Visiting Felgueiras, Portugal: home to the traditional ‘Pão de Ló’ cake
The oldest Pao de Lo factory in Felgueiras Just one week before Easter I had the pleasure to visit Felgueiras, a small city in the North of Portugal, only a 45-minute drive away from Porto. With a small group of journalists from Brussels we travelled to the birthplace of Pão de Ló and attended the festival that’s all about the bread with the hole. *The organiser kindly invited me to the two day trip to the city and the festival. Literally translated, Pão de Ló means bread of Ló, but taste and texturewise it’s more a sponge cake than a bread. Its production dates to the beginnings of the 18 th century, when a certain Clara Maria started to produce the today famous Pão de Ló de Margaride. The little bread factory, that is more of a vintage bakery, still exists today and is located right in the heart of Felgueiras. We were quite lucky to visit it and watch the hard-working ladies and men during the whole process. It was an exciting experience to see how this traditional cake ...