Carlo's Bakery to open in Preston Center on March 19

Cynthia Smoot with Mauro Castano

As a fan of the TLC show Cake Boss, I was super excited to hear that the family-owned Carlo's Bakery bakery was coming to Dallas. I stopped by the store yesterday to visit with Mauro Castano yesterday about their newest location, which is expected to open March 19th.

The Preston Center store (located in the old La Madeline space) will be the 13th location for Carlo's Bakery. "When I think of Texas, I think of Dallas. I've been to Houston and San Antonio - and they are beautiful cities - but when we started doing our research, everything led us to Dallas. We had a couple of sites we were looking at and this one just spoke to us. It just all worked out," Castano told me. There are plans to continue the expansion in Dallas and throughout Texas.

Look for Carlo's Bakery to bring New Jersey to Texas. You'll drool over Italian pastries and sweets from cannolis to Lobster Tails to Italian and American Napoleons "Anything made with sugar, we do!" exclaimed Castano. Italian foods are very regional. What's popular in Naples, you might not find in Cicely. Carlo's Bakery seeks to bring the best of all of Italy's regions to Dallas via Hoboken.

Mauro Castano loves him a Sfogliatella

I asked Mauro what his personal favorite bakery item was at Carlo's. "I want to be buried with a Sfogliatella." A Sfel-a-what??? A Sfogliatella is sometimes called a lobster tail, it is a shell-shaped filled Italian pastry native to Campania. Sfogliatella means "small, thin leaf/layer", as the pastry's texture resembles stacked leaves. The dough is stretched out on a large table, or flattened with a pasta maker, then brushed with a fat (butter, lard, shortening, margarine, or a mixture), then rolled into a log (much like a Swiss roll, but with many more layers). Disks are cut from the end, shaped to form pockets, and filled. The pastry is baked until the layers separate, forming the sfogliatella's characteristic ridges. Recipes for the dough and filling vary. Fillings include orange-flavored ricotta, almond paste and candied peel of citron or dried fruit. He promised to make me one personally when I see him again at the store opening, along with Cake Boss star, Buddy Valastro, and other family members.

Carlo's Bakery opens March 19 at 8:30 a.m. at 8319 Preston Road, Dallas, TX 75225.