The Baker’s Jar

Man, I really wanted to like this place! I finally had the chance to stop by yesterday and try some of the baked goods. The store is cute and quaint. With the exception of cookies and scones, all of the other baked goods are stored in jars. I purchased the banana cake and the tres leches (which was refrigerated). The banana cake was pretty dry. Also, the tres leches was definitely not as moist as I would’ve expected especially since it was sitting in a jar soaking up the milks. Another note about the dry cakes in jars, I’d suggest adding another layer of frosting in the middle of the jar because once you eat the frosting at the top there’s nothing left to go with the rest of the cake.
All in all, cute neighborhood bakery but I can’t say I’m craving to go back anytime soon… unless we get that middle layer of frosting in the jars. :)

Very cute concept. More like 2.5!
The Nutella chocolate cake with strawberry icing was overly sweet. Of course desserts are sweet, but there were moments where I didn’t know if could continue with how overwhelming sweet it was. When eaten together (as you should), the Nutella and chocolate overpowered the strawberry icing (couldn’t even tell it was strawberry).
The lemon blueberry pie was nice. Sweet of course, but had a nice tartness from the lemon. The graham crust at the bottom is hard to get to because it’s hardened. Nice blueberry compote on top.
Lemon blueberry was better than Nutella chocolate even though I’m a chocolate fan!
Coffee was hot, but just regular joe.
The store was small, clean, and bright. Cashier was nice.
Overall, the $ 5 jars have their hits and misses. Flavors are not hugely inventive. Again, good concept. Not dying to return.

My girlfriend is obsessed with this place. We have about 10 empty jars from here sitting in the cabinet. All the flavors we’ve tried have been delicious. It is a little pricey since they are sold in small jars, but would make really nice gifts.

Not sure if the birthday cake was stale or if it was meant to have a cookie texture. I don’t like that I have to wonder about this. Frosting was also way too sweet. Cute concept but lacks taste

Their cakes in jars are very tasty — love the chocolate with caramel. They also do beautiful and delicious special occasion cakes. The banana cake is amazing — moist with a really good frosting.

Got a lemon cake jar and a banana cake jar. Both were very good. It’s a bit out of the way, down on Bainbridge, but worth going that one block off South Street for. Appears to be locally owned.

I live in the neighborhood and walked by here a hundred times before stopping in. So glad I finally did after reading some of the positive reviews, particularly the one about wedding favors because I was trying to decide on one. After tasting one of the cakes and really enjoying it, I asked Avery to make favors for my wedding. They were a hit! Not only did they have a cute custom-​made label, the cakes were adorable and delicious. Our guests were quite happy with their favor from The Baker’s Jar and I was really happy to be able to support a local business. Thanks for doing an excellent job and for being a pleasure to work with!

A very cute cup (masonjar)cake shop. All the cakes are premade and packaged in jars! Pick your selection from a shelf. They offer a small size for ~$ 3.50 and a larger jar for $ 6. They also have a few varieties (mud pie?) in the fridge.
I picked up a small sized valentine’s day special cake — chocolate cake with frosting and pink heart sprinkles. It was tasty, but too small! Gone in a few bites.
This was great to try once, but I don’t know if I’ll be a regular. For the price, I’d rather have a regular sized cupcake (rather than paying for the jar). Also, the space is small with just a few stools along the window. It’s more of a grab and go space.

The Baker’s Jar teeny cakes were either hits or misses, depending on what you get.
The chocolate bread pudding was just too much chocolate and mush. I felt like I was eating melted chocolate bread. But the pumpkin bread was super moist and delicious, and the Mason jar idea worked out pretty well. Wasn’t a huge fan of the cream cheese but that can easily be spooned off.
Overall, Baker’s Jar is OK. I’d stop by if I were walking down the street and happened to spot it but wouldn’t really go out of my way to track it down.

I’ve seen this concept pick up in major cities, but the Baker’s Jar is the only one in Philly that I know of. The cake-​filled mason jars are lined up along the wall shelves with two or three cakes in the refrigerator. When I selected the banana bread (from the shelf), I wondered if it would be too moist and noticeably oily since it hadn’t been refrigerated since its creation. Upon opening it and tasting with the adorable wooden spoons, it most certainly was too moist and a little bit gross to eat. All of the not-​so-​yummy parts of cake – like the over sugary sweetness, oily texture and lukewarm crumbliness – were overwhelmingly prevalent with each and every bite. The cream cheese frosting that topped the cake inside the jar did not help.
Really cute concept, but I think it would be one hundred times more edible/​enjoyable if all the cakes were refrigerated. They tasted the way I expected from sitting on the shelves all day.

This idea is genius. As a microwave mug brownie connoisseur, I knew I would love eating desserts out of jars. I was really looking forward to coming here and had pretty high expectations. My boyfriend and I came on my last day before I moved to New York.
The shop was cozy, with less seating than I was expecting. It was a warm, late-​summer day, so we ate outside, which was really nice. We split the Ooey Gooey Chocolate Cake and the Lemon Pie. Both were delicious! I’m not sure I could even pick a favorite. Definitely solid desserts, but not quite in my highest dessert tier. The real value comes from the variety, presentation, and overall experience. You also get to keep the jar, which is a cute little souvenir (and gets you a discount if you bring it on your next visit)!
I think these cakes would make gifts, and they also do catering.
Also, for anyone else who appreciates this: their website is lovely.
Can’t wait to come back and try more flavors!

What a cute little establishment The Baker’s Jar is.
I went there on Thanksgiving after visiting the Christmas Village and got myself a carrot cake and dulce de leche brownie. The carrot cake was moist and delicious, but because I got the large jar, it was a little difficult to eat the bottom half of the cake without eating all the cream cheese frosting on top first. Nevertheless, I won that battle! The dulce de leche brownie was hard. Good thing I got the small size for the brownie because I like my brownie moist in the center. Instead of wrapping the two jars in a plastic bag, the cashier placed them in this unique carton container that is reminiscent of a drink carrier because the jars fit snuggly in two compartments. Unlike drink carriers, however, this container has a handle, so you can carry it with one hand like a grocery bag. Overall, I really like the concept of this place. It is a little bit of a walk from SEPTA, but I highly recommend everyone trying this place out at least once when you’re in the area.

This little shop is a great addition to the neighborhood!
The staff is very friendly, and the desserts are really good. The portion sizes are great, I never feel too full after eating one. The mason jar idea is great, because it is so clean. The cake flavors are good, and they change often.
I have been here several times, and each time the dessert and service have been top notch.

How can anyone resist these baby cakes? They’re so cute in their little jars! If they weren’t so pricy, I’d buy so many of ‘em. But instead, I just bought a pumpkin.
Ate that thing in two minutes flat. Didn’t mean to time it.
Considering how slow I eat, anyone who knows me IRL might be writing this place off in their heads right now. But I rebut with: no! Those were two minutes of heaven! Really!
So, yes. It’s a small portion. And yes, you pay for that small portion. But you get what you pay for! They load buckets of flavor into those jars and top it off with frosting — and, in my cake’s case, a candy corn. It was adorable.
What a great gift idea too.

AMAZING Wedding Favors!
A 100% positive experience for myself and my new wife when dealing with The Baker’s Jar, and her owner, Avery. We had heard about this new bakery through a friend, and decided to check it out, as we were currently searching for the perfect wedding favor. Well we didn’t need to look any further once we met Avery and tasted some of her baker’s jars. We set up the order about 6 months in advance, for 150 jars in total, and never had a problem going forward. The day of my wedding, I arrived at her store to find all 150 jars perfectly organized into 4 boxes and ready to go. We went with four different kinds — ooey gooey chocolate cake, carrot cake, apple pie, and the lemon pie with blueberry on top (my personal favorite).
Avery is extremely professional, and responded to all my of emails within the same day.
Oh yeah, and did I mention how delicious the cakes are? I probably had a bit of a unique experience compared to other shoppers, in that my cakes were just over 24 hours old by the time my guests and I enjoyed them — they did not lose any flavor or moisture whatsoever (compared to when I tasted them in the store itself). These things were so good that people told us they liked them better than our wedding cake! I mean c’mon, if that’s not a compliment, I don’t know what is.
Finally, Avery was able to design a label for us to put on top of the jar. We provided the basic design, and she brought it to life, and placed in on every jar before we picked them up.
Conclusion — go try some of these cakes, you absolutely will not be disappointed.

Cakes? In a jar?
Now I’ve seen everything. Baker’s Jar was a random discovery that I happened to find while driving along Bainbridge. I would’ve dismissed it as «just another» cupcake shop if not for its odd location. Nestled in the middle of a residential area — far away from busy intersections and other commercial establishments — just happens to be a sign for coffee and cake. I immediately felt compelled to stop and check it out.
As many people have said, it’s a quaint and homely bakery filled with sweet confections. Except that all the baked goods are crammed into tiny glass jars. Much like a ship-​in-​a-​bottle, you can’t help but wonder how they layered each «slice» with frosting. At first glance, the jars seem like a novelty showpiece. Just another visual punch to dazzle the uninitiated. But once you savor the uncanny moistness of this treat, you finally comprehend the utility of the jar. As a delivery mechanism, the jars «seal» the texture. Cakes quickly go stale when left in the open air but these jars preserve that «freshly baked» state by preventing that delicious essence from evaporating.
I agree you end up paying an extra premium for the glass jar but it’s unique enough experience to warrant the additional charge. [Original Visit: May 2014]

We had come to Philly from NY to meet some friends for the weekend and randomly ended up meeting with people connected to this bakery. We agreed that we’d come by the next day to say hi and check it out. As we pulled up and saw the front of the shop, I got a sense that it explicitly belonged right in the neighborhood it was in. I don’t know much about how Philly’s neighborhoods are set up, but like NY, the vibe and what kind of things are available seem to change in small square blocks and looking at the façade of this bakery on this quaint, narrow street, with a spring sun shining, I felt like, «Of course this is a bakery. That’s exactly what should be there!»
To sum up the aesthetics, the inside was cuter than the outside. It was perfect and felt ‘comfortable’… Like a bakery should. Wood, glass, and sunlight in the front, with a clear view of the back where, I imagine, a lot of the ingredients are put together. In my opinion, it’s always a good sign when the kitchen is visible to the patrons of a cooking establishment – nothing to hide!
The product… Sorry to put you through all that just to get to the most important part, but as someone who was coming from out of town and looking for a «feel-​good Philly experience,» this meant a lot to me. So, the product… I had the banana cake. I’ll try to do it justice. First of all, many of the products are baked and sold right inside a mason jar (hence the name). I took my jar of banana cake home to NY from Philly on Sunday and brought it to work with me on Monday. After lunch, I grabbed a cup of coffee and my plan was to enjoy the cake with coffee. I opened the jar, took a bite and never put down the spoon until I was completely done. And in this way, I did not have cake AND coffee, but cake THEN coffee. It was absolutely a fantastically baked item, and prepared and served in a perfectly unique way.
This place is great in so many ways and I think a good part of the Philly landscape. The top of the jar itself claims: «A Philadelphia Bakeshop!» I believe it is.
I think this would also make for a great gift when you’ve got to bring something back. Better than a token Liberty Bell!

Tiny cake, tiny cake, from Baker’s Jar,
Baked me a cake and gets 4 star,
Frosted it, and sealed it, great to eat with your B,
Or take it to go and bring it to me!
I’m obsessed with how adorable this place is. Their cakes are delicious and great last minute gifts (the birthday cake is the perfect size!) or a great way to end a sunday funday brunch (or a snack, or a breakfast, or a lunch, or a dinner, or a linner, or a bad day, or a good day, or any day really).
The lemon cake and dulce de leche brownie were amazing. I also really enjoyed the carrot cake and the birthday cake.
Pro Tip: You can bring your jar back for a discount. Also, last time I was there they had half off day old scones.
I only wish they kept later hours!

I love the cake-​in-​a-​jar concept and whenever I try to do it at home, I fail miserably. So when I saw that The Baker’s Jar opened, I just had to check it out.
The place itself is really cute, especially the way they have the jars of cake set up — they’re kind of showcased on some shelves in the back of the space, so you can browse all of the many choices easily.
I didn’t see much seating room, so you’ll probably want to get your cakes to go for now.
I settled on one large cake for my husband that was filled with chocolate and gooey carmel. He inhaled it instantly. For myself, I tried a small jar of the mud pie, which came complete with gummy worms and somewhat resembled in appearance the mud pie my mom used to make. However, I was slightly disappointed with the taste. My cake was a bit stale. Overall, it lacked flavor and made me long for my mom’s recipe.
I do plan to return in the future because so many of the cakes sounded delicious. Perhaps I just got a bad batch of mud this go-​around.

Excellent addition to the neighborhood. Great, sweet desserts and the perfect size. I stopped into opening day and had to try a few flavors — Happy Birthday Cake, Mud Cup, and Ooey Gooey Chocolate Cake.
All of the cakes were decadent and moist. The birthday cake was dense and delicious!
Kids tried some homemade muffins and loved them. Can’t wait to stop back and try more flavors and the cookies!