Celia Vieira from The Portuguese Tart. Photo: Supplied.
When life gave her lockdowns, Shellharbour’s Celia Vieira baked Portuguese tarts — and now her secret family recipe is the talk of the Illawarra with the return of the popular item.
Celia has launched the home-based sweet treat venture, The Portuguese Tart, sparked from an idea that originally started to keep her cafe afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic.
While running Yum Yum Bakery and Cafe in Wollongong for six years, the young mum of two pivoted during lockdowns by creating “isolation packs” of her Portuguese tarts, complete with encouraging messages for the recipient in each box.
“COVID hit and that was really stressful for everyone that had businesses,” Celia said.
“A lot of cafes and restaurants were just shutting their doors.
“I was thinking to myself, ‘No, we can’t just close our doors like that.’”
Instead, she and her husband changed the dynamics of the business, operating as a takeaway only with coffees and on-the-go food.
One of the items she baked in-house was the Portuguese tart, with other cakes often coming from suppliers.
“Then I came up with an idea to put together a little pack, and I called it the ‘Isolation Pack’, which was where I had six or 12 little Portuguese tarts in a box,” she said.
“Then as people would open the box, there’d be a little message inside for loved ones that were in lockdown.
“That was just a huge success.”
Celia said they undertook huge numbers of deliveries, sending them to people in hospitals and at home in lockdown.
She said they sold the cafe about 18 months after lockdowns stopped and Celia became a mental health counsellor, which she continues to work as today.
“Then I had a lot of my customers asking me, ‘Oh, Celia, what about your Portuguese tarts?’” she said.
“I’ve always done Portuguese tarts on the side for family and friends when people request them.
“Every time I do them, everyone keeps saying to me, ‘You really need to be selling this stuff. This stuff is amazing’.
“It wasn’t until last week. I just woke up Monday morning and I thought, ‘You know what, I’m going to start doing Portuguese tarts.’”
Operating from her home kitchen in Shellharbour, Celia offers her unique tarts with a secret family recipe that sets them apart from standard bakery versions.
“I feel overwhelmed at how much it’s blown up, really,” she said.
“They are quite unique.
“You can get your standard Portuguese tart, but I add two things into the custard that is a little bit of a family recipe.”
But she was tight-lipped about what those ingredients were.
Celia said what made the traditional tart from the land she left at just six months of age so popular was the flaky pastry and the smooth and silky custard on the inside.
While she has been overwhelmed with orders through her social media accounts for her sweet side hustle, she plans to expand her reach with a food cart at Stockland Shellharbour during Easter and will look to contact Illawarra cafes in the hope of supplying tarts to them.
Learn more about The Portuguese Tart through Facebook and Instagram.
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