The Bent Fork Bakery

Highwood, United States

4.4

Closed now

20 reviews

Accepts Credit Cards

Contacts

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Telephone:
+1 847-926-4438
Website:
thebentfork.com
Address:
335 Waukegan Ave, Highwood, IL, 60040
Nearby public transportation stops & stations:
350 ftHighwood
1.2 miFort Sheridan
1.5 miHighland Park
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Bussiness info

Delivery
Yes
Accepts Credit Cards
Yes
Parking
Street
Bike Parking
Yes
Wheelchair Accessible
Yes

Today

Today 8:30 am – 5:30 pm
Closed now
Local time (Highwood) 22:24 Thursday, 5 June 2025

Business hours

Monday –
Tuesday 8:30 am – 5:30 pm
Wednesday 8:30 am – 5:30 pm
Thursday 8:30 am – 5:30 pm
Friday 8:30 am – 5:30 pm
Saturday 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
Sunday –

Description

Specialties

Warning: You are about to become very happy!

An all-​butter bakery, we specialize in small batch, American style baking. Hand made cookies, (chocolate chip is a winner), intense brownies, amazing buttercream cupcakes in many flavors, colors and designs, special occasion cakes, bars, english scones, old fashioned coffee cakes and of course, our crostata’s. We use only fresh fruit-​no goop here, so we make seasonly fresh fruit rustic pies in our all butter crust. Come in for a cup of Stiver’s coffee, and enjoy a piece of Mom’s Chocolate Cake today. or an oatmeal cranberry pistachio white chocolate cookie, or a s’more.or a whoopie pie.

History

Established in 1999.

Ten years ago, Michael was on the hunt for holiday gifts for his printing business customers. Since Liz and he baked all during the holidays, he thought, why not make baskets ourselves? When customers received the cookies and brownies, inquiries poured in and The Bent Fork was invented around 1:00 a.m. on a cold night. We opened the store in 2004, and have expanded into a full service bakery, providing sweet stuff to the northshore and city. Oh, and Michael left the printing business in 2005 to join Liz, just adding more sweetness to their 18 years of wedded bliss!

Meet the Business Owner

Liz and Mike B.

Business Owner

We are passionate about sweets and baking, and feeding people. Liz and Mike met in the restaurant business 24 years ago, and have been spreading the love of sugar and butter ever since.

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20 reviews of The Bent Fork Bakery

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Place rating: 4
Highland Park, IL
This bakery always seems to be closed. The first time I attempted to go there, I was met with a sign on their door that said it was closed for a few weeks. Another time it was just closed during business hours. And yet another time it was closed for a few hours during business hours.
I was finally able to catch them open for business, so I bought almost everything they had. They were good. Moist, good flavor, not overly sweet.
Place rating: 5
University Park, IL
I ordered a strawberry fields cake. It was delicious and perfect for my 30th Bday! The staff was nice and also were willing to change my order without a hassle. Prices were also reasonable. Thank you!
Place rating: 5
Highland Park, IL
OMG!!! Can you say HoHo!!! There version is the best thing I’ve ever put on my mouth!!! Go and get now. I mean right now!
Place rating: 5
IL, IL
Our go-​to bakery for cakes and cupcakes on the North Shore. Their cakes are consistently moist, rich, the right density, and very flavorful. I’m more of a cake guy than a frosting guy and I find Bent Fork to be superior to competitors on that basis. Their frostings are very good, just not overly treacly sweet — some folks like that instead.
It’s more of a mom-​and-​pop shop and the service and décor match that expectation. For me, that is a plus. I’ve had very good experience on the whole and they can handle challenging orders like Easter three-​dimensional lamb cakes and whatnot.
Really worth checking out and they have a nice assortment available for walk-​in… just picked up a half dozen cupcakes today.
Place rating: 5
Lake Bluff, IL
The best bakery I have ever been to — everything is great. The staff is awesome and always great me with a smile. Love this place!
Place rating: 5
Highland Park, IL
OMG! This bakery is the real deal! I am somewhat of a bakery connoisseur and have traveled the world over sampling baked goods (it’s a hobby not my job) and I can tell you that Bent Fork is top of my list. Everything is good but I highly recommend trying their sweet breads like the banana chocolate chip. I would forgo many worldly pleasures for this bread. I hate this word but there’s no other way to describe it… The bread is moist. There I said it. But it is. Fresh, delicious and MOIST! I can’t always get to the Highwood location but luckily Players Grill in Highland Park offers their amazing cake slices. When I really need a Bent Fork fix, I just order up a slice of either chocolate or German chocolate cake to go, sneak it past my kids (because while I love them dearly, this is Momma’s treat!) and enjoy the deliciousness. If you love the baked goods you’ll love Bent Fork.
Place rating: 4
Highland Park, IL
This is the tastiest little bakery in the area. Drive the extra distance to Bent Fork, and you BakerBoys lovers will be switched. This place is way better.
Place rating: 4
Chicago, IL
I happened to be driving through the area and decided to stop by.
They have a bunch of different flavored cupcakes, brownies/​blondies, tarts, pies, and cakes. I wanted to try some of everything but decided to rein in my gluttony.
I ended up getting a coconut cupcake and the s’mores baby cake for my friends. I also got the coconut blondie and a brownie which were both so good.
Next time I come here I will have to try their cake pops and other cupcakes.
Place rating: 5
Lincolnshire, IL
I’ve been going to this bakery for years now. I have to say it’s the best bakery in the North shore area. As soon as you step foot in this cute little place, you instantly smell the aroma of fresh baked cupcakes and goodies. The place is decorated so adorably with polka dots and pink everywhere! It instantly can brighten your day. They have a wide selection of desserts from cake pops to rice crispy treats. I usually come for the cupcakes and cookies. If you are looking to try their cupcake flavors definitely go for the red velvet, smores, cookies and cream, and salted caramel! As far as cookies, their peanut butter white chocolate cookies are to die for. Oh and I can’t forget their half dipped chocolate cookies! those are another must-​try item. I only ordered a cake from here once and thought they did an excellent job. However, the cake decorating is not super sophisticated. It’s pretty simple but so delicious! On to the workers, they are super friendly and immediately greet you upon arrival. The owner is usually there and often recommends goodies to try. Of course, they never fail to impress me. I also love how this bakery is family operated. If you have a sweet tooth you have to try the Bent Fork!
Place rating: 4
Deerfield, IL
Around the North Shore, Deerfield’s Bakery is an empire but every time I call to place a special order, I am immediately reminded of the little regard they have for customer service.
Then my guardian angel whispered in my ear and reminded me of Bent Fork Bakery. Talk about a difference in customer service! I was met with nothing but courtesy, kindness and professionalism from the time I called to place my order to the moment I picked up my beautiful sweets tray.
The cherry topping of the entire experience was of course the beautiful and delectable cookies, bars, and cake pops that were enjoyed by my guests.
Sometimes, bigger is not always better and I’m so glad that small places like Bent Fork are able to maintain their core values of making the customer satisfied and happy while producing high quality pastries at the same time!
Place rating: 2
Schaumburg, IL
I SO BADLY want to give this bakery 5 stars. Their sweets are TO DIE FOR. However, my experience with them has been anything but the best.
I contacted Bent Fork several times earlier in the year to provide desserts for my October wedding — nothing too crazy, just some cupcakes and sweet trays. I emailed the owner using the email provided on their website, and received no response, so one day my fiancé and I drove up the the Bent Fork to see what it’s like (it’s really cute inside) and so he could try a cupcake and S’more Bar for himself. I spoke with the owner in person, and she gave me her business card with two email addresses and said to connect with her so we could come back for a tasting. She was very sweet and nice and polite… And then it came time for me to connect with her. I emailed her several times (both email addresses) asking about dates for a tasting, and called the bakery, leaving a message, promised by the staff that she would give me a call back. I never heard back from them.
If I can’t trust a bakery to get in touch with me when I’m wanting to give them money for their tasty treats, how can I trust them to be there for me on my wedding day? It didn’t take long for me to choose a new bakery.
Place rating: 4
Chicago, IL
While I didn’t love my trip to the suburbs, I totally fell in love with this little bakery. It’s super cute and kitschy inside, and the staff were super friendly and not too pushy.
They have so many options that it was really hard to only get a few for my ride back to the city on the metra.
I got a couple cookies and a little mini loaf of chocolate chip bread. All of it was super delicious and very reasonably priced. I wish this bakery were in the city, because I doubt I’ll be in Highwood anytime soon again.
Place rating: 5
Madison, WI
.word. Certainly love at first bite with this place.
To start, the workers were soooo friendly and grateful that I stopped in. They so wonderfully noted that I was paralyzed by the plethora of sugary items and essentially incapable of making any sort of decision as to what dessert (s) I wanted to try out. Soooo they made some recommendations and man, oh man, am I glad they did. They suggested I try the salted caramel cupcake and the s’more bar, I then added in a snickerdoodle cookie… couldn’t resist :-/​But let me tell ya — they were all astronomically good.
The salted caramel cupcake itself was perfectly moist, and the caramel frosting was delicious. I was so pleasantly surprised to find that the actual cake part was wonderfully flavorful, considering that bakeries typically (and unfortunately) rely on a super sugary frosting to bring up the rear in the flavor department while the cupcake itself is dry and devoid of any taste. Not at The Bent Fork! They sure have it right when it comes to cupcakes. YUM.
Moving onto the S’more Bar… h-​o-​l-​y c-​o-​w. I didn’t have high hopes for this fella, just because it looked too grand and over the top to actually taste fantastic. But nope. The Bent Fork proved me wrong again and delivered a reeeeally delicious bar treat. The cookie part that imitated the graham cracker element of this campfire classic was so chewy and packed with buttery, brown sugary goodness; the chocolate was just the slightest bit softened to capture that fireside melty chocolate quality; while the marshmallow component was FLUFF-​tastic — soft, ooey, gooey goodness, right there. DA BOMB.
Now for the snickerdoodle cookie — all I can say is WOW. Soft, chewy, cinnamon-​sugary heaven. NAILED IT.
It was as I was checking out that I noticed a mini pecan pie out of the corner of my eye (that rhymes :), soooooo I may be back tomorrow… :-) LOVE Bent Fork.
Place rating: 5
Mountain View, CA
Best bakery in north Chicagoland. I have fond memories of this place when it was tiny, coming here after school once I had a car and a license, indulging in their butter toffee cookies with my best friend. Those toffee cookies probably got me through high school.
Now, they’ve expanded, with a little café area and tons of different kinds of baked goods. Just the other day, we got an order of 20 of their macaroons– the chocolate-​dipped and pineapple ones. They were a huge hit! (Although the pineapple ones didn’t taste anything like pineapple… just white chocolate :()
Their cakes are the best-​tasting around, which is really what counts. We’ve sometimes gone elsewhere just because the decorating is a little better, but people always remember the Bent Fork cakes!
We’ll be bent fork devotees as long as they stay a Highwood fixture!
Place rating: 5
Highland Park, IL
Best sweet bakery in the area by far!
WHAT I LOVE: Cookies — molasses & toffee Cupcakes — perfect cake to frosting ratio, all flavors but I am particularly partial to the red velvet Pies — love all the rustic fruit pies Jewish treats — hamentashen & chocolate dipped coconut macaroons.
WHAT I DON’T LOVE: Cake decorating is not very refined. If you are looking for that delicate, intricately decorated cake look elsewhere. The decorating here is more homey than artwork.
Not a bread bakery.
Place rating: 4
Highland Park, IL
Like walking into my grandma’s kitchen, I fell in love with this place! Not just because there is a mini antique shop connected to it with kitchen items that my grandma had in her house, but for obvious reasons… hello…the baked goods!
I’ve experienced eating their cake pops and s’more bars at a private event TBFB catered, and I fell in love instantly. Drawn to the cupcakes on today’s visit, I went for it and I’m glad I did. The size options were interesting. They had small cupcakes, but they just seemed too small for my liking. The larger cupcakes were just right or even a little too big (not that I would ever complain about that!). Unlike most cupcakes I’ve had lately, they can be light and fluffy. What I liked about these cupcakes is the fact they were very dense. The frosting was plenty and delicious and sweet, but not too sweet. My cupcake came individually packaged in a cute plastic container.
While paying for my cupcake and a s’mores bar for the boys, I couldn’t help but notice the adorable tiny baked apple pies, their cakes, and the peanut butter cups. How yummy! Also, the sprinkled sugar cookies were colorful and so happy.
Priced right for the quality, I’ll be back! I should also mention the attached party room where they host cupcake decorating parties for kids.
Keep in mind, they have a $ 10 minimum for credit cards.
Place rating: 4
Lake Forest, IL
You could drive up and down the Highwood strip and never even notice this hidden gem. The storefront is very unassuming and easily blends in with other stores nearby. But don’t let that fool you.
I’ve only had the cupcakes and actual cakes here. But oh so yummy!
I first discovered The Bent Fork at a birthday party. The cake was from this confectionary. (I can only imagine how much the hostess spent.) Although I only ate one piece to be «proper», I really just wanted to take a hunk of a slice home with me. Could I just east it with my hands?
Anyway, I decided to go in person to check it out. It’s a small shop but quaint. I bought a couple if cupcakes. The price was on the higher end but it’s not like I was buying some dry cakes from the local grocery store.
The cupcakes had about a pound of icing on them — which my boys happily licked off. Every. Last. Sugar crystal. It was a bit much for me. But boy do I love icing.
The cake itself was moist and yummy. Nom nom!
The price can be prohibitive but I would come back here when I’m in the mood for a serious treat for myself.
Place rating: 4
Gurnee, IL
I’ve only had the cupcakes here, though friends have recommended I branch out and try something else.
The lemon cupcake *almost* meets my standard for tartness, which is a rare feat. The strawberry cupcake had an incredible burst of fresh strawberry flavor in the buttercream frosting. Many months ago, a co-​worker brought me a chocolate cupcake with vanilla buttercream topped with coconut. Also amazing.
We’ve always been treated well in the store, though we’ve also always taken our cupcakes to go. The décor is cute — the style is vintage bakery.
This is, and will be, our go to for birthday treats.
Place rating: 4
Portland, OR
Tucked away in Highwood, is this little cute bakery with a display full of yummy and delicious cookies, cakes, pies, cupcakes, etc. It is amazing here and so cute on the inside, you must try it! I have had their pecan pie which is delicious, and their oatmeal white chocolate cranberry pistachio cookies, amazing. How do they get it that texture? That perfect chewiness. Gosh if I was able to go there every day and not gain weight, I totally would!
Mmm as for the service, I’ve never really had a bad time inside. Although they may seem to rush you a bit, but that’s only when it’s busy and I’m taking my sweet time picking and choosing what I want.
Place rating: 4
Long Grove, IL
Cupcakes so beautiful… you will not even want to eat them!
This was my first experience eating a cupcake from a bakery. I usually bake my own, or if I am in a bind… pick them up at Jewel. The Bent Fork was a treat that was definitely out of the ordinary.
I really liked the cupcakes. There was a bit too much frosting for my liking, but it added to the artistic allure of the cupcakes, so you cannot fault them for that!
The cupcakes were good. but I still do not know if I could justify spending that much money per cupcake in the future!