1. Toucinho do céu
One type of Portuguese sweet that was first made in convents is Coutinho do céu. In its most basic form, this traditional cake is made with sugary syrup, lard, ground almonds, and a lot of egg whites. Spices and chila squash are also often added.
Different kinds of this Portuguese-style almond cake can be found all over the country, but the most famous ones come from Guimarães, Murca, and Trás-os-Montes. Not much is known about its history or where it came from, though.
2. Gâteau Basque
This traditional Basque cake has two layers of shortcrust pastry and a filling of either vanilla-flavored pastry cream or black cherry preserve. If the cake is made with black cherries, it usually has the Basque cross (auburn) on top. If it’s made with pastry cream, it usually has a crosshatch design.
Flavorings that are often used are vanilla, lemon zest, rum, and almond extract. The cake is usually linked to the whole of France’s Basque Country, but it is thought to have come from Labourd, which used to be a French province.
3. Gâteau mille crêpes
The English name for this French treat is “a thousand crêpes cake.” It is made of crêpes stacked on top of each other and covered with a thin layer of either icing sugar or pastry cream. There is also a thin layer of caramelized sugar on top of the cake.
You can fill this thick and creamy cake with a lot of different things and serve it with fruits, whipped cream, or even ice cream.
4. Basque Cheesecake
This simple but very creamy cheesecake is a favorite of the La Viña Bar in San Sebastián and has been around for decades. It is called tartar de queso or gazta tartar in its native Basque language. The recipe is a simple mix of common cheesecake ingredients like sugar, heavy cream, eggs, and cream cheese. However, this Basque cheesecake does not have a top like other popular types.
It is baked at a high temperature instead, which makes the outside hard, darker, and a little burnt while the middle stays gooey. Basque cheesecake is very famous. It was first made in La Viña, but you can now find different kinds of it in many bakeries around the world.
5. Torta Caprese
It’s a dark chocolate cake that doesn’t need any flour. Dark chocolate, eggs, sugar, almonds, and butter are used to make this treat from the island of Capri in Italy. A layer of powdered sugar sits on top of the thick chocolate to make it stand out.
Strawberries or raspberries cut in half are often put on top of the cake, and vanilla ice cream is often given on the side in restaurants. The history of torta Caprese isn’t very clear, but a lot of people think it was made by accident when a cook forgot to add flour to a recipe.
6. Torta Paradiso
Torta Paradiso is a classic Italian pastry and the sign of the city of Pavia. It is a simple sponge cake variation made with sugar, flour, and butter, which are the three most important cake ingredients. Torta Paradiso was created by Enrico Vigoni in the early 1800s. It’s a great dish by itself or with a variety of tasty fillings, such as creams, custards, or spreads.
It’s also a popular choice for a breakfast treat, served with espresso, milk, or tea because of its softness, scent, and sweetness.
7. Fraisier
Fraisier is a French cake. Its name comes from the word fraise, which means strawberry. Genoise sponge, vanilla-flavored créme mousseline, marzipan, and lines of fresh, sliced strawberries are what the cake usually looks like.
In the beginning, fraisier was made as an ode to strawberries, since the only strawberries that could be found in France before the 1800s were small wild strawberries that were about the size of blueberries. In the 1930s, France and the rest of Europe got new kinds of strawberries that could be used in sweets. This led to the creation of a new cake.
8. Dacquoise
This French cake is usually made with layers of almond or hazelnut meringue sponge cake and whipped cream or buttercream in between. It has a texture that is both crispy and creamy. The cake’s name comes from the French word dacquois, which means “from Dax,” a town in the southwestern part of France. However, the word “dacquoise” has come to mean any treat with layers of nut meringue sponge cake.
Most people think that the cake was first made in the 1600s as a fancy dessert for the people of the French court. After that, the recipe became very famous in England, where many French chefs moved to cook for the wealthy.
9. Pão de Ló de Ovar
People may think that Pão de Ló de Ovar is the most popular cake in Portugal. It was first made by nuns in convents in the 18th century. The first written record of this sponge cake is from 1781, in a book called Irmandade dos Passos. It says that pão de Ló de Ovar was a treat given to the priests who carried the statues in the Holy Week parade on a wooden frame.
In the past, this light sponge cake was made with eggs, sugar, and flour. You can find it at most food fairs in Portugal today. People all over the country like the cake, not just in the municipality of Ovar, where it is usually made.
10. Kouign-Amann
The French area of Bretagne is where the kouign-amann cake got its start in the 1800s. Its name comes from the Breton words for butter (amann) and cake (kouign). Butter and sugar are layered and then worked into a dough to make the cake.
Britons say the cake is “the fattiest pastry in the world” because the dough is so flaky and yellow and has a lot of sugar and butter in it. There are many ideas about where the cake came from, but the most common one is that it was created by accident when a baker from Douarnenez in the 1800s tried to save a failed batch of dough by adding butter and sugar to it. This made the delicious treat we know today.
Read Also:- 6 Best Rated Russian Cakes
