BALTIMORE — A small purple bakery tucked along Falls Road is drawing big crowds, all for a dessert that looks almost like real fruit.
Bonjour Bakery in North Baltimore has become the latest hotspot in the viral “fruit pastry” trend. The pastries, which look like mangoes, rasberries, pears and more, are actually delicate mousse-filled desserts covered in a thin chocolate and cocoa-butter shell. It's then airbrushed for the finishing touch.
The pastries, only available Saturday and Sunday, have been selling out every weekend.
“Oh my gosh, it’s insane,” said owner Nicha McInnes, “I feel overwhelmed. I feel bad for the person behind someone in line who doesn’t get one.”
Nicha and her small team begin prepping early in the week, often staying late to keep up with demand.
“It takes a long time,” said pastry chef Daryna Osadcha. “You create something beautiful and when you finally finish it, you just step back like, yeah, we did it.”
Hyper-realistic fruit pastries were popularized by award-winning French pastry chef Cédric Grolet. Bakers across the U.S. have since adopted their own versions and now Bonjour Bakery is now one of them.
Nicha said she saw the trend online and thought, “I think I can do this.” She started experimenting, perfecting techniques, and within weeks a local woman posted a TikTok review. After that, business just took off,
“We had to buy an extra freezer. It still isn’t enough," Nicha said.
Nicha never went to culinary school. In fact, she started baking after asking her husband to pickup a Black Forest cake for her birthday.
“It just wasn’t the cake I dreamed of,” she laughed.
So she went to YouTube, checked out cookbooks, and learned every technique from scratch. Fourteen years later, she’s running a bustling bakery with lines wrapped down the block.
“I get to work here and see people love it, that’s my happiness,” Nicha said.
