Easter cake, Italian style

Italian Easter cake recipe

Preparation and cooking

• - Begin with the first rising.
  Melt fresh yeast in 50 ml warm milk and then add it together with 120g (4 1/4 ounces) all-purpose flour and 1 teaspoon sugar in a bowl.
  Amalgamate all ingredients up to a soft dough.
  Flour your dough and bowl.
  Cover with a napkin and let your dough double. Required time: 60 to 90 minutes.
• - At this point put remaining sugar, 400g(14 ounces) all-purpose flour, 3 eggs, powdered vanilla, lemon and orange zest and 150g (5 1/3 ounces) softened butter on the work surface.
  Knead all your ingredients up to a homogeneous dough.
  Flatten your new dough on a work surface and then incorporate your risen dough.
  Knead well for long time to incorporate your two doughs or until you feel some bubbles forming under your fingers.
  Shape your final dough to a ball.
  Flour work surface and your dough.
  Cover with a napkin and let it rise, a couple of hours.
• - Then take again your dough and stir in the remaining flour and butter, after softening, and candied orange peel too.
  Knead again hard for a long time and then shape your dough into a big cylinder.
  Close its ends and arrange inside a silicone pudding mold after flouring it.
  If you have another type of pudding mold you have to grease it, obviously.
• - Beat the fourth egg and brush it on cake surface.
  Arrange almonds and coarse sugar on its surface.
  Let your cake rise another time until it doubles in size, a couple of hours.
• - Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
  Bake until its surface is golden, about 25 minutes.
  Don't open your oven during cooking.

Just before serving

• - Let your cake cool completely before removing it from its mold.
  Garnish your Easter cake according your taste and fancy.
  Look at the photo for more details

Note

Tips

• - The main problem for a correct rising is temperature and Easter comes when even the radiators work for a smaller number of hours at home. Then be careful to have an ideal temperature and do not expose your dough to air currents. You could put your cake to rise in the oven with just the pilot light lit.
• - You can see an idea to garnish this cake for Easter in our photo: chocolate and colored sugar eggs are arranged all around and in the central well.
• - In any case this is a delicious sweet you can prepare in winter and early spring when oranges are in season.
• - You can preserve this cake for three days at room temperature, wrapped in cling film.

Useful links to this recipe

• - Here's an Italian Easter menu you can finish with this cake :))
  Starter: Chick pea flat bread to accompany assorted salami and cheese platter
  First course: tagliatelle with artichoke-and-shrimp sauce
  Second course: Lemon-flavored lamb accompanied by green seasonal salad or baked potatoes.
  Dessert: this cake
• - Other Italian Easter menus?

Healthy eating

• - This Easter cake isn't certainly a low-calorie recipe ;)) In fact ... calories, fat and sugar are very high.
  Note also its portions are not big.
  I continue saying that cakes should be eaten sparingly because they are too rich in fat, calories and first of all sugars. You can think of holidays and special occasions as exceptions. Unless you have very serious problems of various dismetabolic diseases (diabetes, dyslipidemia ...) and then, in that case, the focus must always be placed.
• - Fiber per serving: 1.7 grams (daily intake is 23 grams).

Loretta

What's the right wine ?

I suggest you sweet bubbles or Italian arancino (orange-flavored liqueur).