Heather Haviland is a pastry chef with a mission. No kidding. She even has a mission statement for her new company, Sweet Mosaic. She's vowed to use her skills, her passion for the craft, and her enthusiasm for the bounty of Ohio farms to provide inspired alternatives to mass-produced desserts.

"Pastry should seduce the senses," she says. "I want every bite to make people go ooh' and aah.' "

After a career spent in restaurant kitchens around the country, including stints at Fire and Parker's New American Bistro in Cleveland, the award-winning 37-year-old baker has ventured out on her own. Her extraordinary creations things like plum walnut tartlets, apricot blackberry trifle, fresh fruit pavlovas and chocolate truffle cheesecake are now available to take home.

In partnership with her sister Rebecca, Haviland has set up shop at Lucky's Cafe on Starkweather Avenue in Cleveland's Tremont district.

To celebrate her business launch, she held a February tasting event that felt much like the opening of an art gallery - only better. Instead of just admiring the work on display, all bedecked in candied carrot rosettes, raspberry coulis, and golden threads of spun sugar, guests were invited to sample everything. Blending tradition, classic techniques and fine ingredients with the precision of a painter's eye, the result was pure confectionery heaven.

Her desire to put the "wow" into the taste of home translates into endless variety, such as the champagne custard trifle torte (pictured in today's Food), covered in buttercream grapes; spiced pumpkin cake bejeweled with rum-soaked black currants; chocolate brioche bread pudding; coconut pistachio shortbread; and chocolate buttermilk cupcakes with white chocolate cream cheese icing - each one hand-decorated with colorful, carefully rendered flowers so that a half dozen becomes a bouquet.

But Haviland also likes to go where most bakers rarely tread, assembling a tower of pastry puffs called croquembouche filled with white chocolate mousse. Another specialty is her signature dish, a 40-layer cashew crepe torte.

"It's literally something I dreamed up, back when I lived in Seattle," she recalls. "I started doing it locally back at Cena Copa, on Lee Road, and later at Fire. People sort of follow it around. They'll find out where I'm working and ask, When can I get it again?'" (It's sold special order, with four days advance notice.)

Assorted cakes, cookies, breads, and breakfast pastries fill the cases daily at the trendy coffee shop and cyber cafe. Many feature locally grown produce that she picks herself or purchases in season, freezing it for use throughout the year.

"I like to make what I call sweet indulgences that trigger emotional responses," Heather Haviland says. "Sometimes, I'll start with desserts that get people remembering how wonderful it was to be in their mother's or grandmother's kitchen. Then I'll add visual excitement and a flavor experience that's so surprising and wonderful, it leaves you almost speechless with pleasure."

Laura Faye Taxel, a free-lance writer, is author of the 2004 Edition of "Cleveland Ethnic Eats: A Guide To Authentic Ethnic Restaurants & Markets In Northeast Ohio (Gray & Co., 2004).

© 2004 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission.

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