A good training from well-known French chefs can definitely bolster one’s culinary success. It was certainly the case for Vitalii Petrechenko and his wife. The couple left Ukraine in 2019 and embarked on a European research trip to find the right inspiration for their next endeavour. They knew they wanted to start a business, but they wanted to understand what was driving the pastry world. They asked themselves: “What could be the most interesting thing to bring to Canada?” And then France happened.
While in Paris, the pair discovered the art of trompe l’oeil (French for “deceive the eye”), a practice of hyper-realistic mousse cakes. It brought Tisto Cakes to life. The delicate craft was popularized in 2025, but it was first introduced by Cédric Grolet in the 2010s at his Paris pȃtisserie.
Tisto Cakes’ first location opened in 2021. The Windermere establishment became a popular dessert spot — making a name for itself as one of the only hyper-realistic mousse cake shops in Edmonton. Within three years, the business had found a second home in West Edmonton Mall.
Petrechenko says Tisto’s specialty is undoubtedly the Mango Dessert. This is a hyper-realistic pastry, and it looks like real fruit — until you bite it. Fruit could never beat the layers of biscuit with mango puree and pineapple mouse, covered in a chocolate hard shell.
I took his word for it and brought a few of the other cakes back to the office for taste testing. It turns out there really is something for everyone.
The Hard-to-Please: Caitlin Hart, a staff writer at Edify, couldn’t care less about raspberry flavoured pastries. She says Nyquil comes to mind as soon as she sees a reddish-purple fruit-flavoured treat. But she is not one to back away from trying something new. It only took a spoon full of the Berry Dessert to have her rethink her past dessert choices and correct her assumptions.
The Delighted: Our editor, Mifi Purvis, had fun with the Pistachio-Lime-Raspberry Mousse Dessert. “A lot was happening, not only in texture but the different levels of sweetness,” she says. Sometimes being a lot can be the best compliment.
The Chocolate Lover: Tisto Cakes might pride itself on fruit flavoured desserts, but its chocolate selection is also worth a taste, and our project manager, Jeanie Habibi, was here for it. The Salted Caramel Dessert is a shimmery chocolate concoction, with layers of mousse and gooey salted caramel that, she reports, “melt in your mouth.” And she says the Chocolate-Hazelnut Mousse Dessert has “just the right amount of sweetness and is light enough to not hate yourself afterwards.”
We all judge things based on looks, whether we like to admit it or not, so if our eyes are not deceiving us, we know these are some gorgeous desserts. It only took Petrechenko months of research and professional training to bring this delicacy to Edmonton’s food culture, and we could not be happier about it.
Tisto Bakery
West Edmonton Mall | 8882 170 St NW, #2555, Edmonton
Windermere | 1305 Windermere Way SW, Edmonton| 587.936.4478
tistocakes.ca
