"What's so special about my cakes? Well, what They are mother's cakes: they are authentic cakes”. With these words Pilar Molina proudly sums up, a Granada-born and retired Secondary Language and Literature teacher who, unintentionally, for a few years has turned her most adored cheesecake into a success as a pastry, the reason why everyone loves her creations.
She is the protagonist of this story, one of those that shows that success is sometimes achieved by believing in it. Or betting: because If you are sure that you are capable of achieving it, the key is to put all your heart into it.
But her journey in the world of baking began long before her cakes became famous. Because she in her house, she tells her, she has always dedicated hours and love to cooking, an art for which she admits to having a lot of skill.
“I have always made many things, although not cakes in particular because I end up eating them” she jokes between laughs, “but in general I have always liked to walk around the stove”. However - and despite her desire to control the greedy side of her -, one of the recipes that everyone constantly fawned over was their cheesecake.
Interior of the store in Granada.
A cake with a unique and exquisite flavor, with a creamy and smooth texture —although to the limit, so that it can be cut into pieces, explains Pilar—, whose formula she knew how to perfect over the years. Her base, yes, arose from the one that she taught her to make her own mother: From then on, she tried to add and modify, to test, risk and adapt details from other recipes —including one that her daughter, Marta, was in charge of bringing her from her trips— her until she came to mold her own.
The result? A delicious cake that has ended up conquering palates even beyond our borders.
WHEN TO WANT IS TO BE ABLE
"The point is that it all started as a joke," says Pilar. “All the time we have had a great time, and that is fundamental in our history, although we have had to work a lot”, she adds.
And it is that the cheesecake was always that recipe that Pilar prepared to celebrate any special occasion: the one that she took with her to the institute to share with her classmates; the one she made to enjoy with her family or the one she cooked for a snack with friends. Even to serve it in the fashion store of her daughter Cristina de ella, to whose inauguration she contributed with the acclaimed cake: when most of her assistants, friends of the cicerone, affirmed that what motivated them most about that visit was to take a piece of "Cris's mother's cake", they began to think about it.
What if they were giving him the key to building a business? I mean: what if they sold it? And they got to work. It was then 2008, the world was in the midst of an economic crisis and yet the whole family went on an adventure.
Pilar and her daughters.
It didn't take them long to find a perfect place to set up a shop. in the Plaza de la Pescadería, next to the cathedral of Grenade: The first step was given. The next thing was to transform the garage of his house into a workshop: the days began to have then a special aroma in your home, that of the oven in which delicacies were cooked, but also dreams.
Odors that caught and led to fantasize about moments in company enjoyed with this delicacy. They thought that the best marketing plan for the business was the cake itself: “I took furniture from my house and put it in the store to make it more welcoming. It occurred to us to offer people who came to browse a slice of our cake so they could try it”.
And the business began to work between words of praise: who tasted, repeated. The wheel continued to roll by inertia: events such as Gourmet Pomegranate , where they reaped hit after hit, or the Madrid Gourmet Hall . Her cake began to sound more and more and the work came by itself. They couldn't believe it, but Cris's mother's cake What other name could they have given the business? it was already a reality.
“At the beginning it was very hard because of course, it is one thing to make a cake and another to make a lot of cakes, but progressively I started hiring friends of my children and even my nephews: Now I have like 20 employees. We changed to a ship, I have a large workshop from which we ship to all of Spain... And not only can you buy online by private people, but also We also send to restaurants”, says Pilar.
Cheesecake (and lots of love).
To restaurants... and abroad, because he assures that in search of his cake People have arrived from the most unusual places: Puerto Rico, California or Saudi Arabia are just some of them.
A sweet pleasure, that of taking a piece of Cris's mother's cake, which made even in the months of confinement they will not turn off their ovens either: “During the pandemic, people have used us a lot to send it to their cousin, to her mother, to her doctors… to give it to people”.
Sure, because what better way to lift your spirits than this? But as the project progressed, so did its size: Today Cris's mother's cake has a much larger workshop, but also stores in Grenade, Malaga (c/ Granada, 56) Y Seville (Savior Square), with restaurants spread throughout the Spanish geography where they serve their cakes, and with a somewhat more extensive menu than in the beginning.
This includes three different measures and various types of cheesecake —the classic one, the one with blue cheese and another suitable for coeliacs—, as well as alternative flavors: a chocolate and blueberry cake, another with three chocolates, one carrot and another coconut with dulce de leche.
The best of all? That They are made one by one in an absolutely handmade way. However, when we ask the Granada woman about the recipe, she admits that “it's a bit secret”.
We are left wanting to know, but he gives us a clue: the key is to use only quality product. "I do one thing that is good," he says, “and I like that people like it: if they like it, it's because it's made for real, and that's the secret. It's not that my cake is better than the one any mother would make in her house, what happens is that normally the mothers do not sell them”.
Well, perhaps Pilar is right, but we, for now, we settle for the sweet pleasure of taking a bite of yours. There will be time to learn...
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