Lanhelas White Cakes
Also known as: Lanhelas White Cakes · Lanhelas Egg-yolk Cakes
Light, low egg-yolk cakes, baked in a very hot oven and whitened with sugar syrup.
- Origin
- Lanhelas · Caminha · Alto Minho
- Region
- Lanhelas · Caminha
- Season
- Year-round; especially Easter and pilgrimages
Bolos Brancos de Lanhelas, also called bolos de gema, are small low cakes made from a light yellow batter based on eggs, sugar and flour. The batter is fluid enough to be portioned onto trays with a large piping bag, forming circular or oval pieces.
After a rapid bake at very high temperature, the cakes receive a bath of boiling sugar syrup. It dries into a thin brittle white film, sometimes allowing the yellow sponge to show around the edges or in irregular patterns.
- eggs
- wheat flour
- sugar
- raising agent
- water for the syrup
A light, gently eggy crumb beneath a very sweet, thin and crisp coating.
They belong to the wider Minho family of egg-yolk and pilgrimage cakes. In Lanhelas, the documented workshop process uses piped batter, baking at about 270°C and a final sugar bath.
At Lanhelas's traditional sweet workshop and at Caminha and Alto Minho fairs and pilgrimages, especially around Easter.
Espresso or unsweetened black tea.
A report made inside Lanhelas's traditional workshop documented these cakes and recorded their twin name, bolos de gema or bolos brancos. The process belongs to a family operation more than 130 years old, now rare in a parish that once had several sweet-making houses.
Sources: jornalc.pt · cm-terrasdebouro.pt · visitarcos.pt
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