Name: Serpentone (Snake-Shaped Cake)
Yield: Serves 6 to 8
Cuisine: Umbrian
Ingredients: 50 g/2 oz/⅓ cup blanched almonds, coarsely chopped; 100-150 ml/3 ½ fl oz-¼ pint/scant ½ cup-⅔ cup warm water; 225 g/8 oz/2 cups plain/all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting; 8 walnuts, coarsely chopped; 30-45 ml/2-3 tbsp icing/confectioners’ sugar; 5 ready-to-eat prunes, stoned/pitted and chopped; 5 dried figs, chopped; 3 large eating apples, peeled and sliced; 115 g/4 oz/⅔ cup sultanas/golden raisins; 115 g/4 oz/generous ½ cup caster/superfine sugar; 10-20 ml/2-4 tsp caster/superfine sugar; 2 glacé/candied cherries or 2 coffee beans; 60 ml/4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for greasing; 1 blanched almond; pinch of salt

Preparation info

Serves
6 to 8

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

The Italian Regional Cookbook

By Valentina Harris

Published 2017

About

Apples and dried fruit, nuts and sugar are the main ingredients for this classic Umbrian cake. The pastry is quite unusual: made with olive oil, flour, sugar and water, it has quite a different texture to butter pastry. The decoration of the cake is where the cook’s imagination takes flight - all kinds of expressions on the ‘snake’s’ face can be created using a few carefully placed ingredients. Some local cooks also add small coloured sweets to the snake, to represent scales. The cake is qu