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Santa Maria Cavacas
Cavacas from Santa Maria in the Azores: light, hollow little cakes of olive oil, flour and ten eggs, baked in moulds and coated in a white beaten-sugar icing.
- 40 pieces
- 20 min
- 45 min
- 1h
- Medium
Santa Maria cavacas are light little cakes, hollow inside, made from a batter of olive oil, flour and plenty of eggs, baked in small moulds and then coated with a white layer of beaten sugar.
They belong to the island's traditional sweets, alongside ear biscuits and melindres, and are still made on the island today.
Method
Heat the oven to 220 °C. Grease the moulds with butter and dust them with flour, tapping out the excess.
Heat the olive oil in a pan until very hot, almost smoking.
Tip in all the flour at once and stir hard with a wooden spoon until the paste is smooth.
Take the pan off the heat and beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well before adding the next.
Keep beating until the batter is soft and full of air bubbles, then add the water and salt.
Put about a tablespoon of batter into each mould.
Put them in the oven, turn it down straight away to 200 °C and bake for about 30 minutes, until puffed and golden.
Turn the cavacas out and leave them to cool on a rack.
For the icing, boil the sugar and water until the syrup reaches the soft-ball stage.
Off the heat, beat the syrup with a wooden spoon until it loses its transparency and turns whitish.
Coat the cavacas with the beaten sugar while it is still soft and leave them to dry in the air.
Tips
- Use small muffin or queijada moulds, well greased with butter and dusted with flour; you can also grease them with lard.
- If you do not have enough moulds for all the cavacas, bake them in several batches.
- Do not open the oven during the first 20 minutes, or the cavacas may sink.
- To check the soft-ball stage, drop a little syrup into cold water: it should form a soft ball (about 115 °C on a kitchen thermometer).
- For a thicker coating, as in some island recipes, use up to 1 kg of sugar and dip the cavacas in the syrup.
- If the icing sets before you finish, warm it gently with a spoonful of water.
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