Cookie Connection
By Naperville Magazine
Appears in the April 2025 issue.
By Peter Gianopulos
Alpacake Artisan Bakery serves up authentic Peruvian treats
At Alpacake Artisan Bakery (3S019 Route 59, Warrenville), Peruvian-born owner Fabiola Marino doesn’t barter in boring old butter cookies. If you’re in the mood for a proper cookie, she’ll steer you toward her alfajores: Peru’s answer to French macaroons. Two buttery shortbread rounds sealed in a sugary hug by an inner layer of dulce de leche. One bite—rich, crumbly, dreamy—and you’ll never lust after an Oreo with the same passion ever again.
Marino credits her alfajores with kick-starting her professional baking career. After graduating from the culinary arts program at the College of DuPage in May 2019, she began baking Peruvian sweets for friends and family. It was little more than a hobby until that Thanksgiving, when someone requested 100 alfajores but didn’t have the decency to pick them up. Stuck with a kitchen full of cookies, Marino logged onto a local Peruvian Facebook group to see if she could sell them. Within hours, she’d not only fielded orders for every single cookie, she was flooded with instant messages asking if she could prepare other Peruvian sweets. By 2020, she’d developed such a loyal following that she decided to launch her brick-and-mortar Alpacake bakery.
Marino’s bakery is now a mecca for authentic Peruvian desserts in the western suburbs. She prepares Peruvian-style cheesecakes, flavored with lucuma, a soft-fleshed fruit with a mocha-like aftertaste. She bakes Latin American jelly rolls called piononos. And specializes in some stunningly creamy treats, including leche asada (Peruvian-style crème brûlée) and suspiro de limena (a caramel-like pudding topped with port-flavored meringue and cinnamon).
Bowled over by her baking skills, locals asked if she could add a savory menu. She’s obliged, whipping up empanadas stuffed with aji panca-spiced chicken, Peruvian tamales, and pork sandwiches topped with sweet potatoes and sliced red onions.
The through line that runs through all of these recipes? “I like butter, lots of butter,” Marino says. “Butter makes everything better.”
Photos: Jen Banowetz
