La Carolina, the pastry that Bilbao carries in its soul

 If there is one sweet that defines Bilbao, it is la carolina. Not the most sophisticated, not the most famous beyond these streets — but without question the most beloved. The one that vanishes first from the tray at family celebrations, the one every Bilbaoan remembers from childhood with meringue on their fingers and an unavoidable smile.

Carolina by Martina Zuricalday

To understand la carolina, you have to picture Bilbao at the turn of the twentieth century, in the maze of narrow streets of the old town known as the Siete Calles — the Seven Streets. A pastry maker from the neighbourhood, whose name history has not seen fit to preserve, had a daughter who was mad about meringue. To make it easier for her to enjoy it, he devised a pastry that would show it off in all its glory: a crisp puff pastry basket, filled with custard cream or coconut paste, crowned with a dome of meringue painted in two colours with chocolate and egg.

On his daughter's birthday he presented her with his creation. And he named it after her: Carolina.
Legend or true story, what is certain is that the pastry went on to conquer Bilbao. For decades, no celebration worth its name — christening, first communion, birthday, wedding — was complete without a tray of carolinas doing the rounds. And so it remains today.

Mini Carolina by Martina Zuricalday

Over time, the carolina evolved. Along came the carolino — the bite-sized version, ideal for passing around — and, inevitably in a city where Athletic Club is far more than a football team, the red-and-white carolina, decorated in the club's colours to mark every trophy and every moment of sporting joy.
La carolina and Athletic, two emblems of Bilbao

The recipe is deceptively simple: puff pastry, coconut cream or custard, and that two-tone chocolate-and-egg meringue that is its unmistakable signature. But simplicity can deceive — the balance between the crunch of the pastry, the softness of the filling and the lightness of the meringue is precisely what makes it so difficult to stop at just one.

Carolina ingredients

So deeply woven into the city's identity is la carolina that it once graced the official poster for Bilbao's Carnival — complete with a moustache added for the occasion, transformed into el Karolino, the carnival's own mascot.

Bilbao Carnival poster

The finest carolinas are found in the classic pastry shops of the Casco Viejo and the Ensanche. Martina de Zuricalday, on Calle Ledesma, is an essential stop — one of the oldest pastry houses in Bilbao, open since 1830.

If you visit Bilbao, do not leave without trying one. And if you have already been and somehow missed it because nobody told you this story — well, now you have the perfect excuse to go back.

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