Many customers at the new Matryoshka’s Bakery will beeline to the pastel-tinted macaron sandwich cookies in the pastry case. The rotating rainbow of flavors runs temptingly from sophisticated salted caramel and Earl Grey to fanciful Fruity Pebbles and maple s’mores.
Matryoshka’s shares its South Burlington location with a second outpost of Hinesburg’s Good Times Café. Maryam and Travis Counter co-own the sister businesses; she runs the bakery, while he is chef-manager for both cafés. They opened their joint, counter-service eatery in late March in a bright space at the rear of the former Shelburne Road Uno Pizzeria & Grill, tucked behind a new NBT Bank branch.
The location serves lunch and dinner, with Good Times’ familiar menu of pizzas, sandwiches, salads, and Cajun and Creole dishes, plus a few tweaks and additions permitted by the larger kitchen. Travis, 44, plans to start serving breakfast sandwiches in July, followed by Sunday brunch.
Since Maryam, 42, started Matryoshka’s in 2019 in the family’s St. George kitchen, she has focused largely on perfecting her almond-flour macarons. She built the business selling them at the original Good Times, directly online and to a few local coffee shops.
“Her execution of them are some of the best I’ve had,” said Magda Van Dusen, who sells the macarons at Burlington’s Brio Coffeeworks. “Maryam puts so much effort and so much of herself into everything she makes.”
Now, with her first dedicated production space, the self-taught baker has expanded her roster of sweets — and put even more of herself into them.
The shelf below the macarons ($3.50 each) holds another mouthwatering confection: mini Pavlovas ($5.18), named for the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova. Last week, the swirls of snow-white meringue were filled with lemon-and-passion fruit curd and a fluff of whipped cream, then topped with blueberries and an edible marigold.
On the shelf below, another Russian icon risks being overshadowed by its showy neighbors. Despite its comparatively homely cream and golden-crumbed exterior, Matryoshka’s honey cake should not be missed. Not only is it delicious and unusual, but each bite is a taste of Maryam’s Russian childhood.
Maryam grew up baking honey cake, called medovik in Russian. The labor-intensive process involves cooking eggs, honey, sugar and butter over simmering water before adding baking soda and flour to form a thick dough. The heat contributes a toasty, caramel note, reminiscent of honey graham crackers.
Each of nine slender layers must then be portioned, rolled, cut into a round and baked. Construction calls for spreading each with creamy frosting before enrobing the stack in more frosting and coating it with cake crumbs. Maryam and her team make just six cakes a week, which sell by the generous, shareable slice for $10.
Honey cake was even more laborious in Russia, in Maryam’s experience. “They didn’t have fancy rolling pins or cake rings,” she said. “We just stretched the dough by hand, baked the cakes and cut the layers with a plate upside down.”
An aunt even baked honey cake in a wood-fired oven, Counter recalled: “I still can taste in my mouth that flavor.”
In Russia, the frosting is made with sweetened sour cream, but for American tastes, Maryam whips cream cheese with powdered sugar and then lightens it with heavy cream. She is experimenting with a sour cream and whipped cream combo, which yields a fluffier filling with a delicate tang that beautifully balances the sweet cake.
No matter the filling, “it’s always been a cult classic,” Travis said.
Maryam was grateful to move out of her home kitchen, but she does miss her young assistant. Just like when she helped her own mother, Maryam said, the Counters’ 11-year-old daughter “would put her apron and her little scarf on, and this was our Friday-night date: rolling honey cake.”
“One Dish” is a series that samples a single menu item — new, classic or fleeting — at a Vermont restaurant or other food venue. Know of a great plate we should feature? Drop us a line: food@sevendaysvt.com.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Sweet as Honey | At a new South Burlington café, the owner of Matryoshka’s Bakery shares a traditional Russian cake”
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This article appears in Jul 2-8, 2025.
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