The cake with no rival
Uncovering the layers of the gluten-free cashew cake that’s become a Christmas favourite in Goa
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In the olden days, they said, the status of a wedding could be gauged by the sweets (dessert) table. A well-to-do family, able to hire a caterer of some standing, usually laid it out with bebinca, dedos de dama (marzipan fingers with burnt sugar), caramel pudding, toucinho do céu (almond cake), fios de ovos (egg threads cooked in syrup), quindim (baked custard) and bolo sans rival, among other treats. “They were my first introduction to many of these sweets. They weren’t made at home, but were popular at weddings and functions, the handiwork of mestas (master cooks),” says Anisha Andrade, Mumbai-based founder of delivery kitchen, Cozinha Amarosa.
Those weddings may be long gone, but the sweets linger on in memories, surfacing every few years as a new discovery in the Goan foodscape. Over the last few decades, bebinca wobbled its way into the hearts and stomachs of Goans and visitors alike winning itself the moniker ‘queen of Goan desserts’. Fios de ovos or letria peaks in popularity during Christmas. A quick look at restaurant menus shows that serradura (a biscuit pudding) is the current hot favourite. The newest forgotten kid on the block is bolo sans rival.
Bolo Sans Rival (Bolo Sem Rival) sometimes called just sans rival is cashew cake. (Note: cashew here usually references the nut and not the cashew apple). Bolo means cake in Portuguese, and sans rival is French for without rival. It has three main ingredients: egg whites, cashew and sugar. This cake is layered — macaron-like discs made with egg whites and cashew nut powder, sandwiched with buttercream, and covered with slivered cashew nuts or sliced cherries. The cakier version could be likened to a sponge or a pound cake. It is a rich but dainty cake, moist and creamy, with lasting hints of crunch and nuttiness.
“It’s making the news now in the last seven or eight years. This is a tough cake to make, and requires much skill. People are now learning how to make it, and thus it has become something to showcase. It has cashews and is a crisp and sweet dessert that anyone would relish,” says Crescy Baptista, co-founder, The Goan Kitchen, Loutolim. “It has become the new serradura.” Another reason for its popularity is that it is flourless, gluten-free for the millennials. “It appeals to people who don’t want sweet items with flour in them. With this cake, you can relish a bit at a time. It stays beautifully in the fridge too,” says Andrade.
The rising popularity of sans rival is interesting for a cake that doesn’t typically feature in most Goans’ diets. In ‘Cozinha de Goa: History and Tradition of Goan Food’, Dr Fatima da Silva Gracias writes, ‘Urban Goan women knowing Portuguese consulted cookery books published in Portugal. This included Doces e Cozinhados, which has over thousand recipes and menus for daily meals and as well as other occasions, and was a guide to privileged Goan women of the times.’ These dishes/sweets were thus restricted to the class of folk who were able to afford the cashew nuts, almonds and other ingredients that went into them.
As with the almond drink orchata, I did not grow up eating sans rival. It wasn’t a part of our celebrations. I discovered it only as an adult. My younger brother, Jonathan, first introduced me to sans rival. He ordered it from Indira Borges of iBake in Aldona. I was instantly smitten by the daintiness and richness of this seemingly simple cake. It quickly became a favourite in the family, ordered as gifts on birthdays and dessert for special occasions. Three years back, at Jonathan’s wedding, the dessert table had eight sans rival. Most recently, it became the unofficial birthday cake of a friend who enjoyed the flavour of cashew in it. Nibbling delicately on a slice — sans rival has to be savoured by the slice — prompted me to dig into the cake a little and uncover its layers.
The history of this dish is contested. Some say it came from France via the Portuguese, introduced as the Gateau Sans Rival. Sans Rival is a classic Filipino dessert too, and its origins could be South East Asian. The French original is made with almond or hazelnut meringue. Both the Philippines and Goa use cashews; the former toast the nuts and the Goans use them plain. In the early 19th century, almonds were not easily available in Goa and often, very expensive. Da Silva Gracias writes, ‘Food and recipes were not always introduced in their original form, and instead modified according to the availability of the ingredients, climatic conditions and local tastes. Thanks to the Portuguese’s sea-faring ways, Goan Christmas sweets acquired traits from Portugal, Macau, and Arabia. Iberian ships arrived with cashew. Pasteis de Santa Clara [pastry with almond and egg yolk filling] and Bolo Sans Rival focussed on almonds, they were substituted with cashew nuts here and sometimes almond essence.’
“My grandmother used to make it with almonds. Slowly, almonds started getting expensive so they substituted cashew nuts, which tasted far better. Roasting almonds makes them quite bland,” says Evelise Silveira, home baker and administrator, Alliance Française Goa.
Silveira makes the sans rival at Horse Shoe Bar & Restaurant in Panjim, the 40-year old iconic space run by chef Vasco Silveira. Their version has two layers of cake with a thin layer of buttercream.
Given its ingredients, sans rival is an expensive treat but offers enough riches to those who seek it.
The biggest issue hampering the popularity of this cake is that its recipe is a closely guarded secret. It could do with people wanting to protect their business (very few make this cake), or a general gatekeeping on what was once an elite dish. Sure, you will find recipes online, or in old cookbooks, but none mention the proper method. Understanding the layers, and mastering the meringue are a skill born from natural talent and much practice.
It’s a skill that came easy to Janice Figueiredo from Aldona, whose bebinca and sans rival are legendary in the family. “I used to make a lot of bebinca and would end up with a lot of leftover egg whites. I didn’t want to waste them and we quickly got tired of eating omelettes,” says the assistant branch manager. A search through her trusted Joyce Fernandes cookbook for a recipe that used egg whites led her to this cake. “I had eaten it at some weddings and I remember everyone loves the taste of it. I decided to try it out.” She took Fernandes’ recipe, and worked on it, making adjustments to compensate for mistakes. Now a staple at Christmas, Figueiredo’s sans rival is a delicate and cakey dessert, without being cloyingly sweet.
Baptista first heard of the cake from her mother-in-law, who spoke about how it would be cooked in makeshift ‘ovens’, earthen pots over firewood. Baptista began baking it four years back, learning on her own with some help from her mother-in-law. Over in Panjim, Belfania Dias of Bell’s Cakes and Pastries also learned to bake this cake on her own. She turned to the internet for a recipe, practicing for years till she perfected the meringue (“nice and chewy but not too crisp”) and the buttercream (“light and airy, and low on sugar”).
The sans rival of today has evolved.
“This cake used to have several variants that have now been swept under the rug. The one that’s common today is the buttercream version and it has become the norm. The interesting part is that even the Philippines has different variations — some use buttercream, others meringue; some cases they toast cashew, in others, they use macadamia or pistachios. There are plenty of variations but nothing has been documented,” says Fernando Monte da Silva, food and travel writer, and one half of Our White Door.
He adds that two people who’ve stymied this belief that there’s only one way to eat the sans rival is Oswin Pinto from Hog Worth, and Vasco Silveira —both their versions are ‘cakey’. Earlier, says Silveira, sans rival would sometimes be made like a biscuit or wafer, oblong and with the crispness of a cookie. “I use my grandmother’s recipe and have modified it to suit the times; for instance our eggs are different,” she says. She serves the cake minus the buttercream frosting, because customers said it masked the taste of the cashew.
“Today, different people use different combinations: some bake it so there’s some crispness to it, many use peanuts and cashew nuts in equal measure. Some put almond essence in the frosting, which actually clashes with the cashew,” she adds. Bakers have tweaked their recipes to accommodate different tastes, reduce the sweetness, or just make it look better. The standard is two to four layers with a buttercream frosting or icing. Monte da Silva likens it to a cashew nut pavlova.
Whatever the origin, or variation, there’s no denying this cake is enjoying its time in the sun. “People treat it as a dessert, but it is actually a cake and can be eaten on any occasion that demands one,” says Baptista.
If you are eating sans rival, it is an occasion.
Find your cake and eat it!
· Horse Shoe Bar & Restaurant, Panjim. Call 0832 243 1788
· Nostalgia, Raia.
Call 0832 277 7054
· Lilsons, Panjim.
WhatsApp 9850459667
· Bell’s Cakes and Pastries, Santa Cruz. Call 99228 98984
· The Goan Kitchen, Loutolim. INR 2200/kg.
Call 080077 62121
· Melissa Martins, Vasco.
Call 9370531275
· Indira Borges of IBake, Aldona. Call 83909 64142
· Santa Rita Fast Food, Taleigao. Call 08322236688/ 7030769922
· Cozinha Amarosa in Mumbai. Call 098213 99414
