Berlingozzo

A light ring cake raised on whipped eggs and scented with anise, soft enough to tear.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg.

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 250 g caster sugar
• 300 g plain flour
• 100 ml sunflower oil
• 1 teaspoon anise seeds, crushed
• the zest of 1 orange
• 10 g baking powder
• a pinch of salt

Method

1. Whisk the eggs and sugar for a FULL EIGHT MINUTES, until the mixture trebles and falls from the whisk in a ribbon that sits on the surface for three seconds. This is the opposite cake to a bensone and the air beaten in here is where the difference lives.
2. Trickle the oil in while still whisking, slowly, so it does not knock the air out.
3. Fold in the flour, baking powder, salt, crushed anise and orange zest in three goes with a spatula. Stop the moment no flour shows.
4. Crush the anise seeds rather than using them whole — whole they are hard little pieces in a soft crumb, crushed they scent the whole cake.
5. Pour into a greased and floured 24 cm ring tin.
6. Bake at 175C for 35 minutes without opening the door for the first 25. A cake raised only on whipped egg will sink if the oven is opened early.
7. Cool 10 minutes in the tin, then turn out. It should tear rather than crumble.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes