About us

Who we are

Dabasi Desszert opened in 2016 on Szent István út in Dabas. We started as a hospitality business and we still do the same thing: making and selling handcrafted pastries, cakes, ice cream and coffee. Our team has grown to eleven people.

We are neither the largest nor the oldest confectionery in the area. What we can promise is that whatever leaves our hands was made by us, here, on site. We do not buy in part-baked goods, we do not defrost anything, and we do not sell yesterday's work as today's.

That does not sound like much of a commitment until you have spent a pre-dawn shift in a pastry kitchen. Confectionery is mostly repetition: the same sponge, the same cream, day after day. The difference is not in the recipe – most of them have been known for a century – but in whether you still follow them on the days when it would be quicker not to.

A day in the workshop

Work starts before dawn, well before opening. The reason is simple: much of what we sell in the morning is only at its best for a few hours.

Puff pastry is baked on the same day the cream slices are assembled. Its layers are separated during baking by steam from the butter inside, and that is what makes it crisp. As soon as custard is added, moisture begins to seep between the layers and the pastry softens. This is not spoilage – it is perfectly good the next day – but the texture changes. That is why we fill in batches through the day rather than all at once in the morning.

Cakes are different: most are better after a night's rest. The meringue layers of an Esterházy torte come out of the oven crisp and soften over a few hours as they take up moisture from the cream. That waiting is part of the recipe, not laziness.

Ingredients

Here butter is butter, egg is egg, cream is cream. We do not use vegetable fat where there should be butter, or whipping powder where there should be cream.

This is not a moral position but a question of taste. Substitutes behave differently: vegetable topping is easier to work with, holds its shape longer and costs less, but it leaves a film in the mouth and does not melt the same way. Guests notice, even when they cannot name the difference.

We use dark chocolate rather than cocoa coating, and real vanilla. These choices show up in the price, and we are aware of that. Anyone looking for the cheapest pastry will probably not find it here.

Season and fruit

Our fruit pastries follow the season. The strawberry cake is available in spring and early summer, while good local strawberries last; the sour cherry and poppy seed cake is at its best in cherry season; the apple tart belongs to autumn and winter.

This is not a marketing device. Fruit flavour declines from the moment it is picked, and long transport accelerates that. A strawberry bought in December may look fine but has little taste or scent left – and once it goes into a cake, no amount of care in the sponge underneath will save it.

What handcrafted means here

The word has been worn thin, so it is worth saying what we mean by it.

It does not mean we avoid machines. We use a dough mixer, a whisk, an ice cream machine; without them eleven people could not supply Dabas. It means the decisions are made by a person: someone looks at the dough and decides whether it can rest another five minutes; someone tastes the cream and decides whether it needs a pinch of salt; someone looks at the apples and decides how much sugar they need.

That last one is a good example. We do not add the same amount of sugar to every apple tart, because the acidity of apples varies by variety and by week. Followed literally, a recipe would give a result that is sometimes too sweet and sometimes sharp. So a recipe here is a starting point, not a rule.

For occasions

Cake orders are an important part of our work. Weddings, christenings, graduations, birthdays, corporate events – occasions where the cake is not only food but part of the event. A wedding cake that goes wrong is not the kind of mistake you can put right the next day.

We always talk these through: how many people, which flavours, whether anyone among the guests has an allergy, and when it needs to be ready. We do this by phone or in person, because details like lettering, shape and colour are hard to settle in writing without misunderstanding. The word "light blue" means three different colours to three different people.

Wedding cakes are best flagged at least a month ahead – not because they take a month, but because there is usually a tasting, a conversation about shape, and often a change of mind along the way. Christenings and corporate events need two weeks, everything else five days.

Allergens

A significant part of our range contains gluten, egg, milk and nuts. That follows from the nature of classic confectionery: sponge is egg and flour, cream is milk and butter.

Our fruit ice creams are free from milk and egg, being made from fruit purée, water and sugar. Coffee can be made with lactose-free milk or oat drink, and the Somlói sponge cake is available without alcohol.

We do not currently make gluten-free pastries. The reason is not the recipe but the kitchen: where flour is handled daily, cross-contamination cannot be ruled out. For a serious sensitivity that difference matters, so we would rather not promise something we cannot keep.

If you or your guests have a food sensitivity, please tell us before ordering rather than on collection. We cannot always offer an alternative, but we can tell you exactly what is in something – and sometimes that matters more.

The team

There are eleven of us. The workshop starts before dawn, the counter staff arrive for opening, and we overlap for most of the day – which matters, because questions raised at the counter do not have to wait until tomorrow for an answer.

Much of the craft in a pastry kitchen cannot be written down. Whether a sponge batter is ready is not decided with a timer but by how it falls from the whisk. Learning that takes months, and only works if someone stands beside you and shows you.

Events and larger orders

We take on larger orders for corporate events, conferences and family occasions, usually as mixed platters: slices, small pastries, perhaps a larger cake for the main table.

One thing worth knowing: for an event, taste is not the only consideration – so is how long the pastry has to survive on a tray. A whipped cream dessert does not look its best after two hours in a heated room, whereas a Gerbeaud slice or a shortbread is the same at the end of the day. We take this into account and will say so if something is not going to perform well in the conditions you describe.

Larger orders are best flagged at least a week ahead.

What we do not do

A few things are worth stating in advance so that nobody starts with false expectations.

We do not make gluten-free pastries, and we do not take on sugar-free cakes: creams made with sweeteners differ enough in texture and taste that we cannot deliver the quality we would want under our own name. We also do not copy a decoration one-to-one from a photograph – we would rather discuss what we can make in a similar spirit with our own hands.

And we do not sell anything we did not make. If we cannot make something, we say so.

Where to find us

Our shop is at Szent István út 60 in Dabas. Everything is available to take away as well as to eat in, and ice cream can be bought in family portions.

Opening hours and contact details are on the contact page. If something is urgent, the phone is the fastest route – we cannot watch the message form continuously while baking.