Did you know that Bettersweet is entering our 20th year?
In those 2 decades, we’ve had a bit of history. Humor us for a moment as we go back in time.
Our humble beginnings were in a rented kitchen outside of Elkhart Lake, where Jen baked for the farmer’s market and dabbled in wedding cakes along with just a smattering of other cake orders.
Within a year, it became apparent that a larger space was needed and thus the idea was put into reality of creating a kitchen space in the basement where Jen and Margo lived. [We will forever be grateful for the support and physical labor that Jen’s father & brother poured into creating that space.]
The next year brought about the addition of the decorating room, the lobby, the concrete steps as well as the fire of ’09. Yes, just a few weeks after this brand new space was finished, one of the ovens caught fire but luckily, was quelched before too much damage occurred. In this time period, we also met Curt. He began as a friend who helped set up at the market and carry heavy wedding cakes, but within a few short years became our main baker and convinced Jen to change her last name. ?
The next couple years saw exponential growth and busy-ness at the bakery, and of course, a new entrepreneur. Many of you still remember a very small Abe hanging out in the lobby as a baby.
We were honored to be featured in a couple local bride magazines, won business of the year and of course, invented the scrape scrap [Thanks to Jen’s mom!].
After a decade, we celebrated creating 1000 wedding cakes, truly championed the concept of a family business and began to see opportunities to teach within the community. This truly was a very busy time and our lives were very full of all things bakery. At some point, we began to feel the effects of our work and family life being a bit off balance and slowly made a few changes to our capacity. This busy chaos however, continued, as it has always been difficult for us to say no to ‘just one more order’.
Then about 3 years ago, Jen’s mom was diagnosed with ALS, a life altering terminal disease that currently has no cure. We made the decision to once again lessen our capacity and time in the bakery, so Jen could become a part time care giver for the woman who had always given the bakery so much support and, well, man hours. During this time period, Margo also graduated and headed off to college, changing the family business dynamic once again.
In fall of 2025, heartfelt conversations began to center around what we wanted the next few years to look like. We reminisced about all the years of hard work, sleepless nights, incredible customers and truly “how did we really do all that”. This left us grateful and a little unsettled, as we could feel some sort of change in the air, but had no idea what it was; only that what we were feeling was exhaustion and our physical bodies could not continue this pace.
So now, we are at the present moment and would like to announce a shift at Bettersweet.
What does this look like you say? Here are the details:
~ Our wedding services will stay exactly the same.
~ Our pick up hours will stay roughly the same but we will be taking a few more breaks throughout the year.
~ We will no longer be offering custom orders as of June 1st, 2026. Instead, beginning in June, you will be able to order off of a weekly menu.
~ We will offer a set number of flavor combinations each week, in cake and cupcake form, and you will be able to preorder any quantity of those flavors, with an order deadline of a week prior to pickup.
~ Cake orders will be simplified, with your requested text and text color/s; but no inspiration photos for high level decoration will be accepted.
~ We will still offer an a la carte menu, which will feature the same weekly flavors.
~ You will be able to preview this weekly menu on our website, with 2 months of menus available at a time. [June and July’s menu will be online the first week of May.]
~ You will be able to preorder through our website and a la carte reservations will continue via Facebook or email.
~ We will not be offering a separate Christmas menu, but will work holiday flavors into our weekly options.
~ While we know that it never hurts to ask, we will not be making exceptions to these changes.
The heart behind these changes is simplicity. Our family has loved being a part of your celebrations for nearly 20 years yet we need a different path so that we don’t burn out.
Our hope is to also make available a side menu of nourishing treats, the type of goodies you could enjoy daily.
We also hope to begin offering classes at the bakery this coming winter, so that we can share with you not only techniques particular to baking and decorating, but also general confidence in the kitchen and hands on experience.
Thank you for your support, your understanding and your willingness to pivot with us. May we remind you that in our community, there are many amazing bakery options for variety, custom decoarion and the general spirit of supporting local, hard working people who put a lot of love into what they create.
