The “Dulce Isabel” dessert competition has “crowned” its winner: a cake with precisely this shape which will be the gentle official of 550th anniversary of the proclamation of Isabel I as Queen of Castile. This Monday, Tourism Advisor May Escobar presented the prize to its creators, as well as to the winners of the “amateur” prize.
“In a city like Segovia, gastronomy could not be missing from this party. We wanted this anniversary to have its own dessert and the result was excellent,” said the councilor, since the competition was launched by the tourist area. Escobar said that the decision was not easy. The motivation of each dessert told a little story that conveyed the emotion that these artists put into their works. So, each pastry chef. focused on one aspect of the reign of Isabel I: in the ingredients used at the time, in those discovered in America, in the aesthetics of medieval desserts… but without a doubt, the most beautiful thing was to feel that Isabel is still very present in Segovia and it is even a source of inspiration for creating desserts today.
“Los Católicos” is the name of the sweet winner of the professional category, created by young pastry chefs Alba Hernández and Ana Luisa Santos24 and 19 years old respectively. It is a semifreddo in the colors of the royal standard with local ingredients, such as anise syrup, cheese and yogurt from Sacramenia and strawberry gel from La Granja. Surrounded by an elaborate crown of cigarette paste, it has five layers inside, alluding to the number five, so representative of this 550th anniversary.
In the “amateur” category, the prize was awarded to women from Segovia Daniela López Sanz, Laura Sacristán and Carlota del Amobetween 20 and 21 years old. Their dessert consists of a few country biscuits which highlight the emblems of this 550th anniversary: the crown and the Y with which the queen signed her name, delicately made on the biscuit. All three are third-year history undergraduate students at the Complutense University of Madrid. Passionate about the history of Segovia and the time of Isabel la Católica, they searched in the pastry books of that time so that the dessert was as truthful as possible, using ingredients common at that time such as almonds, flour, sugar, honey and meringue, specifies the consistory in a press release.
The creators of the desserts, all women, received this morning two trophies made by the Segovian company Velázquez Medallas y Trofeos, an original and unique design composed of a plaque with the crown which has become the emblem of the celebration of the 550th anniversary of the proclamation of Isabella the Catholic.
Where to try it?
The “Los Católicos” dessert will be enjoyed at “Meeting the Queen” at the Alcazar and will be sold at a stand in the Plaza de los Mercaderes, while the winners of the “amateur” category will benefit from two invitations to the re-enactment of the proclamation ceremony which will take place this Saturday on the pavement of the Cathedral.
In total, four desserts were presented in the professional category and three in the “amateur” category. The jury that selected these two desserts was made up of tourism advisor, May Escobar; Rocío Gil, president of the Pastry Chefs Association of Segovia; Vicente Calle, president of the Association of Chefs; Berta Migueláñez, teacher at CIFP Felipe VI; the technician of the Department of Tourism, Belén Peña and the person in charge of Tourism of Segovia, Patricia Otones.
