La Dani, recent winner of the Feroz award for best supporting actor, says that she is a little more amazed every day. “I can't believe what's happening to me: I've gone from watching viral videos to starring in them,” he says after saying the most emotional speech of the gala which precedes the Goya (for which it is also nominated). Her agenda is now full of interviews and invitations to events: one of the ones she was most excited about was her participation in the Canal Sur program The afternoon, here and now, which Juan y Medio directs and presents. “It is the dream of all Andalusians,” he says. “People usually bring typical things from their town there, so I brought some crazy cakes to distribute to the public,” he says. The attendees celebrated and gave him a standing ovation, but when the camera was pointed at the stands, something serious was seen. They didn't trust. Crazy one? What is that?
The crazy cake is already an icon of Malaga, a symbol of its gastronomy that seems to have been there since the founding of the city at the same level as the espeto, the campero and its soccer team. Its creation, in fact, comes from the hands of a footballer, Barcelona central defender Eduardo Rubio, who signed for the Malaguista club in the 1950s, when players had to supplement their meager salary – when there was one – with another job. Rubio was a pastry chef and decided to open a bakery named after him in the capital. The economic hardships of the time barely allowed its neighbors to taste some biscuit doughs and other coarser proposals – also delicious – such as Carob cakes.
This is how a myth is born
The player got carried away and decided to make a puff pastry, cut out two oval discs, put pastry cream in the middle and cover one part with a Catalan glaze. To finish he put an icing on the cake, which soon became the most acclaimed in the city. He didn't have a name, but then Luisa Linares and Los Galindos published their hit 'A lo loco' and the sweet was baptized. First as crazy and, as in Malaga all the sweets then were cakes, then he changed to crazy, his definitive name.
In the mid-eighties, when Rubio was already thinking more about his retirement, he sold the workshop to the husband of one of his employees, who had already run one for years and wanted to expand the business. Thus they took the baton of that unique sweet and his son, Manuel Ruiz, maintains it today: the name of Obrador Tejeros It is already a synonym for crazy cakes. In its enormous facilities in the Fuente Olletas neighborhood—north of the capital—there are dozens of trays full of these orange circles. There, between 2,000 and 3,000 are made per day, which are distributed among local bakeries, cafes, restaurants and hotels, but also to other parts of Andalusia.
“There was a time, in the 80s and 90s, that the crazy woman went almost unnoticed, she stayed aside. Starting in 2000, however, young people claimed it: they made it their own,” says Ruiz, manager of the workshop. The cake is already a Malaguita symbol, an image as recognizable in the city as the sweet wine, La Farola, the fine shells, the sardine skewer or the barrels of El Pimpi. Their presence is common in the shopping cart, and it goes further: in hotels of the NH or Vincci chains they are part of the welcome to the clientele in their rooms, it is part of the latest Costa del Sol Tourism campaign and this year it is one of the elements that stars on the poster of the Malaga Festival, which is held at the beginning of March, where guests will also receive a crazy cake as a welcome.
Crazy in love and hood
Its ingredients are simple: puff pastry, pastry cream with vanilla and cinnamon, false egg yolk for the glaze and a cherry—today in puree form—as a finishing touch, a process that at Obrador Tejeros carries out practically over 24 hours. It is the time necessary to knead the puff pastry, fold it, rest it, stretch it, cut the discs and bake them. Also to prepare the filling, which must set, and for the sugar in the final glaze to crystallize. The standard is a bite of about 100 grams – traditionally it was larger, but the size decreased as concerns about sugar increased – and the most popular now is the pancake, about 50 grams. There is also a button format; of a few grams, to accompany coffee like a cookie, and giant, which can reach a kilo.
For Valentine's Day they prepare a heart-shaped love madness and for Easter the crazy one with the hood, with a pyramid shape and emulating a Nazarene. Now they are trying to replace the classic frosting with “modern flavors,” as Ruiz says: Lotus, Oreo or Kinder cookies, among others. Many of these formats; along with other products such as borrachuelos, are sold online throughout Spain, although there are also offices in strategic places such as the AVE station or the airport to take them as gifts in traditional metal boxes illustrated by Alejandro Villén —where everything from Chiquito to the donkey taxis of Mijas or Antonio Banderas take center stage. — and even in the one with The Great Crazy Goose Game drawn. From crazy to crazy and I shoot because it's my turn.
Other crazy women (which are not few)
Kiki House, a confectionery known for its giant chocolate palm trees, also makes XXL locas, a classic for birthdays, celebrations or events with friends. The vast majority of workshops in the city and its surroundings also make locas, with greater or lesser success. “What has become clear to me is that the small ones are richer,” explains La Dani, that on your Instagram profile It analyzes each cake that is taken and adds a rating to make a ranking.
Among the last ones he has tasted, those of the Aranda bakery, in the La Victoria neighborhood, right where he grew up. “I was born in Malaga but I lived from the age of 5 to 11 in Ibiza. When I returned, I remember the snacks at my grandmother's house with my aunts, my cousins and my mother during the summer. It is something that remained in my memory, and when I took a bite of these crazy ones they took me back to my childhood,” she points out. In her classification also appear those of The Exquisite either The Tropicana, in the Teatinos area: “It's crazy like old, with a very Malaga flavor,” he defines. That “very Málaga” flavor is what some ice cream parlors have also added to their offering, such as Holy Gem (El Palo) or Nonna —with an office in Plaza de la Merced— where they serve tubs or cones with scoops of crazy cake-flavored ice cream.
There are also restaurants that have incorporated them into their menus: Araboka, in the center of the capital, offered its chocolate version with a cheese and ginger filling for a time. The pioneer was the chef Pepo Frade, who in his restaurant Aire Gastrobar For 15 years, he has been making a salty trompe l'oeil where the pastry cream is replaced by a warm crabgrass cream and the icing is replaced by a pepper. “It's a nod to local gastronomy,” explains the man from Malaga, whose proposal comes and goes seasonally on the menu and is always included in one of his tasting menus. Classic, mini, giant, frozen and even salty: in Malaga there are crazy cakes for all tastes, you just have to find yours.
In the section Product of the month We tell the story of foods that excite us because of their quality, their flavor and the talent of the people who make them. No producer has given us money, jewelry or gift vouchers from Mercadona for the production of these items.
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