How to support local institutions and celebrate your friend’s birthday

The loveliest buttercream flowers/ H. Novak

Last week was my friend’s birthday. What better place to pick up a cake than at the Bakery House, a ten-minute walk from the college? I’m sure dessert connoisseurs (a.k.a. Bryn Mawr students) would agree that to have the perfect balance of sweet creamy frosting and a moist yet fluffy interior, a cake must be freshly baked. Three of us went to order the cake. Bryn Mawr College is lucky to have the Bakery House, and I dare say the Bakery House is lucky to have Bryn Mawr College in its vicinity — it’s always someone’s birthday.

Shelves of cake/ H.Novak

When we first walked in, the smell of cinnamon, and cloves, and ginger filled the air. This time of year the aroma of autumn wafts through the Bakery House, stemming from the cinnamon apple cakes, the pumpkin tarts, the ginger cookies, and the warm orange clove bread that is sliced and put by the door as samples to entice the passerby. (It didn’t take us Mawrters long to find the samples.)

“Om nom nom nom” / H. Novak

Dozens of cakes were piled up on the shelves and behind the glass cases. The intricate buttercream flowers and sugar leaves made our mouths water. My friend particularly likes the film Zootopia, and so the cake we ordered had the fox’s face on it in an “edible picture.” When we picked up the cake, the baker’s excited words were “Oh! You ordered the Zootopia cake, right? It turned out really well!” And it did. It was beautiful, scrumptious, and gobbled up quickly.

The Zootopia Cake/ H. Novak

Bakery House is at 604 West Lancaster Avenue, directly across from the Acme.