Fruits of success: the rise of trompe-l’oeil cakes

Bakeries are feeding a craving for trompe-l’oeil creations.

Boulangerie Marcel in Lyon, Les P'tits Frères in Montpellier, Pâtisserie Élodie Serres in Pélissanne, Alexandre Boulangerie in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, Pâtisserie Julianne in Reims and many more have added trompe-l’oeil to their portfolio of pastries.

Trompe-l’oeil in pastry-making is designed to disguise the taste of a product in the form of an object or shape, similarly to its purpose in interior design or architecture. 

Bakers often choose to mimic fruits but more sophisticated ones reproduce household items or common objects.

“It is the latest trend in the industry. It is attracting everybody, from mothers who want to make their children happy, to onlookers,” said Elodie Serres, chef at Pâtisserie Élodie Serres.

Ms Serres opened her bakery last May and has received positive feedback from clients so far.

She bakes eight different sorts of trompe-l’oeil, the most popular being a lemon and a mango. Ms Serres sells about ten of each type every day, ranging from €5.5 to €7.

“Very delicate and excellent cakes, bravo! We have found our high-end pastry shop in Pélissanne,” wrote one client in a review. “This message in particular makes me really proud,” she said.

Ms Serres is not the only one reaping the fruits of success with trompe-l’oeil pastries.

Noémie Daunay, the 27-year-old chef of ND Pâtisseries in Montauban-de-Bretagne is selling around 1,500 of them each week with prices ranging from €6 to €7.

Trompe-l’oeil are selling out in record time across bakeries, many newspapers report.

“The negative effect of selling them too quickly got us worried at one stage of our development. You could see the disappointment in clients’ eyes when we told them we had run out,” said Anne Gueucier, the owner of Pâtisserie Julianne.

Ms Gueucier and husband Julien Gueucier, a baker with 25+ years of experience, opened their bakery in Reims around 18 months ago. They found success immediately, she said, with clients sometimes driving from as far as Roubaix or Belgium for their trompe-l’oeil.

The trend was initiated by Cédric Grolet, the 39-year-old executive pastry chef from Parisian restaurant Le Meurice, whose popularity skyrocketed thanks to an active social media presence featuring his trompe-l’oeil.

He reigns so supreme that newspapers often write ‘trompe-l’œil, façon Cédric Grolet’ (bake it like Cédric Grolet) in their headline. Ms Gueucier agrees that the bakery’s success is partly built on a ‘Cédric Grolet effect’.

His Instagram account is followed by 12.7m people and he has opened bakeries in locations including Paris, Saint-Tropez, Singapore, London and soon Monaco. His trompe-l’oeil are among the most expensive, from €15 to €18.

Mr Grolet regularly takes videos of himself baking products inside his Paris shop, where tourists can be seen filming him from the other side of the window. Other videos include partnerships with companies, models, actresses and actors.

This is how Noémie Daunay did it as well, posting a video on TikTok and rapidly reaching 300,000 views in no time. Clients queued in her shop the following week.

The same goes for Pâtisserie Serres. It was actually Ms Serres’ 15-year-old daughter who convinced her to open her pastry business after she scrolled through Instagram and saw trompe-l’oeil everywhere on her feed.

“My daughter wants to study marketing,” said Ms Serres. “I think she has a future in this field.”

The many openings and developments around trompe-l’oeil also means increased competition across the country. Pâtisserie Julianne was the first bakery to offer trompe-l’oeil across town.

“That was 18 months ago. We are no longer the only ones in Reims,” said Ms Gueucier.