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Cakes on Walnut »
Address: 114 N Walnut St. Champaign, IL 61820
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Nestled between Esquire Lounge and Old Main Book Shoppe on 114 N Walnut St in Downtown Champaign, be careful not to miss Cakes on Walnut. The menu offers a number of baked goods and drinks, but for the sweet tooth in all of us, there is the welcome edition of Jeni’s Ice Cream.

Drawing on a set of practices inherited from a French pasty kitchen, chef Jeni Britton Bauer set out to make an ice cream that was less sweet but more flavorful. Although based out of Columbus, Ohio, ice cream enthusiasts from far and wide with es will be pleasantly surprised at the selection. There are more traditional flavors and very unusual combos, as well as seasonal varieties or others available year-round.

Trisha Bates, owner of Cakes on Walnut recounts the positive experience the store has had with Jeni’s Ice Cream and its growing popularity among its customers.

“Customers are always giving us suggestions and what they think,” Bates said.

Part of the reason the store started carrying Jeni’s Ice Cream was because of customers who loved the product and suggested it to the store.

“The ice cream is organic and local. And with the supplier being close, it makes things easy,” Bates said.

Cakes on Walnut has some of Jeni’s standard flavors like their decadent Dark Chocolate for chocoholics, a sweet yet subtle Honey Vanilla and a Backyard Mint that has a lasting taste without being too overpowering.

One of the most colorful flavors had to be the seasonal Red Beet Lemon Poppy Seed flavor. It sounds like too much to handle but was a nice mixture of tangy and sweet, allowing customers to taste many of the ingredients separately instead of all at once. The beet ingredient was a centerpiece to the flavor and was surprisingly good. The Bourbon Pecan was also a stand-out flavor giving a sweet yet nutty flavor. Both flavors have been featured in the store for a few weeks.

The ice cream is offered by the scoop, and buyers are free to mix and match flavors with each different scoop. When mixing any number of flavors, try to combine ones that compliments each other rather than compete for the most unique of flavors. Bates offered advice to customers on what flavors they could start with when coming into the store as well as one of her favorite flavors,“The Backyard Mint is something good to start with as people are familiar with, but has real fresh mint instead of mint extract."

“My favorite combination is the Salty Caramel with Butter and the Bourbon Pecan,” Bates said.

Bates also had another suggestion for customers who come in beyond what flavors they might like,“Don’t try 4 scoops in a cone, I haven’t seen it done but it sounds very treacherous!”