Cute Bakery Menu Ideas with Design Tips

Make your customers’ mouth water with these lovely menu design ideas for your bakery.

I cannot count the times I stood in front of a display of baked goods, and couldn’t decide between my two favorites: lemon poppy seed and blueberry muffins!

Many bakeries will have these sorts of glass displays that allow customers to see everything you have on offer. However, there are similar businesses like coffee shops and different types of bakeries which often have a wide range of menu items, including small brunch meals like salads, granola yogurts and sandwiches.

Since everything you can find in a bakery from chocolate chip cookies to avocado toast on sourdough bread is something people are usually familiar with, you might be tempted to grab a restaurant menu template that you can download for free. Although a free design template can work well enough to showcase your offer, it will ultimately fail to create brand recognition and help you promote your small business.

Remember that a professionally designed bakery menu can even be used as a bakery flyer or a digital menu that you can share on your bakery website and social media. Here are some tips and ideas on how to create a stand-out menu for your bakery!

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Get Cupcaked: consistent graphic design

Cupcakes are probably one of the most versatile desserts since they can be found in almost any flavor, from the classics like red velvet and toffee to more daring ones, like pistachio and port wine. For that reason, cupcakes rarely have a perfectly uniform look, and though we all appreciate a high-quality photo on any menu, it can make the overall design look messy and unprofessional. The simple vector illustrations used on this bakery’s menu design work really well to help the menu look clean and consistent. Everyone knows what a cupcake is and at the end of the day, if you have all the ingredients listed it’s up to you whether you want to be adventurous or stay in the comfort zone of chocolate ganache.

We hope our examples gave you some ideas on designing your own menu. If you don’t want to tackle DIY design, and want something that will help you elevate your brand, remember that we have many talented graphic designers on board, who can help you create the perfect menu. Let us take care of all your design needs!

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Colorful collage: Santa Janela

Bakeries usually have very creative and colorful branding, which includes menu design. This often means combining different design elements such as illustrations, typography and food photos. Of course, unlike restaurant menu design, bakeries have much fewer menu items, so you will likely have a smaller space to work with.

This lovely trifold menu is a great example of using an eclectic approach to create a great bakery menu. The photos of popular brunch bakes like cinnamon rolls and fresh bread are complemented by a unique color palette. Of course, it’s best to use photos of your own baking, in case you have high-quality photos. Otherwise, you can incorporate stock photos, but make sure to show something you make best. If you specialize in decadent peanut butter and chocolate cakes or calorific white chocolate cranberry cookies, a photo of arugula and swiss cheese baguette, no matter how appetizing, might throw some of your customers off.

Elegant bakery menu: L’Oie

Is it possible to create a great menu without any photos, I hear you ask? Why yes! Just think about how great a simple chalkboard menu can look, and how successful this technique can be in drawing customers’ attention to promo offers or your specialties.

Another, much more elegant approach can be seen in the following bakery menu design. It would be perfect for a bakery or cafe menu, where people can enjoy a cup of specialty coffee with a freshly baked croissant or a delicate French eclair. This type of minimalistic menu design that exudes elegance is perfect for a sit-down bakery in a trendy part of the city. The lovely typography has an Art Nouveau feel, and this is certainly a retro style that a high-end clientele would appreciate.

Getting a graphic designer to create custom typography just for you is often a very good investment since you can use this design element for different purposes like signage and marketing materials like flyers and posters.

Building a brand image: Dora

This brand identity was made for a bakery that specializes in something very simple: bread. Yet the brand image is anything but mundane! This creative concept could be equally fitting to a stylish restaurant (for example you can see a mockup of a cocktail menu in the full branding project), as well as a trendy, organic bakery and coffee shop.

The most important takeaway from this menu design is how you can use your color palette to strengthen your brand image (and this goes for other branding assets, such as marketing materials and packaging.  In this case, the designer created several one-page menus for the different groups of menu items. You can have a separate drink menu, one for your gluten free items, one for deserts and one for savory veggie or vegan bakes. It’s a very smart way to keep your menu design organized and crisp, whilst also building brand recognition with the customers. If your brand image has a very unique color palette, make sure to use this approach in designing custom business cards and loyalty cards.

Smart menu layout: La Maison Bakery

Another very important thing to consider with your bakery menu design is a good layout. Unlike restaurant and fast food restaurant menus, bakeries have a lot of items that are fairly similar (e.g. sweet baked goods), so it might be a bit tricky to organize everything in a clear, user-friendly way. This menu design is a good example to learn from. The most popular types of cakes: brownies, cheesecakes, macarons and cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, are placed front and center, with a bit of copy to tempt the customers.

The three smaller sections include additional sections of their offer: drinks, gelatos and snacks. The staples like mocha, cappuccino and americano really don’t require a special picture. While the ice-cream menu is another good instance of a smart layout. The more traditional flavors like chocolate, vanilla, hazelnut and brownie are placed on one side, while the more intricate flavors like passion fruit and lemon-vanilla are found on the other.

Fun digital menu

Due to covid-19, many bakeries have had to switch to a delivery or takeaway service. This means that more and more people will check out the menu in advance, either on your website or social media. This fun gif poster will certainly draw visitors’ attention and get them to explore your bakery menu further.

If you don’t have access to professional photography and you want to avoid boring stock photos, illustrations are a terrific way to showcase your offer and have a professional graphic design. A key lime pie or lemon bars are easier to make look good in a photo, thanks to their vibrant color, but although it’s delicious a dark chocolate buttercream cake can look a bit monotone. Use illustrations to spruce up your menu design, and have everything looking appealing and consistent.

Showcase your best product: Croissant Cafe & Bakery

While bakeries often have simple menus in terms of the types of baked goods, the flavor variations are often something that can make even the simplest menu design quite busy.

This cafe and bakery in Toronto, kept their menu design to the point, by showcasing their best-seller product: croissants. This way, they managed to include interesting filling flavors like apple cheddar, orange custard, strawberry and blueberry lavender. The rest of the design is very simple and would make a great bifold flyer to give out to get customers to visit your bakery cafe.