B & W Bakery
“Although I know if I did I'd weigh over 500 pounds because this crumb cake is just worth being big for!!!”
“The white cake was nice and moist, the Bavarian cream was perfectly sweet, and the peaches were nice and fresh!”
“Despite the heavy crumb topping, it was not too sweet, and the pecan ring had the perfect texture and was not loaded w/ streusel as some of them are.”
B & W Bakery
Take-out: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range Moderate
8 reviews
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I have been eating the top off their crumb cakes for years. Didn't realize they made or sold anything else really. Or maybe I did but just didn't care. What I do know is that my father would always bring home a crumb cake and my sister and I would go about quickly devouring the top. That's not to say that the bottom isn't equally as delicious because it is but it's not the same. My father would wake up the next day to find a decimated crumb cake, still inshrined in it's wax bag with the top completely eaten off. I always wondered why not make the entire crumb cake out of crumbs and omit the often discarded cake part. Hmmmm, perhaps I have something here.
It's difficult to explain why this is. Guess an analogy would work best. Lucky Charms. Most people, or at least those who I know, pick out the marshmallows or whatever the hell those dehydrated sugar things are and leave the cereal part in the box. I even read where you can buy bags of just the marshmallows on line; genius idea! Now there's nothing wrong with the cereal part. Still yummy but not AS yummy as the marshmallows and generally get left behind. Same with B&W's crumb cake.
Point made?
B & W Bakery which is short for Boehringer & Weimer, is a main stay in Hackensack and is the no.1 bakery at least when it comes to old style cakes and pastries, it's very much like the Italian style bakeries I grew up with in the Bronx without the good cannolies since this bakery has more of a German root to it.
The place is real famous for their Crumb Cake which has way more crumb topping compared to cake than any other place I know. It's old in square slabs for about $6.00 and can feed 8+ people. They are also known for their melt-away ring.
B & W offers your typical selection of cakes, breads, cheese cake, pies and other pastries, with an old world look to the place, but small. The only thing that looks out of place is the small ATM next to the serve it yourself coffee machine, but then I found out why, B & W only takes cash!!!
I was a regular here when I lived in Hackensack, but after I moved to Rutherford I went back less and less. but in that time I notice in the last few years not only a change in their staff, and maybe owners? but also on the types of offerings. And perhaps most of all a lowering a notch or two on the presentation or the amount of toppings like strawberries on the the cheese cake that they had. This is not to say the cakes and pies are not good, they are, they are made fresh and have good ingredients, is just that they are not as good as they use to be.
Like this last Saturday, they had 2 of the class displays cases empty. I saw people walk in and walk out when they saw no pies or mini pastries, just say good by to the customer who is know going to take there business elsewhere.
So you my ask why do I go back, well you see I know a special someone who loves rainbow cake cookie , Marzipan, the Tri-color cookies and the German style is the ones they love the best. Now I have driven all over north Bergen New Jersey trying other bakeries looking for them, at least once a every month or two. Most of the time they don't make them or if they do they don't have them at the time. The only other place that I found good ones, were from Mazur's bakery in Lyndhurst until new management brought the place down, like closed by the health department., YES!
So I would say it you are looking for a bakery and are near Main Street Hackensack check out B & W, but don't drive 10 miles out of your way unless of course you are looking for rainbow cake cookies and keep in mind that maybe I git there first.
My hope for a legendary crumb cake on Easter Sunday was thwarted by a dry, hard, flavorless brick that crumbled into oblivion when we sliced into it. The crumb topping was huge, I'll give it that. But it was lacking the buttery, cinnamon moistness and flavor that makes a crumb cake, well, a crumb cake! We realized that a 15 second microwave stint slightly resurrected it, and the humor of a "resurrection" was not lost on us, given we were celebrating Easter Sunday. No one went in for seconds and no one finished their slice. Bad sign! The irony of it all was that the yellow cake underneath was actually okay. How is that???
Maybe B&W just mass-produced too many crumb cakes due to anticipated holiday popularity, but this thing was crumb-mania, and NOT in a good way.
So much for my hopes of stealing the dessert table show.
Their prices are so cheap. There's not many places you can buy a homemade pie for less than $15. We bought the fruit pie & 4 large cannolis. I'm not a fan of either. #1 rule when it comes to good cannolis is good bakeries NEVER pre-fill them! Unfortunately, these cannolis are pre-filled and the filling was way too sweet for my liking. I wasn't impressed by the fruit pie either. I can say that their cookies are pretty good though. I tried a chocolate fudge cookie and it was delicious. My boyfriend says they are famous for their apple crumb cake so I'll have to try that next time, we probably just ordered the wrong thing.
I've been coming here for years. Everyone in this area knows about B&W.
They're known for their crumb cakes which are sexy af. The apple crumb is even better if you can believe it.
I've tried a lot of their desserts and cookies and have yet to find something I didn't like. My absolute favorite is their banana cream pie though which I prefer to the crumb cake but only because I am quite partial to bananas.
One thing to remember – CASH ONLY.
Oh and prices are extremely reasonable and on the cheap side if anything.
This is the real deal—an old school bakery that has been around for years. It's easy to see why it's stood the test of time. Once you've tried some of their baked goods, you'll want to go back for more.
When our daughter was planning her move to Hackensack, I asked questions about it in another forum A helpful poster told me about B & W (which stands for Boehringer & Weimer) and recommended that we try their meltaway ring.
I told our daughter about B & W and soon after moving, she wasted no time going there with me in tow. Of course, we bought the meltaway ring!
The meltaway ring is basically a Danish pastry ring. It looks like the ones that Entenmann's makes yet B & W's taste so much better. It's light and airy yet with some chewiness and topped with a small amount of chopped nuts plus crumb cake topping and a glaze. Every time our daughter visits us, she brings one—and it goes fast! While, it is good the way it is, we discovered that zapping it in the microwave adds a layer of goodness to it.
Our daughter has also bought cupcakes from them. I've tried a vanilla one and typical of an old school bakery, it's nothing fancy. Yet, it's still good plus cheap as each cupcake costs 75 cents!
She has also bought the kids' birthday cakes there and has been very pleased. They have cakes in the display cases. Pick the one you want and for a little extra money (I forget how much more) they will personalize it for you.
There is no place to sit here. It's set up for take out only. I recommend a visit if you are in the area. In the future, I hope to try more of their goods. However, that meltaway ring keeps calling our names.
This review is solely based on the crumb-cake. Grew up on this stuff and I am by far not a sweets person but this cake takes the cake (no pun intended). Freaking huge tasty crumbs with very little cake if any at all. If I ever need to bring dessert somewhere this is the place to get from.
I stopped by after a night call while waiting for the pet store to be open. Ordered a cup of coffee to wake up and a small canolli. I didn't expect much, but it was actually very good. Very creamy but not too heavy. Would be perfect for dessert after a meal.
I thought the vibe and ambience coming from this bakery was really nice. Definitely feeling like local. They don't take credit cards (states they don't take it to keep the price down). Well, actually the prices were reasonable enough that I was ok with their excuse.