Edible Food Find: Solodko Bakery
Photos by Linda R. Campos
A visit to her grandparents in Ukraine in the summer of 2018 sent Ilona Znakharchuk’s career in a direction she never could have imagined. And the Boston pastry world is sweeter because of it.
Znakharchuk spent time in Ukraine before entering her sophomore year at Boston College—she and her family had moved to the United States when she was 2 years old. Znakharchuk says she was “blown away” by the world of European pastries she discovered there.
“In every single café, patisserie or bakery you walked into, everything was just so beautiful and so delicious at the same time. And I was, like, ‘Wow!’ There were very few things that I knew of that could compare back in Boston,” she remembers.
Znakharchuk came back to Boston and her studies in math and music at the end of the summer. But visions of the cakes, macarons, mousses, croissants and more stuck with her. Wheels began turning on what would become Solodko, the European-style patisserie and bakery that she now runs in Brighton with her sister Irina. Solodko means “sweet” in Ukrainian.
But before she could pursue her dream of making desserts that are “edible art,” Znakharchuk first needed to learn more about baking. In Boston, she met up with family friends whose daughter ran a macaron shop in Lviv, Ukraine.
“Oh, I want to be her when I grow up,” Znakharchuk remembers thinking when she saw the beautiful macarons the friends’ daughter created.
With some shared recipes in hand, Znakharchuk began focusing on mastering macarons. She soon had a burgeoning business baking and delivering macarons to her classmates at BC. At first, baking was a labor of love. But when her roommate advised her, "You can’t just keep bringing us free dessert every weekend. Start selling it,” she did just that.
On Thursdays, she would take orders on her Instagram page. On Saturdays she would bake at her family’s home in Westfield before delivering the treats on campus on Sundays. Before long, the macaron business had turned into a full side hustle that she continued throughout her college career after becoming part of the student accelerator at the Edmund H. Shea Jr. Center for Entrepreneurship at BC.
Beyond graduation, baking remained her first love but second job when she accepted a position in finance. With the help of Irina, who also worked in finance from home during the pandemic, the two expanded the business to include custom cakes. After months of working two jobs, the sisters decided it was time to focus on baking full-time and made the move to the current Solodko space on Brooks Street in Brighton.
Znakharchuk estimates that the current Solodko business is split evenly between custom cakes for weddings, birthdays and other special events, and the retail business. She describes the cakes they make as more in the European tradition, which means that they are less sweet, have more fruit fillings and use cream cheese or mascarpone frosting rather than buttercream. But the options are extensive, allowing for a great deal of personal choice.
Although her family emigrated to the U.S. more than 20 years ago, Znakharchuk is connected both to relatives at home and to the Ukrainian community in the Boston area. She says that Ukrainian relatives have had tense moments during the war. “But so far, they’re OK.”
Solodko has supported a number of organizations including Mriya Ukraina, the Ukrainian Cultural Center of New England and Ukraine Forward that provide resources to Ukrainian people during the war with Russia. Solodko has also employed a number of Ukrainian refugees displaced by the war.
Every day, customers who visit the retail location can find cases lined with Ukrainian specialties such as mousse cheesecakes, chocolate and fruit tarts and an eight-layer honey cake that has become Solodko’s signature. The cake is made from thin layers of honey shortbread that come out of the oven crispy and then soften from custard cream filling between the layers.
And of course, there are always macarons.
This story appeared in the Winter 2025 issue.
