These new baking operations provide sugary fuel for meeting snacks, event desserts, and gift baskets, with offerings that run the gamut from homespun and wholesome to rich and refined. Here's where to find:
1. Fancy Sweets: In August, pastry chef Malika Ameen shuttered her popular River North restaurant Aigre Doux to focus on creating custom desserts for private events. With a résumé that includes stints at Hollywood's Chateau Marmont and Chicago's Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Ameen focuses on treats that incorporate high-end and unusual ingredients. Her cookie plates—which in her Hollywood days she prepared for celebrity clients such as Bono—include lavender-walnut and spiced-chocolate-chip treats, and can be delivered to downtown offices or event spaces. Desserts Ameen has prepared in the past include a sticky toffee pudding, served with citrus segments and Devonshire cream sorbet; homemeade ice cream in flavors such as honeycomb and wild red rose; and a melting chocolate bouchon made with malted milk and toasted hazelnuts.
2. Nutritious Snacks: Brianna's Healthy Fare, a catering firm that focuses on—you guessed it—healthy baked goods, launched in Chicago about a year ago. Brianna Mann, a Kendall College-trained pastry chef, prepares snacks that incorporate oat bran, soy flour, and carob, a low-fat alternative to chocolate. Her menu includes miniature cupcakes, peanut butter-banana muffins, and cranberry pound cakes. Mann is open to working with groups of any size, can deliver to businesses or event sites, and can also put together gift baskets with items such as low-fat pumpkin-chocolate cheesecake and vegan brownies.
3. Wholesome Treats (With a Charitable Twist): Sweet Miss Givings, a 10-month-old bakery on the near north side, donates more than 50 percent of its proceeds to Chicago House, an organization that supports AIDS-affected locals and operates a jobs program for disabled adults. Able to cater meetings and events for groups of any size, the bakery recently prepared 5,400 frosted cookies for a corporate client. Sweet Miss Givings's signature items include red velvet cupcakes, oatmeal-raisin cookies, and morning glory muffins. Gift options include boxes of handmade chocolates, jars of hot chocolate mix, and tea baskets filled with organic blends from Midwest supplier Rishi.
