For seven years, Foxwoods’ executive pastry chef Franck Iglesias and his team have created sweet masterpieces for the resort casino’s restaurants and special events: delicate puff-pastry swans filled with Chantilly cream, “push pops” layered with flambeed bananas and salted caramel, elaborate multi-tiered wedding cakes.
Now the casino’s newest venture, Cake By Franck, aims to showcase their talents with a boutique pastry shop on the property, offering a vast selection of sugary treats from vibrantly colored French macarons to custom-designed cakes glazed in ganache and dusted in gold. Cake By Franck opened on the Concourse level of the Great Cedar Hotel, located across from the Great Cedar food court.
Iglesias said the project has been in development since the summer of 2015. He was tasked with conceptualizing the shop’s design, an inviting combination of light wood and turquoise accents that he calls a mix of modern and traditional.
“I didn’t want it to be too pretentious,” he said. “I want people to feel comfortable to come in. … I like a warm atmosphere.”
The shop presents a centralized table with individual pastries under glass domes, like cookies, mini-canelés, brownies and “French doughnuts,” Iglesias’ take on a cronut made with croissant dough and assorted fillings. A large glass display case features more fanciful confections, like miniature mascarpone cheesecakes (topped with a tiny white chocolate mouse), strawberry shortcake layered in a small mason jar and macarons decorated to look like cheeseburgers.
“Pastry is colorful, it’s whimsical,” Iglesias said. “That’s my style. That’s what I wanted to showcase.”
Cake by Franck also offers cakes by the slice, handmade chocolates, chocolate-dipped strawberries, marshmallows, individual dishes of creme brulee torched to order and Brussels-style waffles. Beverages include fruit-infused waters, hot coffee drinks and cold-brew coffee on tap.
Another section of the shop features specialty ingredients and tools for ambitious home bakers, and the “Air Franck” service will offer shipping throughout the U.S., starting with cakes and eventually expanding to other packaged pastries and chocolates.
Iglesias said it was important to offer reasonably priced options at Cake by Franck, with individual pastry items priced around $1 to $6. Tarts and pies are $18 to $32, with traditional and signature cakes ranging from $22 for a 6-inch size to $155 for a full sheet. “My job is to bring happiness,” he said. “It should be affordable for everyone to enjoy a good product.”
Foxwoods and Iglesias have already found success with a custom cupcake vending machine on the property, which launched in 2015 and offers eight flavors, 24 hours a day. Iglesias said the machine sold about 1,200 cupcakes over two weekends.
Iglesias, a native of Argenteuil, France, began studying culinary arts and pastry as a teen, and came to the United States in 2000. Before joining Foxwoods in 2009, he worked with renowned pastry chef Francois Payard in New York City. In 2011, Iglesias made his national TV debut, appearing on an episode of Food Network’s competition show “Sweet Genius.”
The creative nature of pastry has always motivated him, he said. “The colors, shapes, everything I could do with chocolate and sugar … I knew I’d never get bored with this job,” he said. “[With pastry,] you use your feeling, you use your sense, you use your moods, emotion. For me, it’s important that people feel that.”
Cake By Franck will be open Sunday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to midnight. foxwoods.com/cake-by-franck.
