Abundance Bakery

Ahhh!!! Remember when doughnuts actually had a little weight? Not Dunkin’ Donuts which are all air. Was treated to Abundance Bakery delights last February on Municipal Election Day 2015 by aldermanic candidate Tracy Bey. Bey did not win – but her doughnuts did!

Haven’t gotten past the phone order yet. Expect to repeat yourself and speak very loud. Impatience and lack of C.S.R. training is immediately recognized. I would suggest taking some of the profits from their $ 3.49 caramel upside– down cupcake ($ 29.+ per dozen if ordered a week in advance.), to invest in an employee that can professionally answer the phone.

And the chocolate donuts! The crunch! Donuts with crunch. So good.
I was sad though that my Apple fritter didn’t have the same crunch as the one from my first visit. Consistency is key to getting that fifth star!

I found this bakery while looking for a place that would deliver a birthday cake to my friend. Some 1500 miles away, I was able to place the order over the telephone. The staff was very friendly and helped with a lot of my questions. They were even able to write a message on the cake with some decorating. They scheduled my delivery for the next day and my friend loved it! Hopefully next time I’m in town I can check out this amazing apple fritter!

Sugar and butter capital. Do not attempt to walk into this bakery looking for a light pastry. Abundance is the correct title. The cinnamon roll was large and filling and wonderful. Most of the cakes or brownies are heavy. Full of deadly goodness. I personally enjoyed it especially for the price. The bakery itself looks a little funky but… the desserts are nice.

Please go try the upside down caramel cupcakes. They are so yummy that I have been thinking about them since I first had them 1 week ago. Beyond that the cookies were also amazing. Everything is homemade and the staff is super sweet!

South-​side bakeries know how to make an apple fritter. What is in the water down there? I can’t explain why Abundance Bakery takes #2 on the apple fritter list right behind Old Fashioned Donuts, but whatever they are doing, they should keep it a secret!
The Abundance apple fritter boasts every quality that you could want – plus nuts! I think pecans but I’m not sure. Anyway, this is really close to a perfect apple fritter – slightly crispy exterior, pillowy soft interior, the perfect level of sweetness, a generous sprinkling of cinnamon, and enough apple chunks to land in every bite. Plus the one that I got on Saturday morning was still warm! Triphena W. is right: «you just tear into this stuff in your car.» Mine was gone by the time I got home.
It’s a small shop, but they sell a lot of great doughnuts (in the cases) and many other baked goods (on the menu but not out for display when I was there). Their yeast-​raised glazed was wonderful, as was the chocolate-​and-​coconut-​covered cake doughnut. I thought that the icing on the yeast-​raised chocolate-​iced lacked chocolate flavor, but it was still a solid doughnut.
And besides baking supremely tasty treats, the people are very nice.
If you are ever making a Chicago Apple Fritter Tour (this is common, right?), Abundance absolutely MUST be a stop.

Abundance Bakery is hands down one of the best bakeries on the south side of Chicago. Their caramel cupcake is the best I’ve ever had (my husband used to stop there weekly on his way home from work to bring one home for me). The peach cobbler is also amazing! Everything I’ve tried has been fresh & homemade. Can’t wait for a visit back home Chicago to stop by for some of their tasty treats.
Support this local small businesses!!! They’re friendly, professional & have amazing goodies!

I am not a pastry/​dessert person, but the caramel cupcake at abundance is excellent! Driving by you’ll think it’s closed, but it’s worth it to stop in to be sure. Often time, the owner is the one working in the shop and he is very pleasant and happy to serve his customers. You can tell that his desserts are made with love each morning. If you’re ever in the area, stop in and give them a try!

I was introduced to this Bakery when the owner was handing out free samples in Hyde Park at Haper Court. The food is very delicious and very fresh (just right– the way food should be) and I love that this is a locally owned and operated store. We gotta support our local businesses.

1. I ordered a cake yesterday day for pickup this afternoon. The man on the phone was so unorganized that I thought it best to travel to the store to pay for the cake instead of wasting ANOTHER 25 minutes on the phone. Get to the store and they cant find the ticket for my order that the man JUST wrote, so I had to start over.
2. Went to pick up the cake at 11:27am (pick up time was 11:30am) and the lady tells me (without any apology) that it isn’t ready. Finally get the cake 20 minutes later which made me late back to my office for the lunch in which I needed it for.
3. Co-​workers all gathered in the conference room. I go to cut into the cake and realize that its FROZEN!!! I broke a plastic cake knife trying to saw through it.
4. Finally get the woman back on the phone to tell her that my cake was FROZEN and she tells me that they typically bake the cake then throw it in the freezer to harden it up enough to decorate. Oh, and she should have told me that I needed to let it thaw before I ate it. I was clearly unhappy but she offered no resolution. She just had an «oh well» attitude.
I admit that this place makes good pastries, for the most part, but the customer service is HORRIBLE and I will never ever give them any of my money again. At this point I’d rather go to jewel for a cake.

A neighborhood staple, serving us delicious pastries longer than I have been on this planet. No better place for a delicious donut and a smile

This place is a old school favorite
I would come to this place on the Green line train just for my Butter Cookies and a slice of Carmel Cake for my mom.
This place was and will always be a neighborhood favorite.
From the fresh baked goodies every day. And let’s not forget the peach cobbler and sweet potato pie and bread pudding. And you could always get to this bakery fo a last minute party cake.
This was the Place were I found out about a 3 layer white icing coconut cake
I was going to eat all the cake but I had to share with the other guess.
Time has passed but with great memories of this place.
Thank you for saying around for so many years.

The apple fritter is flat, large, and generously studded with apple chunks, pecans (both pieces and halves), and cinnamon. I typically am not a big fan of nuts, but I really enjoyed this fritter. I haven’t tried the fritter at Old Fashioned Donuts yet, but I liked this one better than the apple fritter at Glazed & Infused. I arrived around 9:30am on a Saturday, and there was about half a tray of fritters remaining. I also saw cinnamon buns and some simple, old-​style donut varieties for sale. The store is old, tiny, and there aren’t any tables or counter space to eat in, but you just tear into this stuff in your car. There isn’t anything noteworthy around this shop so you kinda just drive here for the fritters then head back. If I lived closer, I would probably stop in a couple times per year to get my fritter fix. Recommend!

I had to take off 2 stars because sometimes the pastries taste old, like they were prepared maybe a day or two prior. I’ve had a few brownies that were hard and dry. When they are freshly prepared they are moist and chewy. I’ve also had a caramel cupcake that was dry, so the consistency isn’t there with their food. Get it together you guys!

I bought my daughters birthday cake from this place and I will never go to this place again… my daughter love strawberries so I ask for a full sheet cake with strawberries but I got pineapples I was upset. Not to mention the dryness of the cake OMG

DONUTS! That’s Abundance’s sweet spot. I love bringing a couple dozen of these donuts to work. I am immediately the most popular person in the office. And they don’t cost an arm and a leg like they would at some of the more trendy bakeries in Chicago.
The glazed donut is my hands down favorite. Have you ever been to the hipster-​loving Peter Pan Bakery in Brooklyn? I have, and these donuts rival those. Yea for Bronzeville!

Thank you for being so FAR away. Well, you are sortof close but not convenient for me to get to.
If you were closer, I’d need to eventually be on The Biggest Loser.
THE BEST, by far, caramel cake I have ever put in my mouth is from this bakery. I have had huge caramel cake cravings the past week. I can’t believe I found the best caramel cake in the city. At last. Here, at Abundance Bakery.
Go. Go. Go.
Eat. Eat.
Stuff your face.
Don’t feel guilty for it.
And if you do, I am also a personal trainer.
I’ll help you take the pounds off.
And then we can celebrate by eating more caramel cakes at Abundance Bakery!

For my final bites of Chicago, the decision was made to exit the city in the same way I entered; a long morning run followed by a drive to the south side just as the sun was rising to visit a bakery, this time one called Abundance — a tiny storefront that even with my GPS I drove right past before realizing my error and a place that was surprisingly unheard of by every single one of my local epicurean friends despite its 20+ year history turning out baked goods, sandwiches, soups, and beverages six days a week.
Originally pointed to Abundance by a blog while doing my research on Old Fashioned Donuts my arrival to the small shop would again find me in a less than ideal area but unlike my first destination this one was devoid of customers save for myself. Entering the small shop to the familiar smell of baked goods a set of jingle bells on the door seemed to startle the elderly gentleman behind the counter who was arranging fresh baked donuts and with a big smile he introduced himself as Bill and welcomed me to ‘his’ store — something I would have figured out shortly as there we newspaper clippings featuring his face and his goods decorating the small amount of available wall space not consumed by the pastry cases. A pleasant man who seemed quite interested in why I had a camera and more so how I’d heard about his store we spent a few minutes chatting before he asked me «so, what can I get ya?» and deferring to his recommendations plus a few personal favorites I emerged from the small shop with five items weighing well over a pound for less than $ 10.
With each item save for one still hot from the oven my tasting would start with the two lightest choices in a pair of yeast raised donuts, one simply glazed and the other chocolate, and much like those from Old Fashioned these were exactly what you would expect from an old-​school bakery with a good rise, sugary frosting, and yeasty notes punctuated by a bit of butter. It isn’t reinventing the when and it isn’t trying to.
Moving next to a dish heavily promoted by a few bloggers as well as by Bill himself, much like Old Fashioned Donuts, Abundance serves a pretty damned big Apple Fritter and while Bill wouldn’t say it when I jokingly asked («they’re different») I’ll tell you right now that I actually preferred the version at Abundance, a half-​skateboard length oblong disc chock-​full of soft apple chunks and teaming with cinnamon. Served hot but with the lacquer of glaze well set over the golden pastry and heavy without being oily I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that this was even a lot of sugar and fat for my gluttonous vacationing self, but with a nearly six hour drive home it was gone before I hit the Ohio border — and leading to a lovely sugar-​crash induced nap perhaps thirty minutes after I walked through my door.
Having mentioned five items, another warm indulgence that I ate half of while standing outside the bakery (saving the rest for a post-​nap dinner) was the Walnut Apple Bread Pudding, a dense concoction that Bill told me is soaked for nearly 12 hours before being baked in the morning and falling somewhere between pound cake, bread pudding, and a sort of pull-​apart quick bread I will simply note that while there was nothing ‘designer’ about this item it was quite perfect in a rustic way — the sort of bread pudding you could just as easily make at home but never do… and probably for the best as (if you’re anything like me) you’d end up eating the whole pan within 48 hours.
With the first four selections sufficiently sweet and uniformly good-​to-​great, my final selection from Abundance very well may have been the most memorable take-​out pastry of the trip; an item titled «Upside down Caramel Cupcake» that came in a plastic clamshell container with a spoon — and for good reason as this was most certainly not your average cupcake. Beginning first with the upside down presentation, my best guess for this delivery was to prevent the cake from tipping over and to facilitate easy application of the glaze, a thick homemade melted caramel that was as buttery as it was sweet and just saline enough to keep it from being overwhelming. Moving next to the cake itself, again atypical for a cupcake and all the better for it, imagine a dense pound cake with even more butter… or for those who’ve been to Maestro’s Steakhouse simply imagine their buttercake served chilled with caramel instead of warm with ice cream — it was good enough that if you really wanted to call it a cupcake it would rank in my top five all time and when placed in the context of everything else at Abundance it really makes me wonder why the tiny shop doesn’t get more attention because as a complete package inclusive of customer service, selection, price, and execution Abundance is an absolute diamond in the rough.

I like the caramel cupcakes so much I had to try some other items on the menu. Well, sorry to say, they didn’t go over like the the cupcakes did. I bought banana pudding and bread pudding. The bread pudding tasted like a cinnamon bun. The banana pudding had the consistency of a gelatin mold and while was not gag-​worthy, it just wasn’t a tasty delight. The young man who served me was nice and handsome though-​thus far I have never had service issue here. This won’t keep me away but I certainly won’t order those again. I think I’m just really spoiled by my mom and grandmom’s cooking-​IDK.