Festive Cakes

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top 1000La Varenne Pratique
La Varenne Pratique

By Anne Willan

Published 1989

  • About
National allegiances come more clearly to the fore in festive cakes than in any other dish. Typically British are the dense, spirit-soaked fruit cakes covered in almond paste and coated in a lacy trellis of snow-white royal icing; these are traditionally tiered and used as wedding cakes. In the United States, tiered wedding cakes are of a lighter construction—layers of sponge sandwiched with delicious fillings of butter cream, lemon curd with strawberries or chocolate cream with raspberries.

For Christmas, the cake is usually a single layer. Panforte, a thin, rich cake filled with honey, pepper, nuts and sweet candied fruits, can be found in Italian delicatessens the world over at Christmas time. Christmas is also the season for a festive yule log, whether constructed in the French style as a rolled sponge with butter cream, almond paste holly and meringue mushrooms, or a rolled yeast dough laden with fruits, like the German stollen, which is traditionally tied with red ribbon and presented as a gift.