Walk-in mini cake café in Cheongju's Seongan-gil with kids: Exit 3

Decorating a cake with your kid in Seongan-gil, Cheongju, no reservation: Exit 3

Exit 3 (3번출구) is a café in Seongan-gil, Cheongju, where you can walk in without a reservation and make a cake. It was yet another weekend and I was wondering what to do with my kid, so I started searching, and a cake-making place in downtown Cheongju that takes walk-ins caught my eye. This is the one, I thought, and went right away.

My kid is at the age where they want to make everything with their own hands, so we go to a lot of one-day classes. Exit 3 is cheap and has no time limit, so it was perfect as a place to go with kids in Cheongju.

Getting to Exit 3: can you go with a stroller?

Exit 3 is a basement-level café just past the market alley on the Cheongsonyeon Plaza side of Seongan-gil, and there's an elevator right next to the entrance, so a stroller is no problem. It's on Seongan-gil but not in the busiest part: walk from downtown toward Cheongsonyeon Plaza and it's right after the market alley. Searching for Cheongsonyeon Plaza works too.

The sign is small and I almost walked past, but it's hot pink so I spotted it quickly. I had the stroller and was briefly thrown by the basement, but luckily the elevator is right by the entrance, so getting in was easy.

Exit 3 opening hours and how it works

• Address: 30 Jungangno, Sangdang-gu, Cheongju, Chungbuk, B1
• Hours: 12:00–22:00 (last order 21:30)
• Closed: Tuesdays
• Prepay at the kiosk, then use the space

Exit 3 takes walk-ins, so it's a nice spot for an offbeat date too, and it's more than good enough as a place to take kids in Seongan-gil!

How big is the Exit 3 mini cake kit?

The mini cake kit I ordered at Exit 3 is the smallest size, the familiar lunchbox-cake size. I was surprised by how big the inside is. I figured it would be an ordinary café, but it's much bigger than it looks from outside. I ordered two mini cake kits and sat waiting politely. The owner prepares the cake kit and brings it to you.

The cake you make at Exit 3 gets boxed up to take away, and the box size seems to depend on the cake size you order. Since kids would be making it, I ordered the smallest mini cake kit. It's also a nice Seongan-gil date café for anniversaries or an offbeat date.

Cake for the kids, coffee for mom

Exit 3 is a café at heart, so they sell drinks too. It's a great café to go to with kids in Cheongju: the kids get cake, mom gets coffee. The kids can focus on something in their own way, and meanwhile mom gets to drink coffee in peace, which I loved.

Exit 3's themed rooms and free black-and-white photo booth

Exit 3 has a huge number of spaces, and each one has a different theme. While you wait for your kit after ordering, it's perfect for wandering around taking photos. The colors are lovely and every theme has its own lighting, so there's really no need to go to a photo studio for couple shots.

And there's a black-and-white photo booth too! It's free to use, so we took tons of photos. The print quality was satisfying, and my kid had fun shooting along with me.

The lighting is great, so have fun making a cake and capture the photo of a lifetime!

The kit took a little while to prepare, but once I got it I understood why. It's easy to make and turns out pretty. We wandered around taking photos and playing until the Exit 3 cake kit came out.

How does cake making work at Exit 3?

Cake making at Exit 3 has no teacher: you decorate freely with the materials you're given, and before you start the owner kindly explains the tools and the method. It feels like a one-day class, but there's no instructor, so you just make it however you like.

Pretty, right? The cream and decorations came in generous amounts, so we never ran short. The star candies (confetti sprinkles) and creams are all edible, and the colors are bright and cheerful. Looking at the tools for cake making at Exit 3 in Cheongju, it was like a painting kit.

Sure enough, the kids made a little and then got busy picking up and eating the star candies. Haha. They were eating so eagerly that I tried a bit too: the star candies weren't too sweet, which I liked, and the cream was tastier than I expected. It didn't taste like cheap junk food, which was nice.

Can a kid make it alone?

The cream at Exit 3 isn't runny, so even a child on their own could scoop it up with a spoon or another tool and put it on easily. I was worried since the kid was making it freely all alone, but they did better than I expected.

Color mixing nobody planned... hahaha. The cake suddenly turned into modern art.. Honestly, the favorite of it all was, of course, the chocolate pen haha. They slathered it on, and we could take the leftover chocolate pen home.

A few star candies went on top and half seem to have gone into their belly. Whether they came to make a cake or to eat, we somehow finished it! The process was a mess, but I made it giggling away with the friend who came along and had a great time. Looks pretty convincing, right? Haha.

Can you carry an Exit 3 cake around for a long time?

When you bring your finished cake to the counter at Exit 3, they box it up so you can take it home. They didn't put in an ice pack, but maybe because the cake sponge itself was already cold, it didn't melt or collapse even though we played another 4 hours after making it before heading home!

How did the Exit 3 mini cake taste?

The Exit 3 mini cake was tasty enough to break the prejudice that designer cakes don't taste good. They also tucked in one candle when boxing it up, so back home we lit it, made a wish and had a little party, hahaha.

Honestly I'm someone who assumes these designer cakes taste bad, so I didn't expect much, but my husband and I took a bite each and it was so much better than expected. Tasty enough to beat the cakes sold at Paris Baguette and Tous Les Jours.. We ate it as dessert after dinner and it was so good that we ate more than half.

It was so delicious that I messaged the mom who made one with us right away on KakaoTalk, and she said theirs was good too. Mini cake making that's both tasty and fun! If you're looking for a date spot in Seongan-gil, Cheongju, try the Exit 3 café for an offbeat date.

Exit 3 has so many rooms that you can use it privately even when other guests are there!