ULTIMATE TASTE TEST DISCOVERIES SERIES
What is the difference between the Sans Rival by Star Reyes versus other sans rivals out there?
Personally, I didn’t notice any difference. Most of the people in the Ultimate Taste Test liked it and it got a rating of 3.6 out of 5.0. It was a bit too sweet and the tasting portions were a bit too big for people to enjoy. The most important thing, my wife (who is a sans rival-monster) loves both the Sans Rival and Silvannas.
What is the difference between a Sans Rival and a Silvanna?
Sans rival is made from meringue, butter cream and lots of cashews. Silvannas are made using the same cream and meringue but in an oblong shape and with a softer cake texture. Star Reyes’ Silvannas use crushed pound cake and less cashew than the Sans Rival. Different suppliers usually have their own way of creating the meringue and cream based on their own well-guarded recipes.
Star Reyes’ Sansrival Story
by Ina Reyes
While my family was temporarily living in Iligan in the early 70’s, my mom decided to learn baking along with a few of her friends. When my mom started baking for the family and friends back in 1973 or 74 (I wasn’t born yet at that time), the Sans Rival became the instant favorite. And so my mom continued making it and then also tweaked some recipe details until she got the taste just right. Since then, the Sans Rival was a staple figure in every family occasion, as well as for neighborhood and office events.
By the late 70’s, my family moved back to Manila. Since my parents were in the banking and finance industry, a lot of their clients and colleagues knew about the Sans Rival and they would all order from my mom. I was already born at that time and so I would remember whenever my dad or mom would celebrate their birthdays in their offices, a lot of people would come and ask for Sans Rival. Actually whenever someone celebrated a birthday in my family, we would always have it as the birthday cake. And so when I was young, I used to think that sans rival was THE ONLY birthday cake.
Office Christmas parties always consisted of several boxes of Sans Rival. Christmas season would always be the busiest time since we got a lot of orders. Before, only my mom and her 2 helpers would make the orders and they would literally bake until the next morning just to finish all the orders. I also remember when I was a kid, whenever my mom and her helpers made Sans Rival, I often consumed the rejects or the “retazos” and I absolutely loved it! And so as time went by, the same people continued to order from us, and then more people came to know about it and also ordered from us, and the list just goes on and on until today.
We remain a small time Sans Rival-maker. We’re not really bakers, though we experiment on some cooking and baking at home sometimes. My mom just happened to stumble upon a good recipe for Sans Rival and made it her own. We’ve managed to use all premium ingredients and no substitutes to maintain the quality. It’s nothing really fancy, but we’d like to maintain a homey kind of taste and feel to it. In one of my mom’s baking experiments, she came up with her own recipe of the Silvannas, which is quite similar to Sans Rival, and it also became a favorite. And so aside from the Sans Rival, we now also accept orders for Silvannas by the dozen.
We are very grateful that a lot of our old customers and also the new ones have remained loyal and continue to order from us, especially during Christmas season. My mom, Star Reyes, has retired from the banking industry a long time ago and has been living overseas for quite some time now but the old customers still remember her because of the Sans Rival. She has passed on the recipe to me and to my sister-in-law to continue her tradition. We are planning to diversify and add more desserts to our short list soon and hopefully people will also appreciate them. We have been keeping operations low-key at our Mandaluyong home, but we intend to grow and venture into bigger things in the near future.
Sans Rival by Star Reyes
Sans Rival
Whole (7×10) – P700
Half (7×5) – P400
Silvannas
1 dozen – P300
1/2 dozen – P170
Ina Reyes
Contact: +63 9165387598 / +632-5006807
Website: SansrivalByStar.multiply.com
Live an Awesome Life,
Text and Photos by Anton Diaz. Copyright 2009.
blog: www.OurAwesomePlanet.com
prof. blog: AntonDiaz.com
mobile: +63917-LOVEOAP (5683627)
email: anton@diaz.ph
we’re sansrival lovers and our favorite sansrival is the one from Sizzling Steak in Baguio. It’s simple (only cream and meringue)and not too sweet. Also, the meringue has just the right amount of crisp to it. so far, we haven’t found a sansrival here in manila to match the one in Baguio. we’d love to try this though so that we can compare. thanks for the tip Anton.
i agree with sherwin 🙂 there was a time when my husband and i went up to baguio just for this sansrival from Sizzling Steak 🙂 really good! after taking a bite, we went back home.. nice road and food trip 🙂
Where is Sizzling Steak in Baguio exactly?
anton
sans rival in burger machine! 🙂
they have 2 branches. one in session road and another near spirits disco (not sure if it’s still called spirits though).
Hmm … if memory serves me right the difference between sylvanas and sans rival is in the buttercream and outside coating. Sylvanas doesn’t use french buttercream (ie. with yolks). Instead it uses a buttercream lightened with milk. Sylvanas is also coated with crispy wafer crumbs, while sans rival with cashews.