Henry Chrestensen is the owner and baker of Buscioni’s Bakes in Lawton, Iowa. However, this is not your typical small-town bakery. Buscioni’s also caters to diet restrictions, with their specialty being gluten free baked goods.

“We make New York Style cheesecakes from scratch, and that also includes gluten-free. We have lots of flavors: old school traditional, chocolate, and pumpkin. You can’t really tell the difference from the gluten-free when you taste it, other than it is slightly denser,” explained Henry.

For all of you pumpkin fans out there, that isn’t a flavor he carries only in the fall. Due to the high demand, it is a flavor he carries year-round now.

“I’ve always had a passion for cooking and baking, I like making people happy,” said Henry.

His biggest seller at the moment at the bakery is cannoli.

“As far as I know, I’m the only baker in the Siouxland area that makes fresh cannoli. We have a wide variety of flavors. Of course the traditional vanilla-base with chocolate chips, pistachio, amaretto for the adults, pumpkin, and then seasonal flavors like peppermint,” explained Henry.

Leave the donuts, pick up or order the cannoli.

Buscioni’s also can custom-make birthday cakes; not only customize the design, but also the flavors.

“We did a Pokémon cake for a five-year old’s birthday. It was chocolate obsession for the cake, that had seven different types of chocolate in it, chocolate cream cheese frosting, and then I made blue and purple decorations, and we designed the Pokémon character for decoration,” said Henry.

The cake itself took two days to completely construct and bake. 

“I used Nutella, chocolate syrup, hot fudge, three different kinds of chocolate chips, and different flavors of cocoa. Basically, some dentist is going to be very upset with me about this cake,” said Henry.

However, if chocolate isn’t your flavor of choice, he also does something similar with a strawberry obsession cake.

“That has strawberry cake, strawberry filling, strawberry buttercream frosting, fresh strawberries, and a strawberry drizzle. It’s three layers high, 10 inches round, and weighs between 5 to 10 pounds,” stated Henry.

Although their cakes, cannoli, and New York Style cheese cakes are decedent, they are not the only bake goods offered here.

“We bake tea bread, garlic bread, French bread, wheat bread, and rye bread. It’s all made fresh from scratch, with no preservatives. The only thing that is store-bought here are the ingredients,” stated Henry.

For more information about all of Buscioni’s baked goods, please visit their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/Chef Buscioni1, or www.shop.castiron.me/buscionibakes. To place an order, please call (712) 454-8308. 

Henry delivers to the tristate area, and ships to states across the country.

“I have customers I ship to in Vegas, Georgia, Colorado, New Jersey, and New York. It’s affordable and delicious baked goods. I can create whatever your heart desires.”  

By Amy Buster