Bakery Review: Piece of Cake and Bakery Gingham

I’ve decided to hit up various bakeries in and around Columbus this year and post about them in between my weekly projects. The first two I’ve visited were Piece of Cake in the Short North and Bakery Gingham in German Village.

Piece of Cake
772 North High Street
Columbus Ohio, 43215
(614)421-0399
Hours: Monday through Saturday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Closed Sundays

Piece of Cake is a lovely little bakery hidden on a side street in the Short North. In their bakery cases you will find cookies, brownies, creme brulee, as well as a nice assortment of different slices of cake and cheesecake. I was nervous heading in, as some of the Yelp.com reviews had been less than stellar regarding the customer service. The cakes in the case were not labeled, so I sheepishly asked the employee if he could tell me what they were and he did with absolutely no hesitation. He was very helpful. I chose a slice of Red Velvet Cake (how could I not after having baked it as my first project?!) and a cup of coffee:

The cake was very yummy. My only complaint (which isn’t even really a complaint) is that the frosting was a touch too sweet for me. I worked the frosting off the last few bites of cake. I think their cake was definitely better than mine, but I liked my frosting better. The coffee was also excellent. And I got all this cake and coffee for an even $5! I will definitely be coming back to sample some other goodies. They even have ‘real food’ if you want to eat some lunch with your dessert.

Bakery Gingham
189 Thurman Ave
Columbus, Ohio 43206
(614) 449-CAKE
Hours: Monday through Sunday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

I was very excited to check out Bakery Gingham. It used to occupy a small space next door to the Brown Bag in German Village and just a week and a half ago the bakery moved into a new location between the Thurman Cafe and the German Village Coffee House, a highly desirable location, especially on the weekends.
Rob and I stopped in on a Saturday in the early afternoon, and the bakery was packed. It’s a very cute store, painted in bright blues and pinks with cupcake paintings on the walls. The customers in line in front of us bought multiple cupcakes, and all the cupcakes on display were quickly snatched up. The employees brought out some more from the back, and from those I selected a ‘birthday cake’ flavor – yellow cake with chocolate buttercream frosting – and Rob chose a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting. We eagerly bit into them:

They were…okay. Average. We both found our cupcakes slightly too dry, and I thought the frosting was both a little too ‘crunchy’ and sickly sweet. They weren’t terrible, but I feel like I’ve become a bit of a bakery snob and these just weren’t outstanding. For $2.50 a cupcake, I want perfection.
I did, however, find their inclusion of 50-cent peanut butter ‘pupcakes’ to be quite charming, and we bought one for our dog Scout, who loved it.
Bakery Gingham will probably be an amazing neighborhood cupcake shop for German Village, but I wouldn’t recommend making a drive. There are many other shops that are much more exciting.