We just had a few birthdays over here on the ACRE team (including the fearless driver of our crazy train, Ashley Dugger), so we had to do a little spoiling. With chocolate. Which made for a good excuse to try a Nashville bake shop we’ve had our eyes on for a minute: specialty vegan confectionery Leeuw Bake Shop.
We love a lot of Nashville’s great vegan/vegetarian food, but since our team isn’t exclusively vegetarian, that’s not what initially caught our attention.
Chefs say you eat with your eyes first, and when we saw photos of Leeuw Bake Shop’s nature-inspired cupcake, cake and cookie designs, we knew we had to try baker Beca Lewis Skeels’ creations.
Maybe it’s the influence of years spent immersed in home design and home decor as Realtors, and seeing how quickly plantlife can make a space feel homey and alive. But the confections Skeels comes up with — from picture-perfect cactus cakes and cookies to succulent-inspired cupcakes — are the coolest things we’ve seen come out of a kitchen since Five Daughters’ Bakery’s donutcam.
At the moment, Leeuw Bake Shop is mostly delivery/pickup, since they don’t have a storefront yet, but Skeels dropped hints this week that we’re only about six weeks away from a brick-and-mortar Leeuw Bake Shop. (She hasn’t announced what Nashville neighborhood it’ll be located in, but our money’s on West Nashville.)
On the menu now: floral cupcakes as pretty as mini-bouquets, succulent cupcakes that look plucked from a plant shop, cactus and floral cupcakes and more, including custom creations.
If you’re intrigued, you can explore Leeuw bake shop options and order at leeuwbakeshop.com; delivery is free in the greater Nashville area (there’s an extra $10 charge if you’re more than 15 miles from downtown).
And although @leeuwnashville is a rising Nashville Instagram star, Skeels’ creations aren’t just cute on the Internet — our birthday bounty, below, every bit as beautiful as we hoped.
Follow Leeuw Bake Shop on Instagram to keep up with news of the new shop, and let us know if you hear of any other Nashville names making desserts that are almost too pretty to eat — we love shopping (and celebrating) local.
Any other Libras celebrating this week? Hope this offers some celebration inspiration. And if your big birthday wish happens to be finding a new Nashville dream home, we’d be glad to help there too — call or email ACRE here.
For an easy way to start your Nashville househunting process, you can also fill out this quick form.