Dreamworld Bakes, Kensington’s latest bakery, specializes in sparkly cakes, glittering brownies, and savory breakfast pastries

Slices of buttercream-frosted cardamom cake layered with passionfruit curd and mango-chai mousse, bergamot ganache-enriched olive oil brownies encrusted with glittery “interstellar crunch,” toasted meringue-topped doughnuts filled with yuzu-lemon curd, and savory cinnamon roll-style pastry flecked with sausage, egg, and cheese: These are the elaborate, inspired treats you can expect at Kensington’s newest bakery and cafe, Dreamworld Bakes.

Opened earlier this month in the former Franny Lou’s Porch space at the corner of East York and Coral streets, Dreamworld originates from owner and baker Ashley Huston, whose custom-cake business first blossomed on Instagram. It’s one of several small, pandemic-born bakeries to go brick and mortar this year, including New June in Brewerytown, Downtime in Mount Airy, and Pastry Pants in Swarthmore.

Dreamworld’s new home is as cozy as its first (Huston’s West Philly apartment). Huston applied her interior design skills to the space, painting parts of the bakery in the same shade of green she deploys in her home kitchen, devising a blue-and-green striped scheme for the cafe’s bathroom, even color-washing the walls herself — a labor-intensive process to create texture with layers of paint.

“When people come in and they’re like, ‘Oh my God, who did these walls?’ I get a little joy inside,” said Huston, who spent a few weeks applying four coats of paint and plaster of Paris to the cafe walls. “Worth it.”

The decorative touches followed months of major upgrades — including installing new floors, pipes, and kitchen equipment — to the building at 2400 Coral St., which Huston owns with a partner. There’s seating for 15 inside and another 15 outside come warm weather, when the patio opens.

The bakery will also serve as a cake studio for Huston, who’s contemplating keeping a spare cake or two to sell to walk-in customers. Huston’s cake style is marked by generous use of edible glitter, fresh flowers, and seasonal fruit custards and curds. Her cakes come in bold, multidimensional flavors like RyeGuy (chocolate-rye cake, raspberry-cardamom jam, espresso dark chocolate ganache & vanilla bean Italian meringue buttercream) and Cherry Cherry (brown butter cake, black cherry/sour cherry pie filling, dark chocolate sea salt mousse, American sour cream chocolate frosting).

Now with the help of two more bakers and two front-of-house staffers, Huston is looking forward to diversifying Dreamworld’s output. The bakery’s menu will feature 10 or so sweet and savory baked goods, including two cake slice options, that will change every four to six weeks. The current lineup features a dark chocolate and roasted pecan butterscotch cookie; a hand pie filled with Black Forest bacon, Gruyere, and collard greens; an eggplant and confit tomato tart; and a persimmon roll made with milk bread dough, persimmon butter, maple syrup, and cardamom cream cheese. There’s a coffee menu featuring Small Planes post-roast coffee blends.

“In Europe, specifically France, there’s a lot of bakeries that have an array of things,” Huston said. “I want to have variety. I want to mix it up. I want to be a one-stop-shop baker, where you can get something for breakfast, something for lunch, grab a latte, and keep it moving.”

In that spirit, Dreamworld has options to buy all the sweet or savory items on the menu for a discounted price (the sweet box, for $37.50, and the salty box for $25.50), or you buy the lot of them for $62.50 — a perfect office offering.

“It’s great if you want to take that into work or you’re going into a meeting,” Huston said. “Put that on the long table, open that up, and make everyone’s day.”

Dreamworld Bakes' bakery and cafe is open Thursday and Friday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 2400 Coral St. Custom cakes can be picked up Thursday through Sunday. Order a week or two in advance at dreamworldbakes.com.