As a mother of two, Alessandra Moreira’s passion for baking started out simply enough. She wanted to bake cakes for her kids’ birthday parties based on the types of cakes and flavours she’d grown up with in Brazil.
But, as her friends and family discovered how delicious those cakes could be, that part-time hobby quickly became something more.
“Some of my friends say to me, ‘I really look forward to your party because I love your cake,’” she says. “I wasn’t working with cake then, just making it for my kids’ party, but I thought, you know, maybe I can make this my work.”
In 2020, she launched Amore Treats and began serving up the sweet flavours of Brazil to Edmontonians. Initially, her clientele was mostly members of the Brazilian community in the city, but, in the past couple of years, that’s changed.
“I think around 75 per cent of my customers are Brazilian but, in the last year, some Canadians and people from other countries start to know Amore Treats and start to try Brazilian cakes,” she says, adding that it only takes one taste for customers to become hooked.
“When someone is not Brazilian, try the Brazilian cake, they normally love it,” she says.
What makes Amore’s cakes different, Moreira says, is the filling she uses.
“It’s different from the cakes that I try here in Canada before,” she says. “It’s not like filling with buttercream.”
She uses a traditional brigadeiro icing – a rich, creamy frosting made with condensed milk. She says the most popular flavours are chocolate or coconut, but she has a wide variety of options at Amore, including berries, passion fruit and pineapple.
Shop Brazilian cakes at Amore Treats, or 780-909-1803.
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