Sponge Cake | Foodfulife

This is a traditional dessert from Genoa, a very delicate, light and soft sponge cake that everybody loves! It reminds me of my childhood: at the time, my mother used to buy this cake from Panarello, one of the best and most famous posh bakeries in town. Panarello’s Torta Paradiso is truly amazing! If you ever come to visit Genoa, I strongly recommend that you try this cake in one of their shops.

This recipe was inspired by Panarello’s Torta Paradiso (and I assure you, it also gets very close to the real thing), which is slightly more elaborated and delicious than the old Genoese recipe. In the traditional recipe (and by traditional I mean the really old one), you would only use potato starch, the juice of a lemon, eggs, baking powder, sugar and finally, butter, but, only to grease the tin.

Torta Paradiso.

Ingredients

for a 28 cm in diameter cake

Preparation: 20 minutes

Cooking: 50 minutes

Medium/ Difficult

200 g (7.05 oz) butter, softened

200 g (7.05 oz) icing sugar (and a little more icing sugar to garnish the cake)

100 g (3.5 oz) manitoba flour

100 g (3.5 oz) potato starch

4 egg yolks

3 whole eggs

2 drops of vanilla extract

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1 tablespoon of lemon juice

a pinch of salt

a few drops of almond flavouring

Method.

1. Separate the egg whites from the yolks and put everything aside.

2. Sift together the flour, the potato starch and the baking powder.

3. Stir the softened butter with the sugar, the almond flavouring and the vanilla extract, until you get a creamy mixture. Then gradually add all the egg yolks into the mixture.

4. Also add the flour and the starch (but still very gradually). Mix everything well.

5. Beat all the egg whites with a pinch of salt and a tablespoon of lemon juice, until stiff. Combine the egg whites into the mixture, stirring gently.

6. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 ° C (356 °F) for at least 50 minutes, using a greased baking dish (with 28 cm in diameter).

7. When the cake is completely cooled, garnish with plenty of icing sugar.

Torta Paradiso.

Media difficoltà

Preparazione: 20 minuti

Cottura: 50 minuti

Ingredienti

200 g di burro

200 g di zucchero a velo (e dello zucchero a velo in più per decorare)

100 g di farina manitoba

100 g di fecola di patate

4 tuorli d’uovo

3 uova intere

2 gocce di estratto di vaniglia

un cucchiaio di succo di limone

1 busta di lievito per dolci

un pizzico di sale

qualche goccia di aroma di mandorla

Metodo.

1. Separate gli albumi dai tuorli e mettete tutto da parte.

2. Setacciate e unite la farina alla fecola di patate con il lievito.

3. Amalgamate il burro con lo zucchero, l’aroma di mandorla e l’estratto di vaniglia, fino ad ottenere una crema omogenea. Poi, incorporate gradualmente tutti i tuorli d’uova all’impasto.

4. Aggiungete anche la farina e la fecola (sempre gradualmente). Amalgamate bene tutto.

5. A parte, montate tutti gli albumi a neve con un pizzico di sale e un cucchiaio di succo di limone. Unite gli albumi montati al composto, mescolando delicatamente dal basso verso l’alto.

6. Infornate a forno preriscaldato a 180° C per almeno 50 minuti, utilizzando una teglia imburrata (di 28 cm di diametro).

7. Quando la torta sarà completamente raffreddata, guarnite con abbondante zucchero a velo.

Some time ago I helped a friend make a cake design tutorial. Although it’s definitely not a simple one, actually quite complicated, we decided to put it online anyway. Laura made a very sleek silk clutch bag cake design and it took several pictures and steps to be able to partially explain the process. We did our best, we hope you enjoy it. Feel free to comment on this post.

If you wish to see more of Laura Barcellonio’s cake design visit her facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cake-Deluxe/265825503502411?fref=ts

Silk Clutch Bag Cake

Designed by Laura Barcellonio

The material used:
A chopping board and a wide, pointed knife (small size)
A pizza or pastry cutting wheel (with a straight blade)
A metal working board to use as a cut mat and a cutting knife (a scalpel)
paper, pencil and scissors
Basic kitchen tools, a silicone spatula and a food brush
Few toothpick and straws
A base for cakes (a thick cardboard coated ) and a white ribbon

For the cake:

1 kg white sugar paste for the cake, plus 500 g for the base

ivory and black food colouring, (and edible pearl food dust optional)

vanilla buttercream

A sponge or a madeira cake ( quite thick)

A few raw pieces of spaghetti

Coloring the sugar paste:

Take 1 kg of white sugar paste. Using a toothpick, start mixing some ivory food colouring with a small amount of white sugar paste. Increase the amount of white sugar paste until you get the desired colour. Take a small piece of ivory paste and add the black color (just a little) , to create a uniform grey paste.

Preparation of the pieces to dry:

With the ivory paste shape and cut the handle of the bag. Make 6 grey pearls (1 cm in diameter each) and insert them, three at a time, into two small pieces of spaghetti.

Then shape two grey drops, just a little bit bigger than the pearls. Let all the pieces dry for about an hour.

Cake shaping technique.

Using tracing paper, draw and cut the outlines of your clutch bag. Draw the base of the bag (22 x 12 cm, considering the widest points) , and the side ( 22 x 18 cm, considering the maximum width and height),then cut out your sketches. Take the sponge cake, mark the base and cut out two equal pieces in order to overlap them.

You can use part of the buttercream to make the filling. Following the outline of your drawings, cut the cake until you obtain the desired shape.

Coat crumb with plenty of butter cream and put the cake to cool in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.

Roll out some ivory paste with a rolling pin, until you have a thin sheet, then cut out a rectangular shape and place it gently over the cake.

Cut a trapeze out of the sugar paste sheet and use the straws to calculate 9 folds. Now shape the folds with your fingers and cut out any excess paste. Brush one side of the cake with water and cover it with the sugar paste layer. Repeat this procedure to cover both sides.

Cut another two smaller trapezoids and calculate 6 folds for each piece. Shape the folds, brush the surface, and apply the trapezoids to the small sides.

For the handle:

Roll out the grey sugar paste, shape a small thick sheet and cut out two narrow strips, equal in size. Moisten the part on top of the cake with water, then place and mould the strips.

Take the two pieces of spaghetti with the pearls, pierce the grey stripes and place the handle on top of the cake. Using two pieces of spaghetti place the two drops in the center (see the final picture).

For roses:

Roll out a thin sheet of ivory sugar paste ( 25 cm x 10 cm). Fold the sheet in half and roll it up to shape a rose. Remove any excess paste. Pierce the back of the rose with a small piece of spaghetti and place the rose on the cake.

For the base:

Roll out a large chunk of ivory paste and cover the entire base of the cake. Roll out some thin stripes of white sugar paste, then fold them to create a fabric-like effect on the base of the cake.

Use a white ribbon to cover the edges. Place the cake on top of the base and brush the surface of the clutch bag with a pearl food colour powder, diluted in a little bit of alcohol (this step is optional).