Jason F.
Yelp
Why am I constantly singing my own rendition of Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" with the lyrics "Sweet Adeline" in its place? At Sweet Adeline Bakeshop it's all about the sweets being offered up five days a week. Located appropriately enough on Adeline Street near the Berkeley Oakland border in a small area of shops called the Lorin District, Sweet Adeline Bakeshop is a quaint local bakery that has been serving up all sorts of sweets, from cakes to cookies to cheesecakes, to savory treats from scones to loaves and sandwiches, to coffee drinks, to the local community for decades now. I have wanted to peruse the quality baked goods that Sweet Adeline Bakeshop has been making for years now but never got the chance to get to their location until a recent weekday, in which I was looking to order a cake for a dinner that I was attending by twelve or so people and one of the more affordable options locally was none other than Sweet Adeline Bakeshop. When it came to full cake options on their website, they had three more traditional sweet cakes with Chocolate Stout Cake, Confetti Cake and Carrot Pecan Cake; two tortes with Rose Pistachio and Pavé Torte; and three additional cakes including their Cornmeal Almond Cake, Buckle Cake, and a Pecan Coffee Cake. All of them sounded amazing and before I ordered, I made sure to ask a dining mate for our upcoming dinner what flavor they thought that everyone would prefer and they suggested chocolate.
Ordering their Chocolate Stout Cake was super easy on their website, and made sense as the day I ordered it was the earliest day that I could pick it up, which was forty-eight hours. For 48 dollars, I ordered a cake that was 8 inches in diameter and a dense and moist chocolate cake made with local stout beer, with two layers of cream cheese buttercream, ganache and finished in chocolate buttercream and chocolate bits lining the entire circumference of the cake. Once I have completed my online order they send you a confirmation email that says they have received your order and are in the process of making your cake with your pickup day and time. Finding parking in front of Sweet Adeline Bakeshop was actually easy on the day that I arrived for the pickup as they have a limited number of spaces in front of their bakery along Adeline Street. All I had to do was give their associate my name and my order was ready for pick up. Since I decided to put an inscription on the cake, which cost no additional charge, they allowed me to check the top of my cake before they sealed the box. Since I was there, I also wanted to make an additional order of cookies to take home with me, and although there seemed to be a number of delectable options in their glass pastry case, I opted to order three cookies, their Snickerdoodle, Chocolate Chip and Walnut Whooper. The total for my cookies was $8.25 before tip.
Taking home my huge cake, I made sure to bring it with me to dinner, and as we cut into it, I made the mistake of putting it in the refrigerator a second time after I had done so after bringing it home. This only contributed to the cake becoming quite difficult to slice into, even though they do suggest that you use a hot dry knife with every slice, we opted to just try with a regular serrated knife, and it was very challenging to do so. Every bite of cake was lovely to taste, as it wasn't overly sweet at all with the highlights being the bits of chocolate on the side of every slice providing that extra crunch, but overall the cake was too dense for us to truly enjoy as a whole. Luckily, there was also plenty of cake for us to take home, even though we had twelve people in our party, there was more than enough extra to go around. The cookies that I bought were truly exceptional, with my favorites being the Snickerdoodle and Chocolate Chip. The service and overall quality of baked goods being sold at Sweet Adeline Bakeshop was so exceptional that I plan on returning during the holidays to purchase that accessible dessert that would cap off any meal, and this includes returning in March for that extra special slice of pie for pie day! At Sweet Adeline Bakeshop, they have become a local institution for high quality baked goods, a majority of which are sold at affordable price points, and I guarantee you that their baked goods will have you singing "Good times never seemed so good!" every time you leave their store.