Genoa cake, known in Italian as pandolce or pandolce genovese, is a fruit cake consisting of sultanas (golden-coloured raisins), currants or raisins, glacé cherries, almonds, and candied orange peel or essence, cooked in a batter of flour, eggs, butter, and sugar.

Origins

Although the name Genoa cake is mainly used in the United Kingdom, where recipes for it have been around since the 19th century, 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. This original form is today 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.

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, and pain de Gênes ('Genoa bread'), a dense almond cake.

See also

Media related to Pandolce at Wikimedia Commons

Notes