A-peel-ing pastries: Mattapoisett bakery serves fruit look-alikes
Brittney, Gibau, left, and DeAndre Gibau craft fruit pastries at Sweet Art. Photos by Grace Roche
Sweet Art is owned by Brittney and DeAndre Gibau.
Bakery employees dip mango-flavored pastries in white chocolate. 
Chocolate-dipped pastries await the finishing touches to transform into fruit look-alikes. 
Along with trendy baked goods, Sweet Art also sells classics like chocolate chip cookies. 
Dot cakes are among the trendy treats Gibau creates.
DeAndre Gibau pries chilled pastries from a mold. 
Two of the bakers set dipped pastries aside to harden. 
Banana-flavored bananas, dusted with coco powder, sit ready to sell. . 
Each fruit is shaped by a mold. 
DeAndre Gibau, left, helped his wife find the Mattapoisett location. 
Sweet Art also sells cupcakes.
Brittney, Gibau, left, and DeAndre Gibau craft fruit pastries at Sweet Art. Photos by Grace Roche
Sweet Art is owned by Brittney and DeAndre Gibau.
Bakery employees dip mango-flavored pastries in white chocolate.
Chocolate-dipped pastries await the finishing touches to transform into fruit look-alikes.
Along with trendy baked goods, Sweet Art also sells classics like chocolate chip cookies.
Dot cakes are among the trendy treats Gibau creates.
DeAndre Gibau pries chilled pastries from a mold.
Two of the bakers set dipped pastries aside to harden.
Banana-flavored bananas, dusted with coco powder, sit ready to sell. .
Each fruit is shaped by a mold.
DeAndre Gibau, left, helped his wife find the Mattapoisett location.
Sweet Art also sells cupcakes.
MATTAPOISETT — Alongside the typical cookies, cupcakes and other treats Brittney Gibau sells at her bakery are “trompe l'oeil” pastries, French for trick of the eye.
She offers six colorful options — banana, cocoa bean, mango, passionfruit, raspberry and strawberry — each realistically mimicking the ingredient flavoring it. Inside are layers of mouse, cake and a fruit filling, all dipped in chocolate and decorated to reflect the flavor inside.
Gibau said she likes to be creative and bring the newest trends to the community at Sweet Art, the bakery she runs with her husband DeAndre.
“It definitely is bringing something different to the community, not just to Mattapoisett but honestly the South Coast area in general,” she said.
The fruit pastries are among the latest in trendy foods she’s baked up. She said when Dubai chocolate was popular she incorporated it in some of her desserts, and she also serves “dot cakes,” single-serving cakes dipped in nonpareils.
Gibau has had a passion for baking since childhood. She said she would help her dad bake a cake every Saturday morning, and she was always more interested in cooking shows than cartoons.
“I didn't watch Cartoon Network, I watched the Food Network,” Gibau said.
Beyond a few classes she’s taken, Gibau is self-taught. Most of her training came from watching YouTube videos and experimenting with new approaches to recipes.
She said she took a course for the fruit pastries to learn the traditional way to make them, although once she had the foundational skills she’s made them her own.
Sweet Art previously operated as a made-to-order bakery in a shared kitchen in Fairhaven but moved to its current location at 81 County Road this month.
Since moving to Mattapoisett, Gibau said business has been good. Mornings are always busy, especially on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays when she sells her fruit pastries.
“We usually always have a line out the door,” she said. “I'm very happy that everyone's pleased and that people are coming back.”
