Kakanin, Pastries, and Sweets

Sweets are the family inheritance: I have so many recipes, I couldn’t fit them all in these pages. My lola specialized in Ensaymadas, spiral pastries golden with eggs and flaking at the touch, a signature of her home province of Pampanga. It was one of her best-kept secrets, revealed to no one outside the family however hard they begged—until now. (Forgive me, Lola!) Then there’s my lola’s sister, Amalia Hizon Mercado, who was famous for her kakanin, treats made of sticky rice, which she started out selling at drugstores. Her daughter, Teresita Moran, expanded the family repertoire to Western-style cakes, keeping them soft and airy, and in 1979, the two of them opened a small bakery in Quezon City. If you’re Filipino, you know it: Red Ribbon Bakeshop, today a brand-name chain owned by the fast-food behemoth Jollibee, with hundreds of outlets in the Philippines and the United States. It’s a lot to live up to, but I’m doing my best.