Westland Woman Brings Old World Recipes to Plymouth Farmers Market

Jane Lucas was just a little girl when she started making her grandmother's award-winning tea cakes.

The recipe dates back 150 years, created by Martha Villar, a blue-ribbon baker who moved from northern Italy to Michigan's Upper Peninsula in the early 1900s. She later moved to the Detroit area and won a blue ribbon for her baked goods at the Michigan State Fair.

Villar's tea cake recipe was passed on to Lucas' mother, who then shared it with her daughter in the mid-1960s. The cakes come in a variety of flavors ranging from savory to sweet.

More than 100 years later, Lucas, who lives in Westland, has made a business out of her grandmother's specialty cakes. This summer, she has set up shop in Plymouth's Farmers Market, selling her Bella Sera Tea Cakes to local residents.

She does so with a purpose.

Lucas set up Bella Sera Tea Cakes two years years ago, when her father passed away after suffering from Alzheimer's disease. She plans to donate a portion of her proceeds from the sale of her tea cakes to Memory Care, to help support Alzheimer's research.

"I was looking for a way to honor my family and thought (tea cakes) was just something a little different," she said Saturday. "I may not be able to make a large contribution (to Alzheimer's research), but I can help make a dent."

The Plymouth Farmers Market operates on Saturdays between May and October at the Gathering in downtown Plymouth, and is open from 7:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.