A taste of home: Cle Doree offers signature Ukrainian cake

There is an essence of je ne sais quoi in the pastries of Cle Doree in Mount Airy. Maybe it’s the flakiness of croissants, both plain and chocolate-filled, that transport you to the cobblestone streets of Paris. Or it could be the surprise but welcome tang of raspberry jam that is found in between the layers of a Ukrainian honey cake. Whatever the magic ingredient is, Julia Kazanov bakes twice a day, and once on Sundays, to give people the sweet delicacies of her pâtisserie. If customers need a little pick-me-up after a sugar crash, there’s coffee to sip on as well. Kazanov opened her cafe and pastry shop in November 2021. The building she operates out of was originally supposed to be a distribution center for her catering business, but people wanted her desserts every day, not just on special occasions. While her pastry shop is meant to emulate an authentic French pâtisserie, she includes delicacies from other places like Italy and her home country of Ukraine.

Three years ago, she learned how to make Kyivsky Tort, which was first made to honor the city of Kyiv, Ukraine, in the 1950s, Kazanov’s husband says. At one point, she made it for Ukrainian amputee soldiers who were in Washington, D.C., getting fitted for prosthetics.

One young man got emotional tasting it. “When he tried this, his eyes were shiny,” she said, her own eyes becoming shiny, too.

And though Kazanov has an eyepopping display of desserts, she loves to learn more about her art form and will be traveling to Paris this year to gain more skills.

— Clara Niel

CLE DOREE

239 S. Main St., Mount Airy 240-409-6782 desserts

Social: facebook.com/cledoree.

Hours: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday through Sunday, closed Monday through Wednesday

Price: Desserts range from $1.75 to $10.50

Julia Kazanov recommends: The Kyivsky Tort, which is made with only 100 grams of flour. The rest of the dough is made with cashews and hazelnuts. In between two layers of the chewy, nutty dough is a light cream made with cognac, specifically Martell Blue Swift, which complements the flavor of the cake. It’s topped with a light, chocolate frosting made with French cacao. Kazanov decorates the cake with some tempered chocolate as well.