No, arbOOZ Cafe is not a franchise, it is a project developed by me. But let me first introduce myself – my name is Karina Krasovitska, and I’m the founder of arbOOz. The idea to open a cafe was a natural extension of what started in my home kitchen back in 2009. As nights became shorter in sleep and my family started to stumble and fall over the 25kg bags with of icing sugar, I had to make a decision – either to stop baking at all of move forward.. I went for the latter.
I know, I know, you are wondering about the name. Well, long time ago, when the trees were tall and Yahoo mailbox was the coolest thing to have, I registered my first email address: arboozzz12@yahoo.com (judging by the extra letters and the figures, t the wrong transcription of the Russian word arbuz (watermelon) seemed ingenious not only to me. Since the rise of social media, arbOOz has become my username (luckily, no one had claimed it at that time yet. In 2006 I started to design handmade invitations and this is when the first version of arbooz.lv was launched to share my projects. Later, I fell in love with baking and kept sharing my work on the website. To my surprise, the response has been incredible. This is where it started to take off! I don’t have a degree in baking and pastry making. It started as a hobby and it has become my passion. If someone had told me 5 years ago that I would become a pastry chef, I would have been very surprised. I owe it to constant hard work, everyday trial and errors, experiments, and continuous self-improvement in creating distinctive flavours with my signature style. By the time the cafe opened in 2013, arbOOz has already become a recognized brand, and I decided to keep the name as is. By the way, for me arbOOz is just a given name, and it has nothing to do with watermelons.

We bake cakes ‘made to order’, which means we don’t have whole cakes for purchase in store. We offer bespoke cakes for weddings, birthdays, other celebrations, and prefer to go through all of the details in advance.

Unfortunately, no. As a rule, we are fully booked a week ahead, but you can always call us and find out – what if you are lucky?

The sooner the better! Preferably 7-10 days in advance, so we can efficiently plan our work in the kitchen. Please keep in mind, that we can’t predict orders from other customers, therefore it does sometimes happen that we are fully booked for a certain date even a month ahead. We advise that you place your order as early as possible especially, if your celebration takes place during summer or falls onto a Friday or Saturday. It only requires a phone call from you – we can discuss al the details later on.

Yes, you can, but you will be charged the “by-the-slice” price.

Yes, it is possible, but only in the morning. The later you come, the less likely we will have the quantities you need. Our advise is to pre-order at least 2 days in advance, so we can bake more and would not leave our customers without their favourite delights.

Our cafe is really very small – 4 tables and 10 seating places, so I’m afraid we can’t accommodate your query. What we can do is book a table for a small group, but we can’t close the cafe for a private party during working hours – this would be unfair to other customers.

Honestly, we rarely check social media during our workday, therefore we take same-day reservations ONLY by phone. Call us on 26530164 to place your order.

The same person who is actually baking desserts is also dealing with social media. By the way, that same person also makes the list of frequently asked questions. And this person, too, has days off and all sorts of errands. You will get your answer shortly – please be patient. And, even better, give us a call at the café on: +371 26530164. Sometimes, a five-minute phone call saves us 2 weeks of correspondence.

Macaron! Just like this and no other way. Macaroon is a totally different dessert made with coconut flakes.

A macaron refers to a delicate meringue-based almond cookie, made of two shells. The shells have a light, crunchy texture on the outside, chewy and inside and a filling, that melts in your mouth. Besides almond flour, it contains egg whites, granulated and icing sugar, sometimes, with addition of other ground nuts. Colour of macaron defines its flavour, therefore food colouring is used. Classical macaron should be approximately 45mm in size. Our macarons are filled with different kinds of chocolate ganaches, natural fruit purees, jams and preserves, fruit curds and salty caramel. All these, and about 95% of other components used in our desserts, we make ourselves in our kitchen.

We certainly prefer that you enjoy our desserts on the day of purchase – then we can be sure, that they have exactly the taste and consistency we’ve planned. However, we do understand that it is not always possible, so we’re happy to explain and even write on the box as to what to do to enjoy our desserts longer. Just put macarons into an air-tight container or simply wrap the box with cling film. Macarons can be kept at room temperature, but they will preserve a bit longer in the refrigerator. The main rule is – don’t ever eat macarons cold from the fridge. Give them about 40 minutes at room temperature before serving for best flavour.

I’m sorry, but we can’t. Our kitchen cannot be used for cooking master classes, the entrance is restricted only to cafe employees (who possess appropriate certification to work in the kitchen).

Thanks for the invite, but I must say no. I sincerely think, that everyone is good at what they do. Just because I’m good at making macarons, this doesn’t mean I can teach well. This requires a talent and certain skills.

I can definitely say, all recipes on the Internet have the right to be there. Making macarons is an art! There are so many nuances and things to consider. It took me months of continuous trials and errors in my home kitchen, and years later, once technology was proven, I had to perfect it once again, adapting to the professional oven. Nowadays, there are so many books, video tutorials and step-by-step recipes that didn’t exist at my times, when I’ve just started to learn the basics of macaron art. Keep on trying!

Although muffins are baked in the same tins as cupcakes, technically they belong to the “quick breads” category, whereas a cupcake is a whole cake, in miniature, designed to serve only one person. And this is how we treat it: like any standard-sized cake, it has a soft tender sponge, loaded with filling and topped with frosting. When developing recipes, I carefully choose flavours and textures of the cake, fillings and toppings to make sure they complement each other. I get rather emotional when I see somebody eat cream first, and only then moves to the sponge. IT’S SIMPLY A CRIME!!! Sorry, just couldn’t hold myself back.

Sorry, but this will be a “copy-paste” here, simply replacing the word ‘macaron’ with a ‘cupcake’ and leaving out a couple of unnecessary details: we certainly prefer that you enjoy our desserts on the day of purchase – then we can be sure, that our they have exactly the taste and consistency we’ve planned. However, we do understand that this is not always possible, so we’re happy to explain and even write on the box as to what to do to enjoy your desserts longer. What you have to do is to put cupcakes into air-tight container or simply wrap the box with cling film. Cupcakes should be kept at room temperature, away from direct sunlight and extreme heat. They will stay fresh for a couple of days. The only cupcakes we do not recommend keeping longer than one day are the ones filled with fresh berries – please, consume on the day of purchase.

We recommend at least one and a half cupcakes per person.

Sadly, this is not possible. Our smallest cake serves 12 persons. But during holidays we usually make many identical cakes for 8 persons – check our specials!

Yes, sure you can. We can even provide you with a special stand – a pyramid, that can be decorated with flower arrangements by your florist to match the whole event.

We have 7 kinds of macarons, salted caramels, fruit meringues and marshmallows on a daily basis – all these desserts are gluten-free. We can also make gluten-free cupcakes (minimum order is 12 pieces) and gluten-free cakes.

It depends on your individual food restrictions – please, give us a call and tell about your diet – we will help you choose the desserts that best suit your needs.

Yes, we can! We know for a fact what it is to live with certain food intolerances, so we try to come up with a solution for any dietary restrictions. Just call us.

Before you make the next cut, remove the remains of the cake off the knife with a paper towel, dip the knife in a glass with hot water and wipe it again. It takes time but the outcome is totally worth it.

Unfortunately, no. All our cakes have a round shape, and I don’t work with fondant or marzipan.

No.

We don’t do such cakes as a matter of principle. To achieve vivid rainbow effect as you described, you will have to use a couple of tablespoons of highly concentrated colouring per each layer (in comparison, to make a couple of litres of macaron batter, the size of colouring I use fits on the tip of a knife). Do you really need that?

Nope.

Please stop it, no.

Yes, mom.