The Italian Birthday Cake. I'm 42!
The Italian Birthday Cake. I'm 42!
This has been my birthday cake for decades, and probably also a fixture of birthday parties for all the Italian kids my age.
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The morning of my birthday, I woke up earlier than usual. I like to lay there, on my bed, quiet, with closed eyes. It’s the anticipation of the day that thrills me, now that I am 42 years old just like when I was a child.
This year, for the first time, Livia climbed the stairs to our bedroom, jumped on the bed and, after a hint from Tommaso, she hugged me and said, Happy birthday Mum. Oggi è la tua festa, today is your birthday. Can I have a slice of your carrot cake?
I like to bake my own birthday cake. As every year in the last 5 years, it’s a complete failure.
It’s my fault, I know. I shouldn’t attempt a new recipe the day before my birthday, investing all my time and ingredients in a wild experiment, when all you need is just a reliable birthday cake. I had also planned to share that carrot cake here today, but that will be for another time, as that cake definitely needs more testing.
Luckily, I went for breakfast at my favourite bakery, Forno Pellegrino (included in our foodie guide to Colle Val d’Elsa), and they had a surprise for me: a perfect cannolo and torta caprese with raspberries.
Tonight we will eat that carrot cake that needs to be perfected (a dusting of icing sugar would do), but if I close my eyes and think about a birthday cake, what comes to my mind is a sponge cake sandwiched with pastry cream and chocolate pastry cream.
For a lifetime, this has been my birthday cake, first baked by my grandma and decorated for me by my dad, then my solo project since I was a teenager, and I was attempting my first steps as a home baker.
As I was missing a cake, today I repurposed the recipe I shared on the blog for Livia’s first birthday here in the newsletter, as a memento for next year: bake what you already know and ditch all the experiments, at least for your birthday.
Would you share with me your favourite birthday cake? The one you’ve been baking for decades, or the one you always buy or request when you want to celebrate?
To celebrate my birthday, get a year’s membership to Letters from Tuscany for 10% off.
RECIPE - The Italian Birthday Cake
This has been my birthday cake for decades, and probably also a fixture of birthday parties for all the Italian kids my age.
It is a classic sponge cake, sliced into three layers, soaked in alchermes, and filled with vanilla pastry cream and chocolate pastry cream. My nonna would frost it with traditional icing, often in a shade of pale pink given by a few drops of alchermes. My dad, not a pastry chef but the most resourceful man I know, would pipe chocolate from a pastry bag to decorate the cake, writing my name, my age, and adding a few doodles, all for the final photo that would be printed and attached into the family album.
It is a versatile birthday cake. Let me show you how many ways you can make it yours.
The soaking liquid.
I always opt for alchermes, the crimson Florentine liqueur. You can read more about its fascinating history and how to make it here. Diluted with a part of water, it has just the perfect intensity and colour shade for the cake. It has the taste of my childhood and an old-fashioned, romantic colour.
If you cannot find alchermes, try with coffee – black and without sugar for a more adult taste that will remind tiramisu, or even diluted either with water or milk. Should you prefer a citrusy aroma, make a sugar syrup by boiling water and sugar in the same quantities with orange or lemon zest until glossy and thick. If you are in a hurry, choose pineapple juice or milk.
The filling.
My grandmother used to make a layer of lemon pastry cream and a layer of chocolate pastry cream, just as described in the recipe below. I follow the family tradition without questioning it, but there would be thousands of possible alternatives. Think about a winning match like whipped cream and strawberry jam, whipped ricotta with chocolate drops, or even pastry cream folded into some whipped cream to make it fluffy and lighter. I would even dare a thick layer of chocolate mousse.
The frosting and the decoration.
I remember that this has been my first task: whisking the egg white with icing sugar and a drop of lemon juice with a fork in a ceramic shallow bowl until thick, bright white, and glossy. There wasn’t a second thought about smearing raw egg white on cakes: I’ve had countless frosted cakes, and I’m still here to tell you this story. I’m a bit more conscious about raw eggs today, though, so my first advice would be to buy pasteurized egg whites.
You can also try Swiss meringue buttercream—I always follow Zoe Bakes’ recipe—, but some whipped cream, even mixed with mascarpone, would be just as incredible. For the chocolate lovers out there, frost the cake with chocolate ganache. If you are in a hurry, a dusting of icing sugar will do.
As for the decoration, choose sugar flowers, sprinkles, candies, fresh fruit, berries, or whatever you like, or, if you are as talented as my dad, you can write with melted chocolate on the cake, using a pastry bag (it is easier than it looks).
A little trick. If the edges are not as smooth as you would want – and if you are generous with the filling, it might happen – use ladyfingers to fence the cake and secure them with a ribbon.
For the sponge cake
4 eggs, at room temperature
180 grams sugar
100 grams cake flour
60 grams potato starch
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
Zest ½ lemon
For the pastry cream
1 l fresh whole milk
240 grams sugar
80 grams corn starch
6 egg yolks
1/2 tablespoon vanilla essence
100 grams dark chocolate, chopped
To finish the cake
1 cup alchermes
1 cup water
Swiss meringue buttercream/icing/whipped cream…
Sprinkles, flowers, fruit, berries, candies…
Make the sponge cake.
Preheat oven to 175°C / 350°F and grease a 20cm/8in round springform pan with butter. Dust with flour and set aside.
Whip the eggs with sugar for about ten minutes in a stand mixer or with your electric whisk until white and thick. They'll be ready when lifting the beaters, the batter will fall down, making a ribbon.
Sift flour and potato starch in a bowl, then add the salt and the lemon zest. Fold the dry ingredients into the beaten eggs very gently with a spatula, making slow movements from the bottom upwards.
Scrape the batter into the baking pan and bake for about 20 minutes, until golden and springy.
Remove from the oven and after a few minutes unmould carefully the cake and let it cool completely on a wire rack.
You can prepare it the day before and wrap it in aluminium foil until the next day.
Make the pastry cream
Pour the milk into a saucepan. Heat the milk over medium heat and remove it from the heat as soon as it starts simmering.
In another saucepan, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar and the cornstarch and remove all the lumps. Slowly pour the hot milk in a thin stream over the egg yolks, stirring constantly with a whisk to prevent scrambled eggs. Add the vanilla essence.
Put the saucepan over medium-low heat and stir constantly with a whisk. As soon as you spot the first bubbles and it starts to thicken into pastry cream, remove it from the heat and divide it into two bowls.
Add the chopped dark chocolate into one bowl and whisk to melt it, until perfectly combined.
Cover both bowls with cling film, cool them down in a bowl of iced water, then keep in the fridge until needed.
Finally, make the cake.
Dilute the alchermes with water.
When the sponge cake is completely cold, slice it into three equal disks.
Brush the first disc with the alchermes and spread generously with the chocolate pastry cream. Arrange the second disc on top, brush it again with alchermes, and spread it with the pastry cream. Top it with the third disc.
Frost the cake with Swiss meringue buttercream/whipped cream/lemon icing. Decorate the cake as you prefer, then stash it in the fridge for at least half an hour.
42: Life, the Universe, and Cake!
Happy birthday!
Wishing you a very happy birthday filled with family and friends,and great food and wine!❤️