Food+Drink

Downtown's New Sweets

Butter B Bakery keeps your sweet tooth on its toes

Raquel Dorf, photos by Andrea Paulseth |

SWEET SMILES. Liz Zea, proprietor of the new Butter B Bakery, and some of her fantastic frosted creations.
SWEET SMILES. Liz Zea, proprietor of the new Butter B Bakery, and some of her fantastic frosted creations.

Eau Claire sweets lovers can celebrate in the news that a new bakery opened downtown in early October. Liz Zea, owner of Butter B Bakery, 309 E. Grand Ave., is already excited about what her bakery is going to bring the greater Eau Claire community. “I want to have a place where people can pop in and try a new dessert that they’ve never had,” she said.

“(The changing menu) allows us to be creative. I like to experiement with new recipes and keep things interesting.”– Liz Zea, owner of Butter B Bakery

Zea had been operating a small bakery since August at a shared space in Banbury place, but she decided to take her love of baking to the next level with her very own sweet shop.

“It has always been a dream of mine to open a small, unique place where people can come and enjoy different desserts,” Zea said.

Butter B Bakery serves everything from cupcakes to macaroons, from cookies to cake pops – a little bit of everything to satisfy every sweet tooth.

Every cupcake is made fresh daily, but customers shouldn’t expect to see the same flavor of cupcake two days in a row. Butter B Bakery changes its menu daily, offering up to six new different flavors a day. 

“(The changing menu) allows us to be creative,” she said. “I like to experiment with new recipes and keep things interesting, so I  hope people will enjoy coming in to try new things.”

Butter B Bakery also specializes in designing custom orders; they create a unique dessert creation for any event.

But the real icing on the cake is that Zea also plans to open a “Sweet Studio” inside the shop, where customers will be able to decorate their own cupcakes or cookies.
“One of the reasons I love baking is that it is a lot like art, and The Sweet Studio will be a creative, hands-on place to come and design your own edible masterpiece,” Zea said. The Sweet Studio room will open in early December, and it will host fun seasonal events such as the Christmas Cookie Palooza, and a gingerbread workshop.

For first time visitors to Butter B Bakery, Zea recommends the Uptown Girl Cupcake, a mouth-watering red wine chocolate ganache; Thelma’s Red Velvet Cupcake; and Zea’s Nutella-inspired cupcakes. 

“Hopefully the shop becomes a fun place that people look forward to coming to for desserts, coffee, and tea,” she said.

Butter B Bakery is tucked away nicely on East Grand Avenue in downtown Eau Claire, and will be open Monday from noon to 6pm, closed on Sundays, and open from noon to 8pm every other day. Check out the Butter B Bakery Facebook page where the daily cupcake flavors, featured items, and promotions will be posted.