Lombard bakery features specialized cakes

At Cakes by Carlos in Lombard, dessert creations have no sugar and calories.

At least, that’s what co-owner Agnes Mendez of Addison tells her customers.

“When they say, ‘Oh my gosh, I would love to have that, but it’s probably lots and lots of calories,’ I say, ‘No, there’s no sugar, no calories, no nothing,’” Mendez said. “There is lots and lots of love in our cakes. That’s all we have.”

The customers smile and nod. And then they laugh and tell Mendez she’s silly.

Silly or not, customers from Lombard, Mundelein, Joliet, other suburbs and even Chicago buy her shop’s specialty cakes, crafted on-site by Mendez, 33, and her husband, Carlos, 45.

Cakes by Carlos has been up and running since June and is striving to satisfy a crowd bored with grocery store cakes and searching for something more gourmet and unique.

“Not everyone can make what we do. We are not just a regular, typical bakery where you can come and get a sweet roll,” Mendez said. “I want to be known for something unique and something different from other bakeries, and that’s the cakes and all different flavors.”

Specializing has become more common among Chicago-area bakeries in the past 10 years as retail bakeries look to differentiate themselves from grocery stores, bagel stores, coffee shops and even gas stations that sell some form of sweets, said Ken Jarosch, president of the Chicago Area Retail Bakers Association.

And Cakes by Carlos’ obvious focus on one dessert item — cake — should help the store stay efficient in terms of production and inventory of ingredients, Jarosch said.

The shop sells mousse cakes in mango, lemon, key lime, strawberry shortcake, raspberry — and those are just the fruit flavors. Mocha, tiramisu, three varieties of chocolate and red velvet rounded out the selection available for taste-testing on a recent May morning.

Mendez said she encourages potential customers to stop by the shop, at 316 Westmore Meyers Road on Lombard’s east side, before their event, buy a few slices of cake and sample the flavors before making a decision.

After all, if someone’s going to buy a towering wedding cake, a lizard-shaped birthday cake, or a graduation cake to feed 200 guests, Mendez figures it’s got to taste just right.

“Every single client is different,” she said. “There’s always something different about the design, which I like the most.”

Agnes and Carlos spend between five and 20 hours baking and decorating each cake. Special decorations such as flowers or ribbons get shaped first, then the day before the cake is due, the duo puts its layers together, adds extra decorations and completes the creation.

Carlos said he worked in bakeries across the suburbs for about 30 years before starting his own last summer. He’s won awards for cake decorating from the Chicago Area Retail Bakers Association and is certified in his trade. He even met his future wife when Agnes got a job at one North suburban bakery as a way to make money for a car.

Now, Agnes helps Carlos make cakes shaped like cars — or purses, or shoes, or any other object a customer can dream up. Making strangely shaped cakes is all part of the challenge, Agnes said.

But the biggest challenge is impressing her 9-year-old son, Angelo, each year when his birthday rolls around.

“Every year he wants something different,” she said. “He is one of my best customers. … After his birthday, he knows what he wants next year.”

Daughter Daisy, 12, is easier to please, offering suggestions of designs or colors, but accepting any birthday cake her parents make as tasty and enjoyable.

So far, Angelo and Daisy only have been observers, learning some tricks of their parents’ cake-baking trade by watching, not yet by doing, Agnes said.

But the kids, and hopefully the customers, can see the passion the Mendezes put into designing and decorating specialty, European-style cakes, Carlos said.

“Once they try it,” Agnes said, “they get hooked.”