Bakery to bring award-winning tres leches, Dubai chocolate to Lake Norman area
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- Karina Cooper opens La Dolcekca Deluxe Bakery in Mooresville this month.
- Bakery menu highlights include tres leches cake, flan, and Dubai cookies.
- Cooper shifts focus from full meals to global dessert offerings and grab-and-go.
The first thing you notice on La Dolcekca Deluxe Bakery’s Instagram isn’t the cakes or pastries, but the way owner Karina Cooper’s warmth seems to reach through the glass of your phone, inviting you inside.
She affectionately calls viewers her “La Dolcekca family,” and beckons them to come along on her journey to open a new bakery in Mooresville.
In a video posted last week, Cooper’s camera caught the swish of rags and the hum of voices as a few of her family members and friends worked to get the shop ready for its grand opening. Locals, she said, have supported her every step of the way.
“I have so many people that have shown love to me in different ways,” Cooper said in a video posted to Instagram last week. “I’m so grateful for the support.”
But this isn’t her first venture.
A new start
Cooper opened a similar concept, La Dolcekca Bakery Cafe, in Montford in 2022. She told CharlotteFive it was known as a “family-oriented space,” which meant patrons could enjoy lunch and dinner entrees on top of dessert selections.
After three years, she traded the bustle of an all-day menu for a sweeter ambition, deciding to “downsize and streamline” her menu to focus on one thing: desserts.
The choice to close the shop didn’t come lightly, though. Last May, shortly after the eatery shuttered, Cooper found herself in a prayer, searching for guidance when an idea came to her: bake cupcakes for the neighbors.
“I gave away 100 little boxes with three or four cupcakes inside to the neighbors” before quickly running out, Cooper said.
The next day, she repeated the gesture. This time, as she passed a box to a neighbor who knew of her plans to open a new bakery, they questioned whether she had found a spot yet.
When she said she hadn’t, that neighbor pointed out a “charming” place in Mooresville where she relocated to shortly after, and she and her team have been working around the clock to get the place ready for its debut.
“I love this space because it’s smaller and more intimate,” she told CharlotteFive. “But we’re still going to have the staples.”
What to expect at La Dolcekca
The most popular dessert dish at La Dolcekca Bakery Cafe was by far the tres leches, a sponge cake that’s soaked in a trio of milks — evaporated, condensed and heavy cream — until it’s almost pudding-like.
The dish was so popular, it earned the title of Best Tres Leches in Charlotte by Charlotte Magazine in 2023.
It’ll be at La Dolcekca Deluxe Bakery, along with flan, a custard-based dessert topped with a caramel crown, pastries, rolls, key lime pies, cheesecakes and cookies.
“Everybody loves our cheesecakes,” said Cooper, adding that Dubai chocolate cookies will also be on the menu, a wink to the Gen-Z crowd and their TikTok-fueled cravings.
Customers can also expect crepes and waffles for breakfast, as well as “grab-and-go” cakes for people in a pinch preparing for special occasions, Cooper said.
“If you’re in a rush on your way to a birthday party and you don’t have a cake, you can find one here,” she added.
Cooper, a cake artist and pastry chef, said her heritage – and her stepfather’s – inspired her to create an international menu with exotic flavors from around the world, such as baklava.
“I’m Dominican, but my stepfather is Italian,” said Cooper, noting that she went to France to study the art of pastry-making. “Every place that I go, I’m inspired by the flavors.”
‘If you put love in, it will be better’
Cooper said the key to her success, aside from unwavering support from the Mooresville community, has been preparing dishes with her main ingredient: love.
“We believe that no matter what you do, if you put love in, it will be better,” she said. “When you’re doing something because you have a passion for it, the love is amazing.”
She recalled a time recently where a friend who had just undergone surgery and was confined to bed called her, in distress. Her aunt was visiting for her birthday, and there was no cake to be found.
“I said ‘in the morning, I’ll give you a cake,’ and I made such a beautiful cake for her to enjoy,” said Cooper. “That’s my fuel, to see people happy.”
La Dolcekca Deluxe Bakery plans to open in the next couple of weeks, Cooper said.
La Dolcekca Deluxe Bakery
Location: 1994 Charlotte Hwy, Mooresville, NC 28117
Cuisine: Dessert
Instagram: @ladolcekcabakerycafe
