Mini Pastries for Holiday Parties

Mini pastries are a great way to spice up your holiday parties. By giving your guests many options, everyone can find something they like!

Mini pastries also allow you to incorporate mulitple flavors, colors, and textures to your desserts.

Toni offers festive, fun flavors like mini Egg Nog Cheesecakes, mini Blood Orange Charlottes, and Kircsh or Pistachio Macaroons. Toni also has traditional favorites such as mini fruit tarts, peppermint brownies, eclairs, mousse cups and cream horns.

With mini dessert pastries from Toni, you can offer an amazing variety of upscale desserts that will impress and delight all your guests!

Holiday Hor d’ Oeuvres - Entertaining with Toni

December is here and it’s time to think about entertaining for the Holidays!

This is always an exciting time at Toni, because we love to put together great flavor combinations for appetizers.

Our Fig & Proscuitto wrapped in Filo provides that warm, comfort food feeling, along with the decadent Artichoke and Goat Cheese Vol a Vent.

We also have our current favorites, Mini Quiche in assorted flavors, and Chicken Salad Profiteroles. Don’t forget our festive Sundried Tomato & Goat Cheese Tarts in bright red filo cups!

Some can be served hot, some cold, but all are mouth-watering and ready to be devoured by guests!

Holiday Gift Ideas at Toni 2009

The holidays always sneak up so quickly, and purchasing gifts becomes a priority. We at Toni feel like you can get gifts for everyone on your list right here!

From friends and family, to teachers, clients, coworkers, and neighbors, we have wondefully festive and delectable ideas for you to choose from!

Cup Full of Comfort and Joy’. A ceramic mug filled with tea and hot chocolate packets, biscotti and cookies.


"Star Delight’. White butter cake with dark chocolate ganache and raspberry preserve filling, covered with fondant and elegantly decorated with silver and gold stars. Jane’s Blue Iris of Hinsdale provides a decorative fresh floral display. This gift is a beautiful centerpiece that has both phenomenal smells and tastes!

We always offer a wide variety of gifts for all different tastes and budgets. See below for more ideas and Happy Holidays!

Jolly Old Christmas Chest with a jar of assorted cookies, Cocoa Cones and long-lasting plants and a poinsettia.


Toni Holiday Stollen


Afternoon Tea Basket


Chocolate Confection Brownie Connection

Thanksgiving Breads

Thanksgiving always seems to be a big “bread Holiday”, and we have some of the most delicious varieties available at Toni!

We freshly bake our bread from scratch, and our Pumpkin Pecan Cranberry Bread and Rolls are very popular for Thanksgiving. This bread is not only tasty with Thanksgiving dinner, but also wonderful when used as a sandwich with leftover turkey!

We offer this sandwich at our store with a cranberry shallot relish (from Earth & Vine Provisions, available for sale at Toni!) and cream cheese. It is an excellent flavor combination and we will have it available through Christmas!



Our unique Green Onion Cheddar bread and rolls, spice up your bread basket at Thanksgiving dinner, and also taste great with other meals like chili or stew.

Thanksgiving 2009

It’s hard to believe it is November already, and Thanksgiving is only few weeks away!

We’re really excited about the new items on our menu this year, including the Apple Fig Tart in Walnut Crust. These fall flavors go together so well, and it’s a new spin on a more traditional dessert.

Another new item is our Pumpkin Pecan Cranberry Bread Pudding. We’ve been trying to sample it in the store every weekend, because the look of it doesn’t even begin to describe the taste!

We sample it at room temperature with a dollop of our house-made bourbon sauce, but this dessert is simply decadent when you heat it up, slice and plate it, then drizzle the bourbon sauce on top.

Every year our Pumpkin Mascarpone Roulade is one of our biggest sellers. This light, moist pumpkin cake rolls up around rich mascarpone cream and then drizzled with a deliciously sinful cinnamon glaze on top. Shimmery fondant fall-colored leaves dress up this dessert, and it is not only wonderful to serve at your own party, but to bring it to other parties as well!

And don’t forget the classic Pumpkin, Apple, or Cherry Streusel Pies that are all to die for!

Claire and Alice's Birthdays

It is fun to personalize cakes for clients, especially when they have an inspiration that we can draw from. Invitations and fabric samples are useful tools when we are understanding the theme of an event. This cake was made for Claire and Alice's 5th birthday party. Their father, an architect, drew this picture in the theme of the party and we re-created it on the cake. He was kind enough to send pictures following the celebration so that we could see how much the girls enjoyed the cake. The party looks like it was a blast!

On October 17th, TONI Throws Party to Say Thanks for 15 Years!

Stop in to see us Saturday October 17th, at 51 S. Washington St. between 6am-5:30pm for complimentary cookies, apple cider, great giveaways and LIVE entertainment!

TONI is happy to welcome back former employees, Jen Knuepfer Kenny and Jill Olchawa, who will be performing in front of the store between 10am and 3pm.

Kenny and a Déjà Vu Productions guitarist will be playing a two hour set from 10am-noon.
For more on Jen Kneupfer Kenny and Déjà Vu Productions go to http://www.dejavuband.com/

Jill Olchawa and The Dyes will be performing from 1pm-3pm

For more on Jill Olchawa and The Dyes go to www.myspace.com/thedyes

Cupcake week

Thank you to everyone who purchased Cupcakes for a Cause, to support CancerCare for Kids! We decorated the cupcakes with the candy logo we were given by the cause, and they attracted a lot of attention! Our limited-time-only Strawberry Swirl cupcake was very popular!

From holidays, to birthday parties for kids and adults, to fancier versions for wedding receptions, cupcakes have become a trend that just doesn't go out of style.

We decorated these cupcakes with the bride and groom's last initial, and covered it with sugar pearls. Not only did it dress up the cupcakes for the reception, but it personalized the cupcakes specifically to the couple.

Buttercream flowers on these cupcakes fit into the garden party theme this guest was having. We used bright, summer colors and touched on different flowers she had in her own garden.

Because chocolate is such a dark, rich color, we decorated the fudge covered cupcakes with brightly colored fondant roses. The bright colors really pop on the fudge frosting, and the cupcakes couldn't look more delicious!

With a large variety of flavors, fillings, and seemingly no end to decoration possibilities, cupcakes are a delicious alternative to add to ANY celebration!
...look for our Halloween Cupcakes coming soon!

Cupcakes for a Cause™ Week – September 21st-27th

We at TONI we are excited to participate in the 6th annual Cupcakes for a Cause™ Week – September 21st-27th- supporting CancerCare for Kids®!

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. We will be selling Cupcakes for a Cause, and donating part of the proceeds to the CancerCare for Kids® program which provides free services to children and families affected by cancer.

During the promotional week, we will be offering three varieties of cupcakes:
We have our signature Devil’s Food with Fudge frosting, our White with Vanilla Buttercream frosting, and for that week only, Strawberry Swirl Vanilla!

Cupcakes will be decorated with the Cupcakes for a Cause™ candy icon, and 10% of sales go to the cause. Over 350 bakeries from across the country are signed up, and we hope to help not only build excitement about the week, but help raise awareness and make a difference. For $1.00 extra, you can buy the cupcake in an indiviudal box to give as a gift for a special occasion or that special someone!

Stop by to see us, help the cause, and try the new flavor that’s only available from September 21st-September 27th! For more information on the event visit cupcakesforacause.org

Vintage Themed Photo Shoot at KLM

This week I participated in a Wedding Guide photo shoot at Katherine Legge Memorial Park along with Jane’s Blue Iris of Hinsdale.

Jane, from Jane’s Blue Iris chose the Vintage theme that was a perfect choice for KLM.
KLM Park has been around since the early 1920s and is the perfect setting for a wedding ceremony and reception with its beautiful wooded areas and natural light.

I loved the vintage theme and drew inspiration from the Victorian era. I created a sweet table full of delicately decorated cakes, petit fours and cookies.

The day of the photo shoot was sunny and beautiful, with the only downfall going to the bees that loved the sweet smell of our flowers and cakes. You can spot them in some pictures -and some of us were unfortunate enough to get stung- but all for the good of the pictures that will be shown in an upcoming issue of the Wedding Guide!

Here are some snapshots that Barb from Jane’s Blue Iris too. These will serve as a precursor to the upcoming Wedding Guide issue.

Also I plan to recreate the look in our store window as a sneak preview!

Savor Peaches as Summer Draws to a Close

The best part of summer is the availability of fresh fruit. Going to the Farmer's Market is a great way to develop meal, snack, and dessert ideas. Before I plan a dinner party, I like to go to the market to see what is fresh.

Having too much of one product is a wonderful problem to have. The mind reels, deciding how to incorporate it into all of your favorite dishes.



Right now, peaches are a hit at the market. This year at TONI, we've made Peach Crumb Coffee Cakes, our requisite Peach Pie, and we've added peaches to our Cherry Galettes for a limited time only. Galettes are available in the store daily and on Mondays at the Hinsdale Farmer's Market. Filling flavors will vary, call ahead to find out what we are baking.

Enjoy peaches baked in your favorite sweets, stewed in a compote, or fresh out of your hand, like this little girl. Just make sure to get them while they last!

15 Years and a New Name

It is hard to believe that it's been 15 years since we opened Toni Marie's Sweets & Savories here in Hinsdale. Our success has been the result of the incredibly supportive Hinsdale community, other patrons willing to travel surprising distances, and especially the hard work of our extremely talented and dedicated staff.



After 15 years we felt it was time to freshen up our image and have a more contemporary brand. In this effort we decided to simplify our name. We have dropped my middle name, Marie, redesigned our logo, changed the outdoor sign, and are in the process of updating our packaging and taking on a new look inside the store.

By doing this, we believe that our fresh new image will reflect the distinctive quality of our products. Delicious pastries, savory lunch options, desserts and our custom cakes are made right here at TONI.

My name is Toni, but the word Toni also has a meaning. Elegant, exclusive, and high-quality are all words to describe the word Toni, and we believe they are all words to describe our products as well. We use high-quality ingredients including Belgian chocolate, European-style butter, and the freshest seasonal fruits. All of our products are made from scratch and we do not use preservatives.

We hope you will stop by as the process unfolds and let us know how you like the new changes! We are convinced you will love the new look as much as we do!

Groom’s Cake Trend Blog

The newest trend we’ve seen at Toni is the addition of Groom’s cakes to the traditional tiered wedding cake.

Whether it’s the bride wanting to surprise her fiancé, the couple wanting two cakes with different flavors in each, or a fun cake to be served on the night of the rehearsal dinner, Groom’s cakes have increased in popularity each year.

The biggest surge in groom’s cakes within the past two years has been shaped cakes. Inspiration has come from movies, jobs, hobbies, or just something that shows off the groom’s personality.

Below are some of the shaped-groom’s cakes that Toni has created:

From Paint Chip to Cake Creation

When brides come in to Toni to plan their wedding cake, some have an exact idea in mind of what they want, and some need inspiration. Of course, your wedding cake should taste as good as it looks!

This bride chose a vanilla sponge, with our luscious cheesecake and raspberry preserves as her filling. Classic ivory fondant frosting finished the cake, but it was the unique decoration that set her cake apart, as much as its distinctive Toni flavor:


Hi, Jeannie!

Mark and I wanted to express our sincere appreciation to you and the entire staff at Toni Marie's Sweets and Savories for making our wedding cake not just special but spectacular!! It is completely amazing to us that a little tiny picture from a book with a paint swatch from Lowe's turned into a cake that I am still receiving compliments on from our guests! And, I have never tasted a cake so good - it was definitely a huge hit....even my friends who could not attend, when they see the pictures of the cake taken at Morton's along with the florals that Allison created and our comical topper, they love it!

Thank you again for everything!!
-Leslie