Bakery El Sol

After downing a belly full of menudo with chopped tripe at Obelisco across the street, one would think I would have no room for dessert. But I can’t help myself when I’m in this part of Oakland where Mexican sweets could be purchased for mere shekels. I went into the little mall behind the churro wagon and knew I had to decide between a mangonada at Nieves Cinco de Mayo or something from the bins at this bakery. Since I’ve had the mangonada and was a bit overwhelmed by its sweetness much less the bold colors, I decided to peruse the bins with my plastic tray and my pair of tongs to find things that would satisfy my sweet tooth. Like any good panaderia, there are plenty of options to consider here (photo:
).
At the same time, I was bedazzled by the color-​blind specialty cakes that appear to be the main draw here. There were such intense dyes being used that I couldn’t tell you what colors they were supposed to be. They looked like Disney cakes on crack. Among the pastries, I decided to grab a horn o’plenty filled with a custardy cream and then wisely switched to the cookie section where I was instructed to use the tissue paper instead of the tongs (photo:
). I got a coffee-​flavored cookie, a plain one with mini-​chocolate chips and in a particularly festive mood, a big sugar cookie with rainbow sprinkles (photo:
). For less than $ 10, I was able to have bites of all of them and still make my BART train. Hasta la vista, panadero!
BAKED GOODS — 3 stars… lots of choices, variable levels of sweet tooth satisfaction
AMBIANCE — 3 stars… actually plenty of room if you want to gorge on your pastries there, just don’t mind the flies
SERVICE — 2.5 stars… a bit tentative, probably need to work on my Spanish
TOTAL — 3 stars… as panaderias go, not a bad one to try if you’re in the heart of Fruitvale

This place is friendly and their cakes are delicious! They made a custom cake for me and gave me the best service! I will def order all of my cakes from here from now on!

Walking by, I stopped in for the first time and tried one of their chocolate croissants. It was the best I’ve every had. Better than La Boulange. So far I’ve bought and gifted a box of six, and another of eight, and the next time it will be a dozen to the staff of my favorite restaurant. Should you come to Fruitvale via BART it is a short distance from the station, however they don’t always have croissants in their display case.

This is the only place you should buy your «Rosca de Reyes» /​«King’s Cake». Others are usually dry/​stale. El Sol’s tops them ALL. Also, conveniently boxed.
Great service, great prices, great taste.

Came, selected the most appealing item to me, a powdered sugar dusted custard filled horn, USD 1.5, the custard filling was too sweet for my taste, the pastry was okay.

I found out about this bakery on Unilocal so I went to sample their tres leches cake for my husband’s 50^th birthday bash. My neighbor tasted it with me and we both loved it so I ordered a full sheet cake for the party. They have three flavors of tres leches (strawberry, mocha, and almond something) and I got the mocha.
It was DELICIOUS, and a fantastic success at the party. Everybody loved it and one person told me it was the best cake she’d ever had! A few asked if it was tiramisu. It does taste like it may have a bit of rum or some alcohol and it is SO moist. The whipped cream frosting is not too sweet like most cakes. The whole sheet cake was $ 95 and there was lots leftover with 50 adults and 10 kids. This was a good price compared with some of the places I had checked out, especially for such a nice cake.
Friendly service and everything went very smoothly with ordering and pick-​up. I’ll definitely be back for the next occasion!

They turned around a specialized Diego bday cake order in less than two days, they were super nice, and the cake looked great and tasted great – Tres leches was excellent, the whipped cream frosting yum. I’ll definitely be back for birthday #3

This spot rises to 4.5 stars easily for various reasons…
Being able to view the actual baking area in the background is a plus.
A skip from Fruitvale Bart.
They offer custom cakes and they r bomb.
Small business, Latino owned, and pretty damn good pan recipes makes this joint primo.
Also, having the ice cream Cinco De Mayo across the way and Taco Grill directly outside and everything else mentioned above makes this panaderia one of my favs.

Their pumpkin turnovers are delicious! They also have a diverse selection. Every time I go to El Sol, I usually see something new.
Come support small businesses.

i recently became a fan of pan dulce. i thought i would venture outside of my usual spot to get my pan dulce fix since i was in the area, this spot popped up with lots of raves.
they werent as sweet and they were dryer than what i was expecting. the taste was just a-​ok! heard their tres leches cakes were bomb, so i’ll probably come back to check that out.

We ordered two huge cakes for our reception from these guys. They were a pleasure to work with and the tres leches cakes were delicious!

I love the cakes, I order them ahead of time and I’ve never had any problems with my orders.

I love Bakery El Sol. I have been going there for the last couple of years for the bread and pastries and I have never been disappointed. Last month we ordered a birthday cake for my daughter and it was the best. My wife wanted me to go to Safeway, but I convinced her to let me get it from El Sol. The cake was delicious. If this bakery was in a different area they could easily charge double and people would line up to buy. Parking is not great but, anything this good is worth the extra effort.

Friendly, inexpensive and delicious. I recommend this place whole-​heartedly. A wide range of baked goods, from bread rolls to all kinds of cakes. Very nice staff. They made my daughter’s birthday cake and it was delicious, even if it cost a few dollars more than CostCo or Safeway would have been.

Nom nom nom … :)
I asked Alejandra if she could make me a strawberry cheesecake and the next day… poof…a beautiful and DELICIOUS strawberry cheesecake appeared. This cheesecake was extremely light, creamy, and with a perfect crust. I decided to order off of the menu after I saw some of the other creations they’ve made for other people. I once saw them make a chocolate cake to look like a Louis Vuitton suitcase that looked more realistic than a Chinese knockoff. The owners Jose and Alejandra have baked all over the east bay in bakeries that often charge top dollar. So don’t be shy about your request, they do alot more than Tres Leches cakes and their value can’t be beat. If you do go for the Tres Leches… check out the Mocha Tres Leches cake.

Incredibly sweet, incredibly cheap.
Really lovely pastries, nothing particularly upscale, but a nice selection of things from traditional Mexican sugar cookies and cream horns, most priced at 75c each, 2/​$ 1.00, to American donuts.
I love Powderface in the same neighborhood, but beignets have to be eaten immediately after coming out of the fryer. These pastries are for taking home and sharing, especially the half-​dozen American old-​fashioned donuts (chocolate, maple and cinnamon sugar) for only $ 2.50. They have a wonderful, heavy flavor that may not be to everyone’s taste (I wonder if they’re made with lard, actually.) but they are an ideal donut for my palate!

bakery el sol is in the fruitvale public market which is across from the fruitvale village. (next to bart). they sell mexican pastries/​desserts, donuts, cakes. the place is clean. nice people work here.
i sampled the flan dessert (2) which seem to have more gelatin than i usually like and the chocolate cake (3) which seem a little dry.
definitely a repeat to feed my sweet tooth.

Usually when I have to buy a tres leches cake I go to Mi Tierra Foods but I decided to check this place out. The price for a ¼ sheet is $ 27.00 which is in line with the ones at Mi Tierra Foods. This cake was very milky and quite delish. I think I’ll stick to Mi Tierra Foods due to convenience of the location.
Bakery El Sol also has a few cases of pan dulce. It looks very yummy. They also have a section with regular American donuts. It’s located in Fruitvale and you can either park on the street or just make things easier and park in the BART lot. There are other suites in that same location: one is a sandwich/​juice place, they have an ice cream place, jewelry place, and what appears to be an internet café. They have a few tables and chairs in the middle so that you can enjoy all of your treats. There is a churros cart right outside the doors and you can get regular churros or filled churros… it’s my next spot to hit up.
Keep in mind that they only take cash!

Last updated on3/​20/​10:
They offer various kinds of donuts, european goods, common cookie flavors, and mexican goods.
This place is located in a building where there are other «stands» that sell smoothies, artisan-​made ice cream, jewelry, and outside they have a lady with a cart making fresh churros with different fillings. (vanilla and chocolate)
.
The pastries are located and held in a cabinet-​like stand and in a wall bakery-​goods showcase. For the mexican pastries you get to use usual tray and tongs to get what you would like. Whats also great about this place is that it is also clean. They have a sitting area outside and inside.
The workers that work there are pretty friendly that served me was great. The people they have working at the cash register speak both spanish and english. Unfortunately they do not take debit/​credit cards. Thankfully they have Chase and Bank of America in walking distance from the area.
The parking here is VERY limited unless you do not mind paying for parking or you can also park far away and walk here. If you could, I would suggest bart, but the parking is not too expensive. It is about $ 2 – 5 an hour or so.

This place has so many pastries to choose from, and they are all good! They also have tres leches cakes (original, mocha, caramel etc.)
Workers are very friendly also.