Field Trip: Bleeding Heart Bakery

The environment of Bleeding Heart Bakery is what I would assume you’d get when you cross a circus with a bakery. The atmosphere in Bleeding Heart Bakery is one that mixes the giddy excitement and laughter of a trip to the circus with fresh, local, fragrant ingredients. It’s a place where an adult’s eyes grow wide by all the choices in the pastry case and an atmosphere that makes me think that if I fought the law, I would win.

I have been to Bleeding Heart Bakery (BHB) a handful of times in the last year or so. Originally, I was drawn to BHB because they were doing Top Chef themed cupcakes. They would transform the week’s winning dish into a cupcake. (I fell in love with the most delicious Tandori Chicken Cupcake there. Some of you may be thinking 'Eww...gross!' But really, get in touch with your imagination, because they're delicious!)

This is my friend Rich. Rich moved out of the North Side, so our friendship has evolved into revolving around field trips. Since he’s no longer in the neighborhood these trips generally require a little bit of planning and scheduling. Mostly these field trips revolve around food. Girl’s got to eat after all and it doesn’t hurt that Rich works for GrubHub so he knows all these cool places to go. Rich and I have been attempting to make it to BHB together for quite some time. Our plans have been foiled on more than one occasion, mostly due to poor planning, traffic, Chicago’s crazy weather, and work. This past week, however, we finally made it there.

Rich was a little hurt that I’ve been a couple times without him, but he got over it - he didn't have much of a choice on that one. There’s definitely some ‘kitsch’ going on, but what I love about BHB is that it’s a bakery with a little bit of punk. Their desserts look great, but they’ve got an edge. They’ve also mastered the art of using bacon in pastries. (Which you can never go wrong with.)

I ate a Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Teacake (that came with a little vat of maple syrup) and a Veruca Salt cupcake (salty caramel). The cupcake had this little pocket of salty, sweet caramel syrup in the center that oozed out in the perfect mix of gritty salt and super sweet. Rich munched on a savory croissant. (He’s not big on sweets.)

BHB is also awesome because they offer quite a few vegan and gluten free options. While we were there, a woman was picking up a cake for her friend that was in the shape of a giant cupcake. The cake was a chocolate, vegan image of beauty. The woman was very excited, since finding a vegan friendly bakery that makes pieces of edible artwork is a little difficult.

My absolute favorite thing about BHB is that if you lean over the counter a little (discreetly looking at everything in the pastry case), you can peek into their workspace. They’ve got a pirate flag hanging in the room and all kinds of toys and baking gadgets. When you have fun at work, what you produce takes on that feeling. When you walk into BHB you get that feeling and no matter what kind of day you’re having, when you bite into one of their pastries that energy is contagious.

After all, like their t-shirts say: There’s no crying in pastry.

*Normally, I just post on things I have baked. I had such an excellent time at Bleeding Heart Bakery I had to write about it. This blog is ever evolving...