El calendari dolç i salat dels motlles The sweet and savoury calendar of Mallorcan baking moulds

In Mallorca, every festivity has its own sweet treat, and every sweet treat has its own mould. This symbiosis between the festive calendar and local pastries is evident in kitchens and ovens across the island, where traditional moulds are not just cooking tools, but objects steeped in memory and identity.

Many of these moulds come from the same place: the Bàrbara Art workshop, a small family business located in the heart of Porreres, which has been keeping the ancient craft of tinwork alive since 1992. Biel Cortès, who started in this trade at the age of fifteen under the guidance of his father, Pep Cortès, is the soul of this project, now shared with Miquel Toledo, with whom he combines traditional techniques and artistic sensitivity to transform tinplate into tangible gastronomic heritage.

At Bárbara Art, the century-old machines still work as they did on the first day, curling and shaping each mould with the precision of those who know the trade. Their production not only meets the needs of ovens and homes in Mallorca, but also helps to preserve a culinary legacy that is passed down from grandmothers to daughters, and from mothers to granddaughters, as a living heritage that connects us to our history.

A year of sweets and moulds

The Mallorcan festive calendar is also a calendar of shapes. The workshop starts the year with fire and demons, preparing the moulds for crespells with silhouettes of the demons of Sant Antoni, as well as the Tau cross and the figure of the saint, recent additions that enrich the popular imagination.

At Carnival, the star of the show is the coca amb tallades, where sobrasada and candied fruit are combined in moulds of various sizes.

When Holy Week arrives, the workshop experiences its busiest days. It is time to finish the moulds for empanadas and their markers for lamb, pork, fish and chicken, as well as moulds for rubiols, formatjades and crespells in the shape of flowers, hearts or stars. During this time, many families come to find the ideal mould for making traditional Easter dishes.

In summer, fruit and vegetables take centre stage. Apricot and fig cakes are baked in rectangular or flat llaunes, while vegetable and trempó cakes are made in wide, shallow trays. Round, fluted moulds are used for sweets such as coca de quarto, and round, non-fluted moulds for gatós. Individual moulds are also made for making quartos embetumats or lisos, light sweets with convent roots.

With autumn come the days of slaughter and fried sweets. It is time for curly biscuits, monja or tondre, all made with traditional serrated moulds. There are also orelletes, an Ibizan sweet that has found its place among Mallorcan celebrations.

At the beginning of the Christmas season, around Saint Catherine’s Day, turrones (nougat) return, with their own moulds, along with crespellets in the shape of angels, stars or trees, together with moulds for puddings and other Christmas sweets.

Beyond the holidays

The workshop’s work does not stop at the religious calendar. They also make special moulds for cakes, adapted for weddings, birthdays and local festivals. Among these, the mould for the pastaló stands out, an emblematic piece that has recently been revived. It is an oval mould, often with high sides, used to make Mallorcan pastaló, a sweet pastry filled with a filling and decorated with decorative reliefs, typical of major celebrations. This dish, which is part of oral tradition, varies according to the village and the household, but retains a common essence: shared celebration around the table.

A well-deserved distinction

Biel Cortès has been a master tinsmith since 1988 and his establishment, Bàrbara Art, is included in the list of Emblematic Businesses of the Government of the Balearic Islands.

In 2024, the Consell de Mallorca awarded him the prize for the Recovery of Oven and Pastry Moulds, as part of the first Pastry and Oven Festival, organised to mark Mallorca Day. This is a well-deserved recognition for a career dedicated to preserving, producing and dignifying an essential part of the gastronomic heritage of the islands.

More than tools: pieces of memory

Bàrbara Art’s moulds are not just kitchen utensils, they are objects of collective memory, pieces that connect the past and the present with a firm gaze towards the future. Behind every curl, every shape and every handmade piece, there is a story of love for the craft, of roots in the land, and of a shared identity that lives on every time we open an oven and a coca, a rubiol or a pastaló comes out.

Montse Ramírez is an editor at Xalest, a platform that promotes the heritage, traditions and gastronomy of Mallorca.