GALICIAN CARNIVAL CAKE (Bica de Laza)

February 24, 2020

This cake of Spanish origin, in addition to being very simple to make, is delicious and ideal to enjoy with a cup of tea or coffee, at Carnival or any time during the year.

Around this time, the small town of Laza in Galicia is known in Spain for its characteristic and very old Carnival celebrations, with some similarities to celebrations also held in the North of Portugal.

One of the desserts that can't be missed in this festivity is the Bica Blanca de Laza, a slightly dense egg white cake with a soft texture and a crunchy top, which is given away to the population on the Sunday before Carnival.

There are also other similar Bicas recipes, but they use whole eggs instead of egg whites and also butter in addition to all the other ingredients.

The ingredients

This cake needs only 4 ingredients: egg whites, sugar, flour and cream.

Egg whites - there are recipes with different amounts of egg whites, but in this case, I used 8 because they were the ones that I had in the freezer and that were leftovers from other desserts; pasteurized whites sold in the supermarket can also be used.
Sugar - the various traditional recipes I read require a lot of sugar, so I decided to reduce the amount in this recipe.
Flour - Traditionally, all-purpose flour is used, but there are those who use self-raising flour to make the cake even softer.
Cream - instead of butter, it's the cream (with 30% fat) that provides fat to the cake, and since there was only a 200ml container in my fridge, I didn't use the 350ml suggested in similar recipes.

How to make

Before starting to prepare the cake, it's better to place the cream in the freezer (for about half an hour) so that it becomes very cold, and thus become fluffier. As soon as they are cold, beat them carefully until whipped cream and reserve aside (don't beat too much because the milk solids start to separate and we get butter instead of whipped cream ...).
It is also convenient that the egg whites are at room temperature so that they can be assembled faster along with the sugar and the meringue is firmer.
After sifting the flour, it is gradually added to the whites with sugar, wrapping with a wooden spoon or spatula, always stirring from the bottom up.
Then the cream is added to the preparation, wrapping it from the bottom up and pouring everything into a greased rectangular pan lined with parchment paper.
Before going to the oven, sprinkle with the remaining sugar (which will form a sweet crust on the cake).
After the cooking time, use the toothpick test to check.
Allow some cooling before unmolding and cutting.