Having brought two exceedingly sacchariferous cake and candy stores to Budapest, stylist and cake designer Eszter Horváth and her brand, Sugar!, deliver progressive slices of something to the capital visually more akin to places in New York, London or Tokyo than Central Europe.
They’re the kind of spaces the phrase “kid in a candy store” seems to have been invented for. We spoke to Eszter about what lies behind the sweet stuff itself.
How did Sugar! begin?
My parents are confectioners, and when they wanted to open a bigger shop they asked me to do something on the first floor of the new building. I’ve always worked in the fashion industry and I wasn’t ready for a change at the time, but they kept asking me until I accepted their offer, if and only if I got the liberty to do what I wanted. I imagined a confectionery without precedent, one characterized by a „fairy-tale like” fantasy world. It’s not only cakes and ice cream that I want to sell, but absolutely everything that can be connected to sweets and candies.
Sugar! stores definitely don’t look like other cukrászdas in town. Was the intention to make them feel deliberately un-Hungarian?
We never intended to be a traditional confectioner’s, or to sell traditional cakes. The reason for naming ourselves „design confectioner’s” is that we’re constantly experimenting with new and unusual tastes, forms and textures that are unparalleled by other Hungarian pastry shops.
Can you speak a little about the design process?
I design the cakes myself and create the recipes with the aid of hundreds of professional cook books and the help of Valrhona, a French chocolate company whose products I use. They train me and I prepare my new collections together with their French pastry-chefs.
Soon, I’m travelling to Tokyo for inspiration, as I plan to build my new cake collection based on the feeling of Tokyo life. Besides absorbing new impressions in Japan, I’m also going to study in pastry shops in order to evolve my techniques and learn new tastes and possibilities.
You delivered cakes to Paris Hilton during her visit here last year. How did it come about?
When I found out she was coming, I decided to design a cake collection for her, photograph it and send it to her manager. Her manager called us three hours before her arrival, telling us that they would be expecting the cakes in her hotel room. We immediately called in three more pastry-chefs to help prepare the six cakes for her. She loved them, even took one home, and shared her experience on Twitter.
Are there any lighter, healthier cake or dessert options available?
We want people to come to Sugar! when they want something special, not when they’re on a diet. Nonetheless, we do have a few sugar-free cakes and chocolate dragées, and gluten and lactose free products, too.