For those of us who like whipping up an airy sponge cake, a comforting, rich tea loaf, gingery biscuits, an elaborate birthday gateaux, gooey brownies or any number of other sweet baked treats, finding baking ingredients in this city can be somewhat of a chore. The variety of sugars, flours, syrups and decorations which are standard stock in even the smallest UK store take a little tracking down here. Home baking, experiencing a revival in Britain in recent years, may be more engrained in our culture and have been practised by many more people than we think. Here, with a patisserie on every block it seems creating something at home may be something of a rarity as these items are like trying to find gold dust.
With this in mind, Moonraker Morsels this week shines the spotlight on the first of two shops which are a godsend for those of us who prefer our goodies out of the oven rather than out of the packet. One of these is Parami, a wholesaler of a wide selection of ingredients to enliven many a cake or biscuit.
Perched on the corner of the car park at the rear of the Boquería market, their shelves are stacked high with bag after bag of nuts, dried fruit and quality chocolate pieces for cake covering.
Whilst you won’t find the self-raising flour (for this try Chinese supermarkets where I’ve found it at reasonable prices) or the soft, dark brown sugars you may seek here, they stock a range of flavoured sugars, syrups, gelatine and additivies such as xanthan gum. After taking these photographs I left with a small bag of cream of tartar which has eluded me up to now. 
A selection of flavourings (both natural and artificial), essences, extracts, colours and crystallized fruit are also stocked along with a range of honeys, jams and spices. 
As a wholesaler you won’t find any 100g bags here, however, the larger quantities (usually 500g or 1kg bags of nuts for example) work out at much better value than the smaller quantities found in the supermarket, especially if you bake a lot. Just make sure you seal the bags tightly and they’ll stay fresh. I can think of few recipes that couldn’t be achieved after a stop here.
Parami, C/Jerusalen 30 (Boqueria) and C/Diputació 202-204 (Universitat)
