A cake shop in Bronzeville has become a hot topic, with long lines regularly forming before the store opens.
This was a project where the owners were forced to scale back the size of their bundt cakes due to the pandemic, but now their bundt cakes are popping from the day they're made.
Bundt cakes are quite large, and during the pandemic, people wanted comfort, but they couldn't ask for too much cake at once. So tweaking recipes and baking pans has made a big difference for one entrepreneur, who now bakes hundreds of cakes a day.
If you want to eat cake, you better follow the rules.
Simmons' great-grandmother, who is from Louisiana, often made “crack” cakes for her when she was a child. That was the birth of Pookie Her Crack Her Cakes. The brick-and-mortar store on 47th Street has been open for less than a year.
“Once a bundt cake is formed, there will be a crack in the top when it's done. And all you do is poke holes in that cake. Traditionally, you put rum glaze in the cracks and holes in the cake. I will pour it all out.”
But during the pandemic, Simmons realized that a full bundt cake was too big, so she and her husband, Doug, began experimenting with smaller pans.
“During the pandemic, I started making mini breads. My signature cake is butter pecan praline,” she said.
Now, I drink up to eight to nine different flavors a day, including caramel, strawberry lemonade, red velvet, and Oreo. The latter is served with whipped cream frosting and has three Oreos on top. The day we visited was Peach Cobbler's Day, so there were probably a lot of people asking for serial numbers from after 10am. This way he knows where to line up at 11 o'clock when the door opens later.
“I slice off the top a little bit so I can put some delicious peach and cobbler sauce on top,” Simmons said.
Thanks to word of mouth and social media, they typically sell between 550 and 600 cakes. It has a lot of sugar and butter. What about that unique company name?
“Pookie is just a cute nickname for someone you care about or love,” she said.
The best way to buy a cake is to come around 10am and get a number. That way, you'll be able to get back in at 10:55 a.m., when the line starts forming. If you don't follow this rule, you probably won't go. To buy a cake. If you attend, be sure to try the original butter pecan praline.
You can go here:
pookie crack cake
105 E. 47th St.