The Lakehouse Bakery in Chelsea: hand crafted baking with fresh, quality ingredients

Image

Keegan Rodgers inside The Lakehouse Bakery. photo by Lonnie Huhman

Welcome to The Lakehouse Bakery!

A place that serves up baked goods that are made with the freshest ingredients and as they say, and serving them with love. It’s a locally-owned and operated bakery that has some of the best-baked goods in town.

The Sun Times News (STN) has heard a lot of good things about this bakery and wanted to learn more about it, so we paid a visit to the bakery located on Sugarloaf Lake in the Waterloo State Recreation Area.

As you walk in, right away the aroma of baking and goodness activates the taste buds as the bakery staff can be seen performing their different duties. On my visit, one of the first faces I see is Keegan Rodgers, whose dream it was to create Lakehouse.

STN asked him how things are going, since first buying the old bakery five years ago, refurbishing it and opening and then going through the COVID-19 shutdown and pandemic, and then onto today…

“Things are going well,” he said. “We still aren't getting the foot traffic in the bakery that I would like though. There seems to be a perception that we are ‘SO FAR’ away when we are really just a few miles up the road. And it's a nice little ride too, especially now that fall is here and the leaves will be changing.”

They’ve added some new things recently and also brought back some things.

Lakehouse has started taking things to the website Market Wagon. Rodgers said it's a really awesome company that will deliver the items ordered to your home.

They've also started classes back up. The class schedule can be found on their website.

“I have so much fun with the classes, meeting new people and helping people become more confident baking at home,” Rodgers said. “It's such a blast for me.”

This is great, but there's more.

Rodgers said they were able to finally attain a variance on their food license and began making their artisan dessert sauces for retail sales. He said the process took Lakehouse two years, but it was worth every second.

“This is big for us!” he said. “You can get our Salted Caramel sauce, Chocolate Merlot sauce, Mango Chai Chutney, Blue Dragon BBQ sauce, Lemon Curd and Key Lime Curd at the store as well as at Agricole. These have been such a hit I'm having trouble keeping up with demand!”

One of their most popular items is the Garden Turkey sandwich while the Roasted Garlic Cheddar bread is fast becoming the most popular bread. They also make just over 12 dozen Blueberry muffins a week.

And as Rodgers said, “Of course our French macarons almost always sell out!”

The bakery also has two brand new employees, Mike and Christy. Rogers said they are just on board and learning a lot.

“We are so glad to have them here,” said Rodgers. “Matt our bread baker just got married and has returned from his honeymoon in Hawaii.”

Looking ahead, the bakery will be rolling out all of their seasonal and holiday favorites in the coming weeks, including their pasties, pot pies and soups. Rodgers said they will of course bring back their pies, dinner rolls and stuffing mix for Thanksgiving.

For December, they will be bringing back a different version of their Cocoa Cubes, but Rodgers said don't worry, “they will be just as tasty, but MUCH easier to use to make a yummy cup of hot cocoa!”

Even with a busy bakery, the lifelong learning hasn’t stopped for Rodgers. He was accepted to the Goldman Sachs 10K Small Business program at Wayne State University. The 14 week program began this past week for him and he said he’s super excited and can't wait to use his new knowledge and skills to make sure “The Lakehouse Bakery is strong and around for a very long time.”

STN asked Rodgers what makes Lakehouse so unique.

“We are unique because we maintain the small batch, hand crafted nature of baking while not sacrificing quality in our ingredients,” he said. “We use European butter, Belgian chocolate, unbromated and unbleached flour, local sugar, and local eggs. We use unique flavor pairings for some items while really perfecting the simple things like our Chocolate Chip Cookies, or our Oatmeal Raisin cookies.”

One final question asked before leaving with THE MCC, which is a Butter Croissant with Mango Chai Chicken Salad, was, what would you like the community to know…

“How humbled and grateful I am to be in such an amazing community like Chelsea that continues to support a small, local business like Lakehouse Bakery!” Rodgers answered. “Opening the bakery was a lifelong dream and Chelsea and the surrounding areas have made my dream not only a reality, but an ongoing reality! Everyone is so supportive, from online cake recommendations to just driving by to stop in to say 'HI" and getting a cookie, or loaf of bread. I am so thankful.”

To see the full menu and other services, go to www.thelakehousebakery.com or stop by the bakery at 1534 Sugarloaf Lake Road.

They’re also one Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelakehousebakerychelsea/.

I'm interested
I disagree with this
This is unverified
Spam
Offensive