The dessert is ubiquitous in Australia, but Spanish cake shop La Colmena’s rendition is ethereal. It’s not only the best I’ve had in Melbourne, it’s daresay better than La Viña’s, some 17,000 km away, writes Dani Valent.
If you want to know what joy looks like, feed someone a cake from La Colmena. Cristina Jimenez, founder of Australia’s only Spanish cake shop, turns simple ingredients – eggs, sugar, flour, milk – into pure pleasure through an alchemy that’s anchored by tradition, mediated through recipes and amplified by love.
In one of those great Covid stories, Jimenez was a locked-down computer engineer unable to get back to Spain to visit her family. Out of anguish, she baked for a taste of home. Her passion slowly turned into a pop-up, then her bakery-shop opened at Prahran Market in early 2022.
In a sense, there is no such thing as a Spanish cake: every item is regional, sometimes to a village, even just to one shop, with heritage dating back centuries.
Take the glaseado, probably La Colmena’s most outlandish item, hailing from Almeria, a town near Granada where Jiminez’s mother was born. The cake is barely known elsewhere. A puff pastry base is layered with jam made from the stringy bits of pumpkin in an ancient no-waste effort. The topping is glossy meringue. Imagine baklava married lemon meringue pie and you’re in the ballpark.
Basque cheesecake is ubiquitous in Australia but it’s something of a mirage: it doesn’t really exist in the Basque Country in the north-east of Spain. The well-travelled invention sprang from one humble bar in the region, La Viña in San Sebastian.
La Colmena’s rendition is ethereal, a suspension of dairy in a cloud, as melty as ice-cream, not too sweet, with a dark, bitter top that brings arresting bitterness. It’s not only the best I’ve had in Melbourne, I think it’s better than the original, 17,000 km away.
If you think crema catalana is a Spanish version of France’s creme brulee, this is the place to learn the four ways it is different. Firstly, it’s made with milk, not cream. Secondly, that milk is infused with citrus rind and cinnamon. Thirdly, it’s stirred to thicken, not baked. Lastly, the top layer of sugar is turned to glassy caramel with a pala, a special branding iron that causes flames to shoot up as it caramelises the granules. It’s spectacular and the result is transcendent: a shatter-crisp treat with a smoky tinge that resolves into heady, silky wonder. Don’t tell the French but this is better.
Jimenez is more than a baker. She’s an archivist and historian, layering narrative as much as she’s layering pastry. She’ll tell you about the ensaimada, a featherlight sourdough scroll that takes three days to make. It’s rolled with lard, a practice that dates to the 15th century Spanish Inquisitions, when imperilled Jewish bakers swapped oil for lard to prove they had converted to Christianity. (Lard is made from pork, forbidden in the Jewish religion.)
The flor – a fried flower-shaped pastry – is about 600-years-old too. Crisp and bright with a gentle aniseed flavour, the petalled structure is complex but clever: you can neatly snap it in half and then in quarter to reveal a dainty heart shape.
Tocino de cielo is even older, a 14th-century confection invented by nuns in Andalusia. Made with yolks left over after clarifying wine with egg whites, this tooth-achingly sweet, custardy slice is offset by Jimenez’s own brainwave, an almond crumble base that gives structure and mitigates the sugar hit.
That’s just one example of the way innovation and tradition happily co-exist here. A few months ago, Jimenez decided to turn leftover ensaimadas into a kind of bread-and-butter pudding with bruleed top – it’s comforting and delicious.
La Colmena doesn’t advertise the depth of its endeavour, nor its uniqueness, but now you know. It’s a humble takeaway, but carry your spoils to shared market tables nearby. Just be aware, with every mouthful, you’ll be a living demonstration of joy.
Three other Spanish spots to try
Anada
This longstanding southern Spanish restaurant has a sweet date-night menu for $49 per person. It includes snacks to start followed by a lovingly made seafood paella, cooked slowly so the rice absorbs the saffron and stock, and the essential caramelised crust called soccarat forms at the base.
197 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, anada.com.au
La Central
Dive into Spanish food and culture at this jam-packed and super informative deli and bodega. Whether you want the right advice and ingredients for cooking Spanish at home, or you want to sit down for a tasting platter of Iberico ham and vermouth, this is the spot.
Stall 45, South Melbourne Market, Coventry Street, South Melbourne, lacentral.com.au
Little Drop of Poison
Maybe you can’t get to Madrid but you can probably get to Eltham for a cosy tapas bar experience. This laneway hideout serves croquetas and gildas (toothpick snacks) along with baked pasta, fried chicken and ‘crack salt’ calamari.
937b Main Road, Eltham, littledropofpoison.com.au
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