By Casey Neill
Monica’s Cakes has been a Springvale South fixture for 25 years come December.
Jose Bevacqua took over baking duties from the retiring previous owner about three years ago.
“He also was the one to teach me,” he said.
“This is a little gem from South American in Melbourne.”
The Argentinian-born chef churns out hundreds of South American pastries every day.
“We make facturas. Facturas is like a Danish,” he said.
“In our culture we have facturas like a breakfast in the morning or in the afternoon with a coffee.”
Jose said the traditional Argentinian pastry recipes differed from their French equivalents.
“The French croissant is something very crispy, very airy,” he said.
“Ours is a little bit more dense.
“We’ve got a lot of egg in the recipe, too, which is more rich in flavour.
“I love croissants, I love making croissants.
“On Saturdays I make maybe 200.
“The other main ingredient is the caramel.
“Ninety per cent of our products have caramel on it.”
He makes about 300 profiteroles each day, effortlessly piping a choux pastry that looks more like butter onto metre-long baking trays in elegant swirls.
“This recipe is nearly 600 grams of flour and 1.2 kilograms of egg,” he said.
They’re a best seller and can feature savoury or sweet fillings.
Jose normally starts baking at 5am, and has help in the shop from his wife and daughter.
“It’s a family business,” he said.
When asked when he started baking, Jose said: “This is something that you learn when you’re a kid.
“I got the opportunity to learn from someone that was born in a bakery.”
He still makes his pastries and cakes the old-fashioned way, mixing doughs and batters by hand.
He’ll take the same approach to his next venture – ice cream.
“We make ice cream the very, very traditional way,” he said.
“We don’t use any premix.”
Opening Sundays is another plan on the horizon, along with expanding the shop area – in turn reducing the kitchen space – and adding chairs and a coffee machine.
“I’m looking not to move the shop but to move the production,” Jose said.
“Every two weeks or three weeks I have people from cafes asking ‘can you do this or supply this?’ and I have to say no.”
