Bolo de arroz – tall Portuguese rice flour cakes

Preheat the oven to 180°C with conventional top and bottom heat. Set 8 stable metal molds with solid bases on a baking sheet, each holding about 200 ml, about 6.5 cm in diameter and 6 cm high. Line the bases with baking parchment discs. Place paper strips about 7 cm high and about 23 cm long inside the walls, with an overlap of about 2 cm. Use a total of 5 g of butter to lightly grease the insides and hold the paper in place. The collar rises about 1 cm above the metal; do not bake in paper tubes alone and do not fasten them with staples.

Cream the 120 g of softened butter with the 150 g of sugar for about 3–5 minutes until paler and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl several times so everything combines evenly. The butter should be soft but not melted. Reserve the remaining 24 g of sugar for sprinkling over the cakes.

Lightly beat the weighed whole eggs and add them gradually to the butter in about 3 additions. Mix briefly after each addition until the mixture comes together again. Add all the vanilla extract and finely grated yellow lemon zest. Do not add juice; the rest of the lemon is not part of the recipe.

Sift the rice flour, wheat flour and baking powder. Fold them into the mixture in 2–3 batches, alternating with all 65 g of milk. Use a spatula or the mixer's lowest speed and stop mixing when the dry streaks disappear. The batter should be uniform, thick and spoonable. Do not beat it for a long time after adding the flour and do not add extra flour to the molds.

Divide all the batter evenly among the 8 prepared molds and lightly level the tops. Do not exceed 2/3 of the height or capacity of the metal part, regardless of the taller paper. That is why molds of about 200 ml are needed, not small, shallow wells. Leave some space between the molds on the baking sheet. Distribute all the reserved 24 g of plain sugar over the tops in a thin layer.

Bake on the middle rack for about 30–35 minutes; the time plan allows 35 minutes for these larger molds. The tops should rise, crack lightly and turn golden with a delicate sugar crust. A skewer inserted into the center should come out without wet raw batter. Leave the metal support in place throughout baking; the paper must not touch the heating element. Do not use the broiler.

After taking the cakes out of the oven, leave them in the metal molds on a rack for about 10 minutes. Then carefully slide them out, supporting the base with your hand or a spatula, not by pulling only on the loose paper. Leave the paper collars around the sides. The hot cakes are delicate, so do not squeeze them and do not immediately remove the entire wrapper.

Cool on the rack for about 30 more minutes until the cakes reach room temperature; if they are still warm, wait longer. Serve 1 cake each, without extra cream or glaze, and unwrap the paper before eating. The whole process takes about 1 hour and 40 minutes: 25 minutes of preparation, 35 minutes of baking, plus 10 minutes of cooling in the molds and 30 minutes on the rack. Oven preheating overlaps with preparation.