C Adams Bakery

I would have given it 5 stars for it’s wonderful cookies and outstanding key lime pie. I can also vouch for the cakes. I couldn’t wait to taste the doughnuts that are fairly new to this bakery. I was so disappointed. The doughnuts and the crullers were inedible to me and to my husband They don’t taste anything like the ones I was used to from other local bakeries. I realized that they were not raised, with yeast, but were cake dough. They were both dry and just didn’t taste good.

C is for…
Cookies
Cake bites
Carrot cake
Cupcakes
Cheesecake
Convenience
Their product is definitely on the pricey side but it’s nice to have a go-​to for a sweet afternoon or take-​home treat.

On quite a rainy day, I drove up from O’Hare and directly to Public Market. Adorable place by the way. C Adams had such an incredible variety of pastries and sweets so I really wanted to try a couple. Being a huge donut fan, I picked out the spiced apple cider donut and the salted caramel peanut glazed donut. Unfortunately both were pretty disappointing, mainly because it was very, very oily and I didn’t like their cake at all. It wasn’t fluffy and light and it seemed like it was caught in between trying to have a chewy/​bouncy texture and being a more traditional tough cake. Anyway, definitely wasn’t a fan. I also did not taste any of the spiced apple cider flavor in the donut — in fact, I wasn’t sure exactly what taste I was getting period.
I also grabbed two cake balls. The red velvet was delicious but again, the cake was way too oily. I would say that the pumpkin cake ball was the best thing I had from the bakery. She also gave me two complimentary pumpkin butter cookies which i truly appreciated. However, I just wasn’t much of a fan of the butter cookie or the hard glaze on top!
Overall, a bit sad over my purchases. I may never have a chance to come back to Wisconsin again or else I’d like to try a few other items.

I love the Public Market and this was a great stop on our way out. We split a very large, very dense maple bacon donut. The bacon was legit chunks on top of the rich maple glaze and the donut, even split in half, was more than filling.
Service was quick. The donut was not hot, but was still very fresh and soft. Grab a treat here as you make your way around the Public Market!

If you come here, opt for the pastries– the cinnamon twist was amazing– or a brioche. I stopped here a few months after returning from France and they were just as fresh and delicious as a local Parisian patisserie.

OMG the carrot cake. I could have ate the whole cake. Trust me, get it!
Now the ginger cookie… That was just nasty and left a terrible aftertaste. Couldn’t eat more than one bite, and I usually love gingerbread/​ginger snap cookies.
But that carrot cake was good enough that if I lived here, I’d be there everyday.

Amazing! I was told to check this place out for their homemade Oreos so I hade to get those and then wanted everything else.
Home made Oreos and homemade Nutter Butters, peanut butter cookies with chocolate chunks, oatmeal scotchies were what I ended up getting. Everything was reasonably priced and the service was friendly. A definite must if you are going to Milwaukee’s Public Market.

WARNING: ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK! LOTS OF YUMMIES AHEAD.
1. They have some pretty great pastries, and a nice variety for the most part (+)
2. Sometimes the items they have can be more on the expensive side compared to other places (-)
3. They have a very delicious, rich New York Style Cheese cake which is to die for. (+)
4. Service is often short/​rude (-)
5. They are open early, so I like stopping by before work (+)
6. They don’t always have chocolate macadamia nut cookies, which is the main reason I go there (-)
7. The things they do have, cookies wise at least, do stay nice and soft for a while. e.g., I ordered a cookie and an apricot pastry last week Friday and didn’t get to them until today (Tuesday) but they are still soft. Dry, but soft. Which I mostly appreciate.
I’d recommend.

Super solid baked goods. Great cupcakes, absurdly rich and delicious cakes. On the pricey side but worth every penny.

This is for the Wisconsin cookie. It’s so good that I don’t need to try anything else. I’m not sure of every ingredient, but I’m guessing crack is one of them because they are so addictive. I know there’s oatmeal, dried craberries, and walnuts (and plenty of butter) as well as a few others. It’s a large cookie, with some thickness. And it’s baked just right; moist on the inside with a hint of crunch on the outside. I wish I could buy them in Chicago.

I like to celebrate those things that are Milwaukee. Good or bad im pretty much ride or die. I will tell the truth in the process about the establishments that are good and or bad. This bakery im sure has its good days. Ive thumbed threw a couple of reviews so i know this to be fact. Its just on this Sunday that i decided to go it was a bad day.
The market is crowded as usual no biggie. I didn’t want to go but my kids did want to go. We are waiting in line while people ahead are being called on, I say hmm to myself. Finally i make my way to the counter and i say do you sell your items by the dozen. She says you can buy how many you want but the price will remain the same. So let me think if i grab 12 cookies at 3.50 a piece im paying 30 bucks for 12 cookies? Nah!
So the kids and I grabbed some ice cream and came back i got a couple of 50 cents cookies and I asked what were the biscotti bites. The lady says an Italian desert. Im like ok I have no idea what it is. Im assuming you baked these so before i spend my money on these i would like to know more about them besides that they are from Italy. What do they taste like? What is the texture? Flavors? Something she gave me nothing besides a face full of fake shagrin. I said let me have a couple of the peanut butter 50 cents cookies. Abruptly she says Pecan butter cookies. Just like that, correcting me as opposed to educating me or making sure that i want them and i could have mistaken pecan for peanut.
I got the cookies home and the majority of them fell apart. The cookies i had which were the Sugar and Peanut Butter tasted gritty and dusty if you can imagine. I will stick to my fav place Amaranth Bakery. It tasted better and the customer service is much better. A white man owning a business serving the community on 32 and Lisbon makes you check your self as a owner. A white man owing a business on water st in the third ward serving the community makes you do what? My point exactly.
I don’t like to make things racial, but I have had weird experiences at the market. This lady today really didn’t pay attention to me or my children and from what i gathered just wanted to take my money and get me out of her face as quick as possible. If this was a matter of perception… I would apologize and ask the people who were ahead of me if they felt slighted at all. Im sure that they wouldn’t say anything but niceties, i would like to as well.
The point is the baked goods are so over priced versus the quality. The customer service wasn’t as good as it could have been. Would i give them another chance? Most likely no. I have found a place that serves better food and has a philosophy about their food and exchanges.

By far one of the best bakeries in Milwaukee!
I have numerous adjectives that I’d like to use to describe how my tastebuds feel after eating one of their many decadent desserts, however I’ll contain myself and let you experience the utterly amazing delights this place has to offer.
My Top 3 recommendations:
1. New York Cheesecake
2. Carrot Cake
3. Red Velvet Cake
I’m dying to try their german chocolate cake as well as their Kentucky Butter cake.
Do yourself a favor and forget that anyone is looking and go all willy nilly when they ask you what you’d like… its best to go with your gut and not your conscience at this place.

They have an amazing assortment of goodies to choose from — all kinds of cookies, cupcakes & cakes. Sadly, we were pretty stuffed and after we were done drooling over the options we settled on taking 2 cookies to nibble on later. The oatmeal raisin & the cowboy cookie were darn good. The perfect amount of a bit of crunch on the outside and a chewy inside — and they are BIG cookies.

Thanks to C. Adams Bakery, Third Ward workers like me never have to worry about being caught with nothing to soothe their sweet tooth during the day.
A bonanza of baked goods awaits. They have cheesecake, four layer cake, miniature custard pies and fruit tarts, cookies of all kinds, brownies, bars and other delicacies. Have I forgotten anything? I’m sure I have. I will be glad to return and research further :-)
The first time I visited I had a miniature French Chocolate Silk Pie. It was $ 5 amd could have fed two, although I didn’t share. The chocolate mousse folded into a graham cracker crust and topped with chocolate shavings was delicious.
Later the cookies caught my eye and I sampled the Snickerdoodle and on a second visit the peanut butter cookie was the perfect thick chewy texture.
I’ve had other treats there, including the seventh heaven bar and a couple of varieties of brownies.
The hands-​down favorite? The Oatmeal Scotchie. So much better here than I remember from my childhood. Yum!

Ugh why are cake bites now $ 2 a piece? They used to be $ 1, then $ 1.50, and now $ 2. They’re so little and I just couldn’t bring myself to buy one yesterday. I’m going to try making my own cake bites.

If I were rating C Adams Bakery solely on the appearance of their display case, this would be a five star «Stop the Presses» type of review. My daughter and I were visiting the Public Market for the first time and the fully stocked display case at C Adams made quite the initial impression. After fawning over the embarrassment of riches, my daughter elected to go with the red velvet cupcake and we ventured off to our next destination.
Now for the unfortunate section of the review.
My daughter generally does not discriminate when it comes to pastries, she loves them all, whether they come from a fine French patisserie or the neighborhood Piggly Wiggly. However, after a couple of bites from her cupcake, she uttered the words I never, ever thought I’d hear:
«Dad, this cupcake really sucks.»
I stared in stunned silence, concerned that my daughter was abducted by aliens and replaced with a pod. Before racing to the authorities to report the impending alien invasion, I thought it wise to sample the cupcake myself. And you know what, the cupcake sucked. It was dry, dense and bland. The frosting had a weird, dense texture. When I bit into the cupcake, the topping actually fell off the cupcake in a single piece. Not cool, C Adams, not cool.
So if you like just looking at your cupcakes, I highly recommend C Adams. Otherwise, go elsewhere for your sugar fix.

The staff in this little slice of the Public Market are great. They all give a welcome feel and (not to make any comments about age, ladies, so please don’t take offense) there is always a matronly feel about the shop. The cookies are ridiculously good, as are the muffins and cakes.
In addition to the very appealing cheesecakes today, I saw some sort of Kentucky Butter Cake that I’ve never even heard of before (and I’m a pastry chef). It looked awesome, but didn’t quite fit the bill for the cookie stack I was purchasing
It’s a welcome part of the PM experience, and nice to have as a dessert station opposite Kehr’s. The pricing isn’t at all over the top considering the location, so I hope the business stays steady and keeps them around.

What’s not to love about confectionery goodness? Occupying one spot in the Milwaukee Public Market, which delivers on bakery items like cakes and cookies and pies, but if you’re not up for the whole deal I would strongly recommend the cookies bites. Yep, there a solid hit at $ 1.50 apiece and there’s really only enough in each one for maybe three bites. One if you’re feeling particularly sugar deprived. I had the lemon poppy cake and the carrot cake for dessert one day and both were really awesome.
Looking to bring afternoon snacks to your office? Get a double dozen cookies or maybe a cake! I’ll be waiting.

Pro: … cake bites!
Con: Price of one singular cake bite! ($ 1.50)
Pro: Serving size of said cake bites; they’re small so I won’t get too huge too quick (… but are they worth the ridiculous price)?
Con: Not really.
Con: Damn.
—
Pro: Really awesome looking cakes and pies! Cookies never seem as appetizing, but whatever! I’ve had the Cowboy cookie and it’s damn good! The Wisconsin cookie sounds pretty great too. Sweet stuff, you guys.
Con: Reality: Some of their goodz are teh awesome, and some of them are just, well, lackluster. (High hopes for the raspberry streusel bar only to be met with disappointment…)
Pro: Key Lime Pie!
Con: I’ve not had theirs yet.
Pro: They have key lime pie! I love key lime pie!
Con: Everything here seems really expensive, some things more so than others.
Con: The girl behind the counter was really disaffected and seemingly hated her life. That’s the worst.
Con: I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO THINK ABOUT THIS PLACE

I’m not a cookie person, but I saw that they were having a presidential cookie poll. Since President Obama is leading, I decided to purchase the democrat cookie to show my support. However, I was a little disappointed that the cookie that she gave me was broken into several pieces.
I had to put it together like a zig saw puzzle, so I could take a picture.
Anyway, the cookie was alright, and good with a cup of coffee.