Articles Index
Rose Cake Recipe - Torta Con Le Rose
This rose cake is beautiful to look at, easy to make, and open to a great many variations. Who could ask for more?
Judy Francini's Fig and Walnut Panforte
Panforte is Siena's signature cake, a delightful concoction made with candied fruit, nuts and honey. Finding the ingredients can be difficult, but there are variations, and Judy Francini's Dried Fig and Walnut Panforte is Very Good.
Chocolate Angel Food Cake Recipe - Torta Agli Albumi con Cioccolato
If you have leftover egg whites, say from making crema pasticcera or a large batch of spaghetti alla carbonara, the most obvious option is to make meringues. But there are others, and this chocolaty angel food cake (for want of a better term) is both easy to make and quite pleasant.
Panettone Ice Cream Dome Recipe - Cupola di Panettone con Gelato
Panettone is Milano's classic Christmas cake, and because it keeps well and can be made industrially, it is now extremely popular throughout Italy, and you will find several panettoni in almost every Italian home during the holiday season. Plain panettone is good, but can become tiring. Fortunately, there are many ways to spruce it up, and here it's used to line a mold, and filled with ice cream. Tasty, and some limoncello gives an added sunny zing.
Pasta Margherita, the perfect base for a layer cake
Pasta Margherita is a simple, tasty white cake that can be used to make all sorts of things, from layer cakes through Christmas Log Cakes, and even puddings. In short, it's quite versatile.
Polenta e Osei Recipe - Bergamo's Signature Cake
Polenta e Osei, a specialty of Bergamo, is a pastrychef's slight of hand, a mound-shaped cake that looks like freshly turned out polenta, being pecked at by a flock of sweet marzipan osei, or birds. A great delight!
Pan di Spagna and Torta Genovese Recipes For Layer Cakes
Pan di Spagna is quite similar to Genoise, which Italians call pasta Genovese. It's a simple cake whose major function is to serve as a base for layer cakes, roll cakes and so on. Recipes for Torta Genovese, genoise, and Pan di Spagna.
Gâteau di Savoja Recipe - Savoy Cake
Gâteau di Savoja, or Savoy Cake: It launched a dynasty!
Panettone Filled with Mascarpone Cream - Panettone Farcito al Mascarpone
Panettone Filled with Mascarpone Cream, or Panettone Farcito al Mascarpone: This is an extraordinarily rich Christmas dessert, and though it will take a bit of effort is well worth it.
Triple Filled Panettone Recipe, or Panettone al Triplo Ripieno
Panettone is Milano's classic Christmas cake. Panettone is a delight as is, but it also takes very well to being filled, and here we have it with a layered filling consisting of pistachio cream, chocolate pear cream, and caramelized cheese cream. A fantastic panettone!
Stuffed Pandoro with Glazed Fruit Recipe - Pandoro Ripieno con Frutta
Come Christmas, If you want to build on Italian tradition, there are many recipes for jazzing up Panettone and Pandoro. Here's an idea for Pandoro; it requires a degree of manual dexterity, but the results are most impressive. It also calls for alchechengi, which are an unusual small Tuscan fruit; substitute anything light colored and roughly cherry-sized.
Fig and Peach Cake Recipe - Torta di Fichi e Pesche
Fig and Peach Cake, or Torta di Fichi e Pesche: This is a tasty Piemontese recipe that will be perfect in late summer, when figs and peaches are at their ripest.
Hazelnut Cake Recipe - Torta di Nocciole
Hazelnut Cake, or Torta di Nocciole: Hazelnuts are astonishingly delicate, and make for delightful cakes. Though I tend to associate them with Piemonte, thanks to the stands of hazelnut trees around Alba, they're popular throughout the North.
Pandoro Cake with Dessert Wine Recipe - Torta di Pandoro al Vino Passito
Even if an Italian has nothing else left over from the Christmas dinner, chances are that there will be some Pandoro floating around: Supermarkets discount them hugely as a loss leader, and people fill their shopping carts with them. Here's an idea for when plain Pandoro has begun to pale.
Buccellato di Lucca Recipe - Traditional Tuscan Cake Recipe
Buccellato di Lucca: Wende Giovannoni, whose husband is from Lucca, has very kindly shared one of his favorites, a dish that magically transports him back home with the first bite:
Clelia's Apple Cake Recipe - La Torta Alle Mele Della Clelia
This recipe is drawn from a cookbook Wife Elisabetta recently gave her mom -- Daughter C liked it, so Graziella dictated the recipe over the phone, and Clelia and Elisabetta made it. Very good, too, so Elisabetta suggested Clelia and I make it one day she was out... Since it is an Italian recipe, we have weights, and the reason will soon be apparent.
Orange Upside-down Cake Recipe - Sfoglia Rovesciata
Orange Upside-down Cake, or Sfoglia Rovesciata: Every cuisine has an upside down cake. This Italian version is fairly elaborate, and quite tasty.
Upside-Down Fig Cake Recipe - Torta Rovesciata di Fichi
Upside-down cakes are an old, old concept, but not for this any less good. You'll need sun-ripened fresh figs to do this cake justice, while the accents added by the fennel seeds are unusual and pleasant.
Panettone Alla Milanese Recipe - Milanese Panettone - Milanese Christmas Cake
Panettone is an extraordinarily rich Milanese Christmas cake that also keeps quite well: Traditionally, the Milanese set aside a slice to enjoy on San Biagio, February 3. Panettone is one of the most involved and difficult Italian cakes, and most Italians buy their panettoni from bakeries, or at supermarkets. However, you may want make a Panettone, and this is a relatively easy home recipe.
Italian Jewish Honey Cake Recipe - Dolce di Miele
Honey is common in Italy, and was once about the only really sweet substance readily available. It's not that common in recipes, however, I suspect because the sweetness of refined sugar, which is also much cheaper, is more consistent. It does add a distinctive touch, however. This recipe is Italian Jewish, and traditionally prepared for Rosh Hashanah.
Torta Fiorentina -- A Florentine Cake
This is off the back of a packet of chemical cake yeast (an Italian equivalent of baking powder), and was a very pleasant surprise. It's essentially a quick schiacciata alla Fiorentina, the flat orangy cake that accompanies Florentines through the Carnival season.
Barbara Lucchi's Ciambella Romagnola Recipe - An Easy Italian Ring Cake Recipe
A Ciambella Romagnola, Romagna's traditional ring cake, is wonderful for breakfast, dipped into warm milk or caffè latte. It's also quite nice at the end of a meal, either with a glass of dessert wine or with the slices drizzled with zabaione or a fruit sauce or glaze.
Orange Ring Cake Recipe - Ciambella All'Arancia
Orange Ring Cake, or Ciambella All'Arancia: An easy, tasty ring cake that will take about an hour to make.
Mantovana Ring Cake - Ciambella Mantovana, or Bussolano
The Mantovana, named after the city of Mantova, is a very simple, very tasty north Italian ring cake. A Mantovana with a glass of vinsanto is a wonderful way to end a meal. With coffee or caffé latte, on the other hand, a Mantovana is an excellent breakfast.
Saffron Ring Cake Recipe - Ciambellone allo Zafferano
Saffron Ring Cake, or Ciambellone allo Zafferano: Ciambelle, ring cakes, are among the most common Italian cakes. This particular version, which is Sardinian, is richer than many.