Piece-A-Cake reopens in E. Dundee

Piece-A-Cake Bakery is back in business.

The East Dundee staple will open its doors Tuesday after being closed for about 7 months.

The “soft opening” will include sales of coffee and select baked goods but will mark a transition back into business for the popular spot at 304 N. River St.

State officials closed the store in June 2010 because of overdue taxes, but the closing was always supposed to be temporary, according to Roger Ahrens. His wife, Diane, opened the store in 1994 and the business had grown to a second bakery in Gilberts before the 2010 closure.

AZ Bakeries LLC, an East Dundee-based corporation, recently took over the East Dundee location and will now handle the bookkeeping for the business.

“That's what got us into trouble,” Roger Ahrens said. “We were spending too many hours focusing on what we did and not enough hours focusing on the paperwork part of it.”

Now the Ahrenses can spend all their time baking and keeping customers happy while the corporation manages the rest.

Hospital time in 2009 for Ahrens and his wife added an extra burden, putting the business further behind on its taxes.

“This takes the pressure off of us,” Roger Ahrens said.

The “new” business will appear much like the old one with a tweaked menu and a few price changes, Ahrens said. The name remains the same.

Hours will start out like they were before, 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, but may eventually be adjusted as well.

The Gilberts location will remain closed indefinitely.

Nothing will change about the specialty cakes, though. Diane Ahrens will continue to make and decorate her competition-worthy creations.

And the couple will still make and send baked goods to the military serving overseas, a project that never ceased, even with closure.

East Dundee Trustee Michael Ruffulo said the bakery has long been a draw for downtown, bringing coffee and pastry lovers into the village.

“It's a breath of life that River Street really needs again,” Ruffulo said.

The Ahrenses only found out Monday morning the state OK'd the business to reopen. Tuesday's soft opening will give the couple a chance to sell some of the easier to prepare goods and ease them into the cookies and cakes that take several days to make.

Roger Ahrens said Piece-A-Cake will continue to run much as it did for more than 15 years. Most importantly that means he and his wife's smiling faces behind the counter on a daily basis.