Pão de Ló

Pão de ló, written in Japanese both as “paon de rō” and as “panderō,” is a Portuguese cake made mainly with eggs, sugar and wheat flour. No fermented leavening is used; it rises with the air held in beaten eggs. The yellow crumb, colored by the eggs, may be light enough to tear easily by hand, or may keep a runny center that sinks, and its appearance differs by region. The ratio of whole eggs to yolks, the amount of flour, how molds and paper are used, and how it is baked all change its texture and shape.

Ovar’s Cake with a Runny Center

Ovar’s version is characterized by its generous use of egg yolks and a moist center. In the Ovar-style recipe (ingredient proportions and method) by the food writer Clara de Sousa, there are 60 grams of flour to 4 whole eggs, 14 egg yolks and 250 grams of sugar. No milk or butter is added; the cake relies on the moisture, fat and foam of the eggs. The eggs and sugar are beaten for 20 minutes, and even after the flour is added, mixing continues for 10 minutes at the mixer’s lowest speed. The specification of Ovar’s producers’ association allows mixing after the flour is added to be done either by hand or by machine. This step makes the beaten batter uniform without leaving lumps of flour or unevenly mixed patches.

Beneath the thinly browned surface form a light sponge and a moist part called pito. The batter is poured into a deep earthenware mold with no hole in the center and baked. The inside of the mold is lined closely with white paper that rises above the rim. This keeps large gaps from forming between the mold and the paper, so the paper supports the batter both during baking and while it cools. The cake is taken out of the oven when the edges have set and the center still wobbles slightly, and it is cooled in the mold. The baking time changes how much pito remains.

In Clara’s method, the cake rests in the mold until the next day before the paper is opened. As it rests in the earthenware mold, which still holds heat, the center sinks, and the paper keeps a mark showing the height the cake reached as it rose in baking. The paper that served as the lining becomes the wrapping just as it is. “Pão de Ló de Ovar,” from the municipality of Ovar, was registered as an EU IGP in 2016, but this registration covers the Ovar cake, and other regions have their own methods.

Margaride’s Cake, Baked in a Mold with a Hole

Using a mold with a hole in the center makes the same egg cake ring-shaped. The cake made in Margaride, in Felgueiras in the north, has this ring shape. The golden crumb is light; the cake is taken out with its paper and torn by hand. Techniques using earthenware and domed ovens are part of its making, and it is enjoyed on tables set to welcome visitors at Easter and at Christmas, and with port wine throughout the year.

The production history of Margaride preserves the name of Clara Maria, who died in 1831. Her family then carried on the confectionery, and by the end of the 19th century they were recognized as suppliers to the royal household. It is a cake cherished at local celebrations, with its method passed down through the family.

Alfeizerão’s Cake, Baked Covered with Paper

Alfeizerão’s cake also keeps a moist center. Some methods use many egg yolks and add sugar, wheat flour, salt and grape brandy. The batter is beaten for a long time, poured into a greased mold, covered with paper on top and baked. It bakes so that the center sinks, but unlike Ovar’s, the paper is not laid inside the mold; instead it covers the top during baking.

Cakes from Vizela and Arouca with White Icing

Vizela’s bolinhol uses many egg yolks and is baked mainly in rectangles. A thick, whitish sugar syrup is spread by hand over the slightly moist yellow cake baked in paper molds. Its name also appears in records of the 1884 Guimarães Industrial Exhibition.

Arouca has both a moist cake glazed with syrup, cut and individually wrapped, and a drier round cake. Even among the sweets bearing the Arouca name, there are differences in moistness and shape.

A Moist Cake Created by a Cook in Rio Maior

In the late 1960s, Alice Sequeira of the restaurant “Avis” experimented with a cake that was moister and different in appearance. Some say she reworked the cake previously sold there, which resembled Margaride’s, while others say she based it on a home recipe for the Alfeizerão cake. Although accounts differ as to which cake it was based on, the moist texture Alice sought and her work were carried on by her family. Among moist pão de ló, besides those said to be connected with convents, there are also ones that, like this, came from a modern cook’s ingenuity.

Theories About the Meaning of “Ló”

Pão means bread, but there is no settled explanation for ló. The Portuguese word ló has one entry referring to the windward side of a ship and another meaning a thin, gauze-like fabric. The former is linked to the French lof, while the distant origin of the latter is unknown. One interpretation likens the cake to a soft, thin fabric, and another theory traces the name to a German confectioner named Lot. Who named it, and when, is not known.

From a 16th-Century Almond Sweet to an 18th-Century Cake of Beaten Eggs

The pão de ló in the 16th-century cookbook associated with the Infanta Maria is a sweet made by adding crushed almonds and flower-scented water to sugar syrup, heating and mixing it, then spreading it out and cutting it. It has the same name, but its ingredients differ from those of today’s cake made with wheat flour and eggs.

The 1785 edition of Lucas Rigaud’s cookbook includes “pão de ló, or Savoy cake.” In this method, egg yolks, sugar, lemon zest and candied orange blossom are mixed for about 30 minutes, separately beaten egg whites are combined with them, and then flour equal to half the weight of the eggs is added little by little. The cake is baked in a copper mold and served as it is or finished with an icing of sugar, egg white and lemon juice. Whereas in the 16th century it was a sweet of sugar and almonds worked together, this cookbook records a method of beating eggs.

Portuguese Gift-Giving Customs and an Egg Sweet That Crossed the Sea

In Ovar, Father Manuel Lírio has studied a record from 1781 of the cake being given to clergy who carried statues of saints in a Holy Week procession. In the 19th century, home production spread, and by the end of the century people who worked on boats were carrying it to Lisbon to give to boat owners and customers on holidays.

Connections with convents also vary by region. Alfeizerão’s cake has a history tied to the Monastery of Cós, but it is not known whether all of Ovar’s methods came from convents. Households and confectioners have also developed their own methods.

The Brazilian scholar Luís da Câmara Cascudo, along with the interpretation of the cake as a soft sweet resembling thin fabric, cites Alcântara Machado’s research showing that a 1651 property inventory lists two copper bowls for making it. He also records, from his own childhood memories, the custom of covering a tray of these cakes with black silk cloth and giving it as a condolence gift. Having crossed the sea, the sweet was brought to grieving households as well as to celebrations.

Japan’s castella, likewise made mainly with eggs, sugar and wheat flour, also arrived from Portugal and then developed its own moist form through refinements in sweeteners, proportions and a baking method that regulates heat from above and below. Sweets that rely on egg foam are finished with distinct textures in each place, according to local ingredients and tools.

Glossary