Genoa cake
 Genoa cake (supermarket own-brand with few cherries) | |||||||
| Alternative names | Pandolce, pandolce genovese | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Fruit cake | ||||||
| Place of origin | Italy | ||||||
| Region or state | Genoa, Liguria | ||||||
| Main ingredients | Sultanas/raisins or currants, glacé cherries, flour, eggs, butter, sugar | ||||||
| 340 kcal (1424 kJ)[1] | |||||||
| |||||||
Genoa cake (Italian: pandolce or pandolce genovese)[2] is a fruit cake consisting of sultanas (golden-colored raisins), currants or raisins, glacé cherries, almonds, and candied orange peel or essence, cooked in a batter of flour, eggs, butter and sugar.[1][3]
Origins[edit]
Although the name Genoa cake is mainly used in the United Kingdom, where recipes for it have been around since the 19th century,[4] it is a variant of the pandolce (Italian: [panˈdoltʃe]; Ligurian: pandoçe, Ligurian: [paŋˈduːse]; lit. 'sweet bread') cake which originated in 16th-century Genoa as a Christmas cake. Unlike Genoa cake, traditional pandolce includes pine nuts as a major ingredient and uses yeast as its raising agent, which requires several hours to rise, like bread.[5] This original form is today[when?] known as pandolce alto ('deep pandolce'), whilst a simpler variant which uses baking powder is known as pandolce basso ('flat pandolce') and is essentially the same as the Genoa cake sold in the UK, with a moist but crumbly texture.[6][7]
The term Genoa cake is also sometimes used to refer to two other Genoa-related cakes, neither of which are fruit cakes: Genoese cake, a light sponge cake,[8] and pain de Gênes ('Genoa bread'), a dense almond cake.[9]
See also[edit]
- Cuisine of Liguria
- Genoese cake – French sponge cake
- Pain de Gênes – ground almond cake
References[edit]
- ^ a b Ingredients and nutritional analysis of commercially made Genoa Cake at Tesco supermarket
- ^ "genoa". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on December 26, 2021.
- ^ Genoa Cake recipe BBC Good Food Magazine
- ^ Recipe 154 in The Bread Biscuit Bakers and Sugar-Boiler's Assistant by Robert Wells (London, 1890)[1]
- ^ Gourmet Liguria
- ^ Pandolce Basso Genovese Archived 2013-10-15 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Pandolce Christmas cake
- ^ Gourmet Britain Genoa cake recipe
- ^ Cook's Info: Genoa Cake
