We're the Defont family bakery. Been at it since '87. Grandma DeFont's chocolate cake recipe is still the only one we use, and most weeks we go through more buttercream than we'd like to admit.
What People Come In For
If you've been in before, you probably already have a favorite. If you haven't, here's where most folks start.
Same recipe since 1987. We've tried tweaking it once or twice and put it right back. Most popular birthday cake in the case, every week.
Buttery, a little messy, the kind of thing you want with a coffee. We bake a fresh batch every Saturday and they usually go before lunch.
Iowa apples when we can get them, a lattice top, plenty of cinnamon. Show up in October and there's a good chance we've got one cooling.
Our Story
Patty DeFont opened the bakery in the spring of 1987 with her chocolate cake recipe and not a whole lot else. The first year was mostly birthday cakes for kids on her block in Clive. By '89 she had a small storefront and was driving wedding cakes out to West Des Moines on the weekends.
Her daughter Jeanne took over the kitchen in the late nineties. Now Jeanne's son Mark is in there too, mostly handling donuts on Saturdays and the spreadsheet stuff Patty refuses to learn. Patty still comes in three mornings a week and tells everybody what they're doing wrong.
We're not fancy. We don't do fondant figurines or a hundred flavors. What we do is bake good cakes, good cookies, good pies, and the same Saturday donuts people have been getting here since their kids were in strollers.
Custom Orders
Most of what we make for people isn't on the menu. If you've got something in mind, come in and we'll figure it out.
We've done a lot of these. Big ones, small ones, the kind where the bride changed her mind twice on flavors. Try to give us at least a month, more if it's June.
Sheet cakes for the office, decorated cakes for kids, Drake graduation parties in May. Tell us how many people, what flavor, and roughly when.
Cookies by the dozen, cinnamon roll trays, that kind of thing. We do a fair amount of Iowa State football Saturdays. Order Thursday at the latest.
Easiest way is to stop in. A few days notice for cookies and sheet cakes. A week or two for birthday cakes. Longer for weddings.
What People Say
My mom got our wedding cake from Defont's in '94 and we got our daughter's from Defont's last summer. Same chocolate cake, same family, still the best in town.
Stopped in for donuts on my way through Clive during RAGBRAI and ended up coming back twice. The maple long johns are unreal. Worth the detour.
We do cookies for the teachers' lounge at the end of every school year. They never make it past Tuesday. Patty always remembers my name and asks how the kids are doing.
Come By
If you've lived around Clive, Urbandale, or West Des Moines for any length of time, you probably know where we are. If you don't, just ask anybody at the Hy-Vee on University. Stop in, look in the case, and tell us what you need.
Snow days, we're probably closed. If Valley West Mall is closed, we are too. Iowa State football Saturdays we open the same time, but if it's a noon kickoff the line out the door is real, so plan accordingly.
During the State Fair we run a stand most years. The Des Moines Register wrote us up a few summers back when Patty's pie won a ribbon. She still has the clipping behind the register.
Wedding cake tastings are by appointment, but everything else is walk-in. Bring cash if you can. We take cards too.