Created by a resourceful nun in 17th-Century Goa, this sticky, seven-Layer cake is made primarily from eggs, coconut, sugar, ghee and flour.”An excess of egg yolks led to the creation of Bebinca,” said Gracian de Souza, a chef and restaurant consultant from India’s western state of Goa. “And in today’s parlance, we can call it a perfect example of zero-waste cooking.” Bebinca is a multi-layered cake that has been dubbed the “queen of Goan desserts” and is considered such an inherent part of Goa’s culinary identity that the state administration is pushing for a Geographical Indication (GI) tag for the caramelised confection. [jump to recipe] De Souza recounted a popular story about bebinca. It goes that in 17th-Century Goa, when the coastal state was under Portuguese rule, nuns in convents used egg whites to bleach their habits. That left them with plenty of egg yolks. In an innovative – and sustainable – twist, Sister Bebiana, a nun at the Convento da Santa Monica in Old Goa, crafted a sticky cake using the leftover yolks and coconut milk, a readily available ingredient in the coastal belt. Historian Fatima da Silva Gracias, who specialises in Indo-Portuguese history, endorses this theory in her book Cozinha de Goa: History and Tradition of Goan Food. She writes that Sister Bebiana might have experimented with the Portuguese tradition of making layered desserts, which are not traditionally found in India. Sister Bebiana’s initial version was a seven-layered cake. When it was sent to the priests of Convent of St Augustine, the Order to which Santa Monica belonged, they found it too small and advised her to increase the layers to at least a dozen. Made with a few simple ingredients – egg yolks, flour, coconut milk, sugar and ghee (clarified butter) with a dash of nutmeg powder to add an aromatic note – the dessert was named bebinca, after its creator Bebiana. While the priests suggested the cake have at least 12 layers, the minimum number of layers of a bebinca remains at seven, and it can have as many as 16. De Souza is passionate about bibik, a doting name Goans have for their distinctive delicacy. “During my school days, it was a treat that I looked forward to whenever I visited our ancestral home in North Goa and it remains the star of the culinary spread during Christmas, Easter and family weddings,” he said.Chef Gracian de Souza is passionate about bibik, a doting name Goans have for bebinca (Credit: Nolan Lobo)As a consultant chef, De Souza has crafted bebinca for collaborative pop-ups. However, it has not made it onto the menus at the restaurants he has headed in Goa, Mumbai and London, though Goan influences have always been markedly present in his culinary repertoire. I asked him why. “It is totally possible to feature bebinca in a restaurant menu and I do have plans to include it in my next venture,” De Souza said. “However, a properly baked bebinca is a gourmet affair and needs patience.” Baking each layer of bebinca, he explained, takes around 20-25 minutes to lock in the complex flavours. This makes it a three-hour session to whip up seven luscious, ghee-smothered layers. This is the reason why the vacuum-packed variants, now widely available in bakeries and on supermarket shelves across Goa, are at best mediocre and taste a little rubbery, lacking the finesse of a painstakingly baked bebinca, one layer at a time. “The moment you go for mass production with bebinca, the melt-in-your-mouth exquisiteness is lost,” De Souza said. Traditionally, bebinca is made in tizals – locally made earthenware pots – in which heat comes from the top. Slow burning coconut husks are positioned atop the lids of the pots, a process that imparts the complex smoky flavours with which the dessert is associated. “The trick is possible even when you bake bebinca with an OTG [oven-toaster-griller],” De Souza explained. “Turn the heat source on top when you are pre-heating the oven.” For De Souza, bebinca represents the joie de vivre of India’s sunshine state. “A weekend project of preparing this decadent dessert can be the ideal opportunity for a family gathering. Laughter, banter and gossip are the perfect accompaniments to the fun baking session, which almost always happens in the backyards of the ancestral Goan homes. It is a legacy that is deeply connected with the spirit of Goa.”Bebinca has been dubbed the “queen of Goan desserts” (Credit: Nolan Lobo)Method Step 1In a small frying pan, simmer 75g (5 tbsp) of sugar over medium high heat, swirling the pot occasionally, until the caramel begins to turn amber, 6 to 8 minutes. Remove from the heat immediately. Add ¼ cup of water to the caramel to cool down the mixture. Step 2Using a food processor or blender, grind the remaining sugar to a powder. Step 3Into 2 large bowls, separate the egg yolks and the whites of 15 eggs. Add the 3 whole eggs to the egg yolks and reserve the egg whites for another use. Step 4Add the powdered sugar to the egg yolks and whisk thoroughly to make it creamy and fluffy.  Step 5Wrap the freshly grated coconut in cheesecloth and squeeze to extract 1½ litres (about 6¼ cups) of the milk into a bowl (or use canned coconut milk). Mix the flour into the coconut milk. Step 6Remove 2 tbsp of the coconut milk mixture and place in a small bowl; mix with the nutmeg powder.  Step 7Whisk the egg mixture with the coconut milk mixture and nutmeg mixture. Pass this through a strainer to ensure a lump-free bebinca mixture. Add a pinch of salt. Divide the bebinca mixture evenly into 2 separate bowls. Step 8Add the cooled caramel to one of the bebinca bowls and stir to get a nice brown colour. Step 9Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. Heat a 25cm (10in) cake tin over medium heat on a stove. Add 2 tbsp of ghee, making sure the ghee covers the bottom. Add enough of the first layer of batter (the lighter batter) to cover the base. Let it cook on the stove over 180C/350F for about 8 to 10 minutes until you see bubbles and the sides turn light brown. Transfer the baking tin to the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the baking pan and spread ½ tsp ghee to the top of the first layer. Step 10Add the second layer of batter (the darker batter), enough to cover the first layer. The layers should be thin, so don’t add too much batter. Reduce the oven temperature to 180C/350F. Put the baking tin in the oven and bake for 15 minutes, until the second layer is cooked. If you see air pockets, don’t worry; press the batter with the back of a tablespoon to release the air. Spread ½ tsp of ghee over the layer. Step 11Pour the third layer (lighter batter) just enough to cover the second layer. Put the baking tin in the oven and repeat this process, alternating the light and dark layers, and baking for about 15 minutes per layer, until all the batter is used. There should be a total of 7 layers. Let the cake cool fully in the pan for 12 hours.  Step 12To demould the cake, set the baking tin over medium heat until the ghee melts at the bottom. Run a knife or spatula against the wall of the baking tin to release the bebinca. Set a flat plate on top of the tin and turn it over to release the bebinca. Serve hot. (The bebinca can be kept at room temperature for a week. You can reheat it in a microwave for 15 seconds before eating.) BBC.com’s World’s Table “smashes the kitchen ceiling” by changing the way the world thinks about food, through the past, present and future. —  Join more than three million BBC Travel fans by liking us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter and Instagram. If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter called “The Essential List”. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Worklife and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday.

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