Words: Teresa Castro Viana
Photo: Pedro Ferreira with Ana Caracol
With my grandmothers, I learnt to get my fingers sticky with raw cake batter and to scrape the last traces from the bowls of mousse. After all, what grandmothers teach us often begins with the sweetness with which they feed us.
My paternal grandmother was Brazilian. Condensed milk, coconut, and potato starch were always part of her recipes. With my maternal grandmother, I discovered Belleville chocolate and devoured, time and again, the best chocolate mousse in the world.
Although this text is not about me, it is about the immense saudade I feel for them. So, as I leafed through their handwritten recipe books, their pages already yellowed by time, I chose two recipes that represent memories that remain alive and delicious, in the hope that they may sweeten your life too.
Potato starch cake
Rosalina Viana
6 eggs
8 tablespoons of sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 tablespoons potato starch
Filling:
100g of butter
100g of sugar
100g of grated coconut
Beat the sugar with the egg yolks. Add the potato starch, baking powder, lemon juice and beaten egg whites. Bake on a greased tray in an oven preheated to 180ºC until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. For the filling, beat the butter with the sugar and add the grated coconut. Cut the cake in half lengthways and fill with the cream.
Chocolate mousse
Fátima Carneiro
200g of chocolate
100g of butter
5 eggs
150g of sugar
Melt the chocolate with the butter in a bain-marie. Allow to cool. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar. Then slowly add the melted chocolate, stirring all the time. Fold in the beaten egg whites and place in the fridge.
(My grandmother would roughly chop some extra chocolate and fold it into the mousse before refrigerating).
