the country music scene, shopping, and eating lots of food. We also found this sweet little cupcake bakery:

It's a super-cute, super-pink little shop.

They have TONS of different flavors, different everyday.

And just take a look at all of this FROSTING!



We chose Peanut Butter Cup (milk chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting), White Midnight Magic (dark chocolate cake with white cream cheese frosting), and Wedding Cake (white cake with white frosting).

Yum! We just could not wait to dive right in!



Next time you're in Nashville, check out:

http://www.gigiscupcakesusa.com/nashvilletennessee

1816 Broadway Suite A

Nashville TN 37203

Bakery Buzz: Gelati

It's not technically a bakery, but it's close. Gelati is a cute little gelato shop in Naperville, IL. I have been a little bit obsessed with gelato ever since I spent spring break last year in Italy. I ate gelato almost everyday while I was there, and ate more than 15 different flavors. There are gelato shops everywhere in Italy and each one will give you samples of the different flavors and the best part is that you can get 3 flavors in one cup! There are so many different flavors, you can't possibly choose just one.

So when I heard about Gelati, I knew I had to find out if it could live up to my Italian gelato experience. And guess what? It was just about as good as in Italy! At Gelati, there were plenty of flavors to choose from. Lots of the flavors had Italian names, some of which I remembered! There were interesting flavors, like chocolate hazelnut, and regular ones, like chocolate chip. And, just like in Italy, you could get more than one flavor in a cup!

I think we liked it!

The next time you're in Naperville, check them out:

24 W Jefferson Ave
Naperville, IL 60540

Bakery Buzz: Flirty Cupcakes Food Truck

I'm kind of obsessed with Food Trucks right now. You know, the ones that drive around like the ice cream man, only instead of ice cream and an annoying song, they sell delicious food. I've been following all of the downtown Chicago trucks on twitter and trying to scheme a way to get some food truck food. I even put it on my list of summer goals: Eat from a food truck.

So imagine my delight when I read this tweet: Flirty Cupcakes now at the Schaumburg train station! Apparently this truck comes out to the suburbs on weekends. And Schaumburg - so close to me! Summer goal: About to be accomplished!

I convinced my mom to come on this adventure with me, so we hopped in the car in search of the cupcake truck. We got to the train station only to find out that the truck had pretty much been kicked out of the parking lot by the train station workers. Luckily the driver hadn't left yet, and she was nice (and sneaky) enough to drive around behind some trees and open up the side of the van so we could accomplish our mission. So even though we didn't quite get the full food truck experience, we still managed to get some tasty treats!

There were LOTS of different flavors to choose from, so we got 3 kinds: chocolate peanut butter, chocolate cheesecake, and banana chocolate chip. Hmm...do we like chocolate a little bit?

Yum! If you are also obsessed with food trucks, or you just love cupcakes, track down this truck! You will not be sorry, and will probably end up with a fun food truck adventure to share.

Follow on Twitter: @FlirtyCupcakes