About Bella e Dolce Cakes
Pretty. Sweet. Cakes.
Bella e Dolce Cakes is located in Walled Lake & serves Metro Detroit Michigan. We specialize in extravagant, delicious custom cakes and French pastries for weddings and major events.
Our name, Bella e Dolce, translated from Italian means pretty and sweet. We fundamentally believe that your cake should look amazing AND taste great.
We provide a personalized experience for all of our customers by working with them to design something truly unique and flavorful for their memorable events. Our tastings and design consultations are created to be fun and delicious! We love to get to know our clients in a relaxed environment and find meaningful personal details that we can express in sugar.
At Bella e Dolce… We believe in the unparalleled power of real butter.
Our main ingredients are sourced locally from Michigan, and what we can’t get locally, we import from Europe, like our chocolate and jams.
We take pride in our cakes and philosophy that we are a small business that does BIG things. All of our cakes are custom made, each design and flavor combinations are unique to every client. All these details take time, every recipe is made from scratch, and therefore we do not offer walk-in or retail services. This helps us guarantee the exceptional quality we provide to our clients.
Meet the Bakers
Erin Sonntag
OWNER & PASTRY CHEF
Erin began making wedding cakes in high school and made her first wedding cake in 2002. A graduate of culinary programs in both high school (Plymouth Salem, 2001) and college (Schoolcraft Culinary Arts, 2003), it was meant to be that she would work with food.
After completing culinary school, Erin joined Kim Sperl for a full season working at the original Bella e Dolce location in Northern Michigan in 2003, Erin returned downstate to start her first cake company, Classic Confections, in the Detroit area.
After 9 years, Erin closed her first business to return up north and be full time with Bella e Dolce from 2012-2014. In those years, Erin and Kim became business partners and plans were being made to expand Bella e Dolce to the Metro Detroit area. Officially in 2015, Bella e Dolce Cakes was born and now serving Southeastern Michigan.
Quickly earning awards for Michigan Meetings + Events Best of 2018, Michigan EPIC Awards Best Pastry table, publications on Style Me Pretty, the Knot and more.
And the icing on the cake? Competing on Disney+ Foodtastic, crowned champion, and continuing team Weirdoughs forever, now that Ryse and Lindsey have both joined Bella e Dolce Cakes.
Lindsey Pritchard
PASTRY CHEF & DESIGNER
Lindsey graduated from Oakland Community College in 2014 with an Associates in Applied Science-Massage Therapy and a Baking and Pastry Art Certificate.
While at OCC, Lindsey competed on the ice carving team and won several National Ice Carving Association (NICA) awards during various competitions. Most notably, she and Ryse Swanson were the first all-female team to win nationals for collegiate ice carving.
After graduating OCC, she worked at Love & Buttercream bakery, Orchard Lake Country Club, and at Walnut Creek Country Club as a pastry sous chef.
After competing on Disney+ Foodtastic with Ryse and Erin, Lindsey joined the Bella e Dolce Cakes team in Early 2022. Lindsey is our primary baker and pastry chef with all around talent for all aspects of cake design.
Ryse Swanson
PASTRY CHEF & DESIGNER
Prior to attending Oakland Community College for Culinary Arts, Ryse also attended UofD Mercy for Architectural Design. However while at OCC, is where her passion for food art really thrived.
Since attending OCC, Ryse’s list of accolades extends in many different directions of food art, from carving pumpkins, ice, and even cheese; winning awards in all areas. As the pastry chef at Walnut Creek Country Club for 12 years, her accomplishments include winning Michigan Pastry Chef of the year in 2018 and Central Regional Pastry Chef of the year in 2019. Ryse also competed for National Pastry Chef of the year in Orlando, Florida in 2019.
After competing on Disney+ Foodtastic with Erin and Lindsey. Ryse joined the Bella e Dolce Cakes team in Early 2022. On top of all general baking tasks, Ryse brings a creative brain with amazing painting and sculpting skills to the kitchen as well.
Our Journey
How it began…
It all started with Kim... she was the original owner and creator of the Bella e Dolce brand in 1997, making cakes in Northern Michigan. Kim is a graduate of the Le Cordon Bleu Pastry School in Paris. Erin joined Kim for a 2 week internship in 2002, and then the full wedding season in 2003. From that point on their bond only grew stronger. Erin returned for three years in 2012-2014, and averaged 300+ wedding cakes per summer. In the fall of 2018, Kim officially began her retirement, and though she may not be in the kitchen everyday, you may still see her helping to deliver cakes on Mackinac Island.
Up North…
Paige joined the Bella e Dolce team in Northern Michigan in 2011. After falling in love with her summer job, Paige changed majors from Psychology to Pastry, and followed Kim's steps and attended the Le Cordon Bleu Pastry School in 2012. Since returning from school, Paige has taken on more and more responsibilities and tasks - from the office to baking and carving intricate cake shapes. She has become the third generation of Bella e Dolce. Paige took over ownership of the Northern Michigan location after Kim’s retirement in 2018. Check out their page here:
www.bellaedolcenorth.com
How it’s going…
DISNEY’S FOODTASTIC CHAMPIONS!!!
Erin, Ryse and Lindsey competed on Disney+ original series Foodtastic as team weirdoughs. The incredible Bella e Dolce bakers were featured in two episodes in the Disney+ series and walked away being crowned as a Foodtastic champion!
After becoming Foodtastic champions Bella e Dolce officially welcomed Ryse and Lindsey as apart of our bakery team! Now together they make fantastic baked creations for Bella e Dolce’s wonderful clients.
FAQs
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We don't offer sheet cakes, as all of our cakes are torted with four layers of cake and three layers of filling (as shown on our flavors page). We are all about consistency with our cake slices and presentation.
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We do not offer cupcakes on our menu, but we do have many delicious alternatives such as Cake Truffles, Macarons, and other pastries.
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No. It is against health code regulations for us to ship any food products. We cannot control the shipping environments and unpredictable transporting.
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As soon as possible! We take deposits up to 18 months in advance, but popular weekends can book quickly! While we can take multiple weddings in a weekend, we are limited based on delivery, quantity, and detail of designs. Smaller events (like birthdays and anniversaries) require a 3-4 week lead time. Weddings typically need at least 2 month lead time, but availability cannot be guaranteed.
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Unfortunately, no. Per health codes, we cannot have children under the age of 16 in our kitchen. Our tastings occur in our fully functioning kitchen and there are many risks with certain equipment and sanitation. We are happy to send you home with samples for them to try our cakes.
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Our bakery offers products with peanuts, tree nuts, milk, coconut, eggs, and wheat. While we take steps to minimize the risk of cross contamination, we cannot guarantee that our products are 100% free of all allergens. We do offer Gluten Free cakes (chocolate and vanilla) and our buttercream is naturally gluten free. However, it is made in an environment where it can be exposed to gluten. We do partner with other GF/DF/Vegan bakeries for these needs should they be severe.