When one of your favorite bakers gives you a hot tip, you take it. So when Lora Giorgi, AKA Cake Duchess (CakeDuchess.com), mentioned that she and her daughter loved the Italian flag cookies from Palermo’s Bakery, I filed it away in my mental “to eat” filing cabinet — and pulled it out last week when I was hungry.

Like all great South Florida culinary gems, as I’m beginning to learn, Palermo’s is located in a nondescript strip mall that requires a couple of u-turns to access (although it’s marked well enough). Its exterior is deceptive – you’d never guess the treasures inside after a cursory glance.

I’m glad I had some guidance as to what to order, because I could have been there all day. It was as if their stores had been blessed by the most generous Italian godmother.

The Italian flag cookie beckoned from the display case. Baked fresh every morning, it’s as delicious as it is gorgeous.

“This is a 50-year-old recipe from Italy. We use fresh marzipan – that’s the trick,” explained owner, and baker, Anna Orlando. “In our bakery, we use all natural and organic products. We’re a bakery that’s delicious, yet healthy. We don’t use white flour or processed sugar.”

Palermo’s Bakeries can be found all over and have been in business more than 40 years – the location in Boynton Beach has been open for 10 years.

Back to the cookie, which uses no food coloring to achieve the bright colors: the bottom layer, a green layer, is a fresh layer of pistachio cake. The second layer, vibrant yellow, is made of fresh marzipan, and the top layer, which is pink, is strawberry almond flour. Each layer is spread with seedless raspberry jelly and topped with a chocolate ganache. The confections sell for $12 a pound.

“It’s a lot of work. They call it a cookie, but it’s really not a cookie,” Orlando said.

In addition to the very popular not-cookie Italian Flags, the Sicilian bakery sells homemade breads, stuffed breads, pizza, morning items, cakes, cookies, celebrity cakes and wedding cakes.

“Everybody has a different name (for the cookie),” she said. “Some people call them the Italian Flag, some call them the tri-color, in Italian we call it ‘tricolore.’ A lot of Americans call them ‘rainbow.’ English people call them ‘petit-fours.’”

Palermo’s Bakery: 140 N. Congress Ave., Boynton Beach; 561-737-8500. Open Tuesday and Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Thursday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; closed Monday. On Thursday through Saturday, from 7 to 11 p.m., there’s live entertainment, coffee and desserts served.