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Dessert

Another Sort of Spongati, or Italian Christmas Cakes

A dense, spiced cake made with egg yolks, powdered sugar, dried bread, almonds, pine nuts, spices, preserved cedrat, and gum dragon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Another Sort of Spongati, or Italian Christmas Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA slack oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Mix the egg yolks and powdered sugar in a bowl until well combined.

  2. Add the powdered bread, almonds, pine nut kernels, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, preserved cedrat, and ground pepper; mix thoroughly.

Make the paste

  1. Steep the gum dragon in orange flower water in a separate bowl until dissolved.

  2. Combine the powdered sugar and fine starch on a marble slab.

  3. Add the gum mixture to the sugar-starch mixture and strain through a cloth.

  4. Form a malleable paste by adding a little white wine.

  5. Make a crust with the paste.

Shape and bake

  1. Fill the crust with the mixture.

  2. Cover the filled crust with wafer paper, making it an inch thick.

  3. Shape the cakes in wooden molds, filling them as above and covering with wafer paper.

  4. Place the molds in gentle heat for a day.

  5. Bake the cakes in a slow oven.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Pine + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together71 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Bind the filling and add richness and a smooth, cohesive texture.
Dried bread
Absorbs moisture and gives the filling body so it holds together when sliced.
Almonds
Provide bulk, a firm texture and fat that keeps the filling moist.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and a fine, dry base that helps the paste take shape.
Gum dragon
Binds the paste and gives it a malleable, stable texture for molding.
Fine starch
Adds structure to the paste so the crust keeps its shape while baking.

The step that matters

Dissolving and straining the gum. Undissolved gum leaves lumps and uneven binding, so the paste can crack or fail to hold its shape when molded.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, bread, pine, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Pistachiofits about as well
  4. Walnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, bread, pine, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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