Gâteau di Savoja, or Savoy Cake: It launched a dynasty!
Prep Time: 40 minutes
Cook Time: 90 minutes
Ingredients:
- 14 eggs
- Sugar
- Flour
- Grated citron zest (use lemon instead if need be)
- Citron flowers, toasted and chopped (use untreated lemon or orange flowers if you have them available)
- Butter for greasing the pan
Preparation:
Kaye Noble wrote, saying, "Can you find a recipe for Dolce Cavour, which was popular in Florence in the early 1960s? Gourmet ran a recipe some 20 - 30 years ago, but I misplaced it."I was flabbergasted to discover that Dolce Cavour is not listed in any of my Italian cookbooks -- neither the general ones, the Tuscan ones, nor the Piemontese ones (Count Camillo Cavour, who orchestrated the unification of Italy in the 1860s, was Piemontese). Nor is it mentioned on the Epicurious site. The closest I came was Gâteau di Savoja, a recipe drawn from "Il Cuoco Piemontese (1766)". According to tradition Count Amadeo di Savoia offered the cake to Charles of Luxembourg in 1438 and was nominated Duke and Imperial officer, thus beginning the rise to power of the future kings of Italy. And now to make the cake:
Weigh the eggs and weigh out the same weight of sugar. Weigh seven eggs and weigh out the same weight flour. Separate the whites from the yolks. Beat the yolks until pale yellow with the sugar, a large pinch of citron zest, and the chopped flower petals.
Whip the whites to firm peaks and fold them into the yolks, then fold the flour in as well. Pour the batter into a deep, buttered pan and bake it in a moderate oven (about 360 F, 180 C) for an hour and a half (the cake will begin to pull away from the sides of the pan, and will spring back if lightly pressed with a finger tip).
When the gâteau is done, turn it out on a serving dish, and if it's a pretty golden color serve it forth. If, on the other hand, it is too brown, you will have to ice it with white icing, which you'll make with the juice of a half a citron, powdered sugar (use the kind that doesn't have vanilla included in it), and an egg white: beat the ingredients in a bowl until they're thick and white. Spread the icing over the cake, and wait until it has completely dried to serve it.
I think I would ice the cake in any case.
