Lawrence Deans

My sons party favors were a hit!!! Adorable & delicious ! Thank you Lawrence dean

Delicious frosted cookies and they can be customized for most occasions! Their prices are great and it is an adorable bakery as well!

Lovely owners who there everyday. We go at least once a week for an after school treat. Fudge is homemade like and I love the icing on the carrot cupcake. My kids stick with the cookies and chocolate cupcakes (with milk)!

This local bakery is a godsend for us. My son has peanut allergies and this place uses no peanuts (they do have a chocolate covered PB Oreo but make that separately). their cookie designs are creative and their prices are reasonable. lovely people too. fantastic biscotti. go here!

This is a bakery where you collect favorites.
I wandered in one morning and put the bakery to the test: 1) blueberry muffin; 2) chocolate chip cookie; and 3) coconut frosted cupcake (white).
(Puleeze! I conducted the taste test over two days, not all at once!)
So I now have three favorites there.
And it looks like any choice could easily become a 5 star favorite.

I love Lawrence Deans Bake Shop. I placed a last minute order for cupcakes for my birthday. I had extraneous circumstances to overcome. Lawrence and Vicky came through with flying colors. I was amazed at the tasty, variety and amazing texture of the cupcakes. The presentation was just wondering. I thank Lawrence and Vicky for amazing customer service and delicious treats. I also purchased toffee as a gift. It was a hit, she raved about it. Thanks so much!

Lawrence Deans is a bakery in Wilmette, owned by husband-​and-​wife team, Vicky and Lawrence Blanas. This place has been around since ’11, and while Lawrence bakes, Vicky decorates: D Offerings include biscotti (almond, almond cherry, blueberry, cinnamon, hazelnut, lemon, maple pecan, praline, etc.), cupcakes (almond, almond cherry, apple spice, etc.), cookies (chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, and Snickerndoodles), muffins (banana, blueberry, zucchini, cranberry almond, pumpkin, etc.), cinnamon rolls, bread, fudge, chocolate-​dipped Oreos, and hand-​decorated butter cookies for parties/​holidays/​special occasions. I tried a variety bag of all 3 of their cookies, my most favorite being the chocolate chip! This had a crisp exterior with a nice slightly chewy middle — this was so delicious!!! The Apple Spice cupcake was moist and had a nice caramel apple taste to it. A slice of the chocolate fudge was thick, creamy, and dense, and had a very deep chocolate taste to it. I couldn’t pass up on the chocolate-​covered Oreo, but make sure you read the label on the back, as they come in different flavors! I chose the pink one automatically, and that was a ‘berry’ flavor — a nice tasty treat. Both Vicky and Lawrence were both very sweet and patient when I was making some of the selections. There is also a little café seating area for you to enjoy your treats. Don’t forget to check out their long shelf that features the different hand-​decorated butter cookie designs — it was pretty impressive! On a side note, those who are ‘Empire’ fans, the bakery was featured as the ‘Pepper & Sons Bakery’ on the show: P
+delicious chocolate chip cookies!
+chocolate-​covered Oreos (different flavors!)
+beautiful hand-​decorated butter cookies
+owned by Vicky and Lawrence
+retail parking in the rear

I ordered dozens of beautifully decorated cookies for bridal shower goody bags. Very few made it home as they were so delicious! Personally, I go for the biscotti. Better than Nonna’s!

Lawrence Deans made our wedding cupcakes/​cake for us. Everyone raved about how wonderful they were, and delivery/​setup/​pickup was fantastic and orderly. This was an amazing cake option at an amazing price for our wedding. Thank you so much guys! Will recommend!

A while back, someone from my office brought some Lawrence Dean cupcakes in to celebrate a co-worker’s birthday. They were super-​good, but I haven’t had an opportunity to stop in to check it out for myself. That is, until now.
My son just had his 8^th birthday party, and we needed cupcakes for about 12 kids. My wife rattled off a few of the local usual bakery suspects but didn’t seem too excited about any of them. Thankfully, I remembered Lawrence Dean’s.
We ordered 18 salted caramel cupcakes with chocolate frosting. The bakery didn’t require much advance notice, and they didn’t make us pre-​pay. The price was very reasonable for the quality, and the people at the bakery were about as nice and normal as they could be when I picked up the cupcakes. One of the moms called in to see if they could adjust the order to accommodate a peanut allergy (with our permission, of course). They did! We ended up with 17 of what we ordered and 1 special cupcake. No extra charge.
Most importantly, however, the cupcakes were some of the tastiest things I’ve ever tasted. Even though they were kind of «gourmet,» all of the kids and moms loved them too. I highly recommend this place. It’s worth a special trip out of your way even.

Nice and warmly pastries, friendly staff and good coffee.

I just hosted a baby shower for my future granddaughter and Vicky
helped to create something so special for the event. We chose
the rose petal italian buttercream and coconut cream with pastel pink
shredded coconut on mini cupcakes. The perfect combination for
something special — I couldn’t wait for everyone to try them! This bakeries italian buttercream is so light, not like the heavy buttercream used in many of the Chicago popular bakeries. Everything looked so pretty, I couldn’t have been happier with how everything looked and tasted! Thank you Vicky!

Bottom Line: I went there one time. The treats I had were excellent. I plan to go back many more times.
What I ate: a frosted sugar cookie and a salted caramel cupcake.
Details:
The Frosted Sugar Cookie: one of the best I’ve ever had from a traditional bakery. Why? The dough was tender and sweet. The royal frosting was «soft enough». Here’s my history and opinion of sugar cookies in general: I prefer sugar cookies that are actually homemade, tender, sweet, with softer frosting. Therefore, I’m almost always disappointed with bakery sugar cookies, even at some of the most well-​known and respected bakeries. So often the dough is thick, tough and not sweet enough. Almost all bakeries (including Lawrence Dean’s) use the hard, bright royal frosting, and at some bakeries the frosting is inappropriately crunchy, doesn’t melt in your mouth, and the worst versions of it feels like eating plastic. At Lawrence Deans, the dough was perfect, and the royal frosting was acceptable to me, good flavor, and melted well enough in my mouth.
The Salted Caramel Cupcake: excellent! Why? The texture and flavor of the cake was so delicious, it was a little denser and less spongy than ordinary cake. The caramel frosting was just hands-​down delicious and sweet. Here’s my history and opinion of cupcakes in general: I’m always looking for a cake texture that is not «ordinary». To me, if one makes cupcakes at home with a Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker box cake mix, the texture of that cake is «ordinary». Many times when I buy a «gourmet» cupcake at a bakery, the cake part still just tastes ordinary to me, not special at all. At Lawrence Dean’s, the cake and frosting of the cupcake were both superior, not ordinary.

I just love this place. Please check out the awesome cookies Vicky made for my daughters outdoor birthday party. Everyone loved them and since there were various sizes adults and kiddos both ate them! It was perfect!

*I didn’t want to leave.
* I didn’t want my cupcake experience to end.
* I refused to get out of the car… I didn’t want to stop eating my cupcake.
It seems like every time I’m in the area I pass by on the day Lawrence Deans is closed. So, today was one of those lucky afternoons when I finally remembered that I’ve been meaning to stop in and indulge myself with a delicious cupcake. And, indulge I did, indeed!
Stepping in the front door, this amazing sweet aroma instantly filled the air. In college I ran a small bakery in a family-​owned grocery store. I was immediately transported back to my late night baking days and the wonderful smell of baked goods.
There is no getting past that colorful cupcake display once you’re officially in the front door. $ 3 for a large cupcake is a perfect price in my opinion. It’s hard to price cupcakes, and the truth is, these could be my favorite on the North Shore so far. And, I’ve tried a lot!
I had a really hard time deciding which cupcake to choose, because they all looked amazing. But the salted caramel called out to me, and once in the car I quickly tore open the box and got down to business. I expected it to be ordinary, nothing extra special, but boy was I wrong. It was a light fluffy moist cake topped with just the right amount of whipped, buttery, salty, caramel sweet frosting. It was rich, but not in the *that was just too sugary sweet rich* kind of way. After the stop my hubby suggested we head over to Plaza Del Lago for a Starbucks coffee. I refused to get out of the car because I didn’t want to stop eating my cupcake. His words…“just stay in there with your new boyfriend… fine.” As I piled each moist bite into my mouth, I realized I was half way through and was starting to feel the ache that this experience was soon about to end. I saved a few bites for when I got home, and now I’m officially hooked. When I get a cupcake craving, or if someone asks my opinion about where to go for cupcakes, these guys will get my North Shore recommendation every time.
Lawrence Deans is a simple bakery. They specialize in crazy cute decorated sugar cookies and cupcakes. They have a few other baked goods, but I don’t mind that they have a small menu. Sometimes not being all things to all people works!

Holy cow! They prepared cupcakes for a friends wedding reception… amazing! The flavored were terrific and they were beautiful. There were also trays of brownies which were incredible, seriously some of the best brownies I have ever tasted! I would highly recommend them for an event such as a wedding reception or any other type of corporate event or party. The variety was super, met everyone’s needs, and it was the perfect final capstone for the evening.

My daughter loves coming here for a treat and so do I! Our absolute favorites are the brownies, blueberry muffins and coconut cupcakes. Yum. Wish I could make muffins that delicious at home. Also appreciate the way they carefully package the cupcakes to go. Four stars instead of five because we want them to expand the inventory! Pies, cakes and a few other types of pastry would be welcome.

Wonderful experience with this bakery. Called the day before for a birthday cupcake delivery. My sister received six beautiful cupcakes and a cute card the next day (a Saturday). Delivery fee was only $ 5! And the cupcakes were delicious. Highly recommended.

Best bakery I’ve been to in AGES. I was in Wilmette to check out the Baha’i Temple, and was looking for a special, non-​chain restaurant treat afterwards. This place fit the bill, and being off Green Bay Rd. and having a nice-​sized parking lot behind it was a plus.
I got lemon biscotti (I am not even into biscotti, and I almost polished off the whole bag alone), a few chocolate covered oreos (mint, berry, peanut butter, something with a martini glass on it – key lime?) and those things were like, dangerously good. The chocolate chip cookies here were also great — I saw another review here had said they were the perfect classic chocolate chip, and they were right.
Best of all were the cupcakes. These things were insane, fresh and soft and so yummy. In the town I live in now I’ve paid way more for way less delicious and pretty-​looking cupcakes. I highly recommend the piña colada, watermelon (!), chocolate chip, and strawberry flavors if they have them all. The frosting was soooooo good (buttercream I think, it tasted like) and the cake part was moist like it’s supposed to be.
I love supporting family-​run and local businesses, so it was pretty cool that the owners are also the ones doing the baking (you can see the news articles about them hanging on the walls, along with some photos of the street through the decades). Place was immaculately clean and clearly a labor of love based on the level of detail and care put into the food and décor. Was kind of surprised how inexpensive things were for homemade and fresh, they could definitely charge more. I’ll be back to check out the pet store and antique store and pick up… a cupcake… or six.

Absolutely amazing cupcakes. I’ve gone a few times and sampled some of the different flavors. All of them have the same basic consistency — moist cake, and creamy, sweet but not sugary, BUTTERCREAM frosting. Yes, buttercream. So many cupcake places use cream cheese frostings or something so sugary it overpowers the cake, but Lawrence Deans’ recipe is perfect. The flavors are subtle, so they taste very natural, plus the frosting and the cupcake generally have the same flavoring, so it all melds together into sweet happiness in your mouth.
My family has tried the chocolate mint (my personal favorite), aztec chocolate (cinnamon & chili in the batter, yum) orange, lemon, chocolate, chocolate chip, and chocolate raspberry. I want to keep going back to keep trying flavors. We’ve also tried the muffins, fudge, and the decorated cookies — all amazing! The decorated sugar cookies were a definite surprise — they’re beautifully decorated, but they have a soft, homebaked, melt in your mouth taste that is rare in bakery cookies.
Everything I’ve tried here was amazing, and the prices are so reasonable. $ 2.50 for a huge cupcake, the fancy decorated sugar cookies are around $ 2 too. So much cheaper than the gourmet cupcake stores downtown. Glad to have this place nearby!