Cinnamon & Salt: Cicchetti in Venice by Emiko Davies
Emiko Davies’ latest cookbook Cinnamon & Salt: Cicchetti in Venice is a collection of recipes, stories and photographs inviting us into beautiful Venice through its beloved cicchetti (appetisers).
Words & Photography: Emiko Davies
Photo: Emiko Davies
Creama di marscapone (marscapone cream) from Emiko Davies' latest cookbook, Cinnamon & Salt. Photo: Emiko Davies
I adore fruit cakes of any kind and the first time I tasted the pan del doge from Pasticceria Dal Mas, an historic bakery shop that I somehow found time to nip into as I was running to catch the last train back to Florence, I was hooked.
This cake, full of dried and candied fruit and nuts, is found all over Venice, any time of the year. It’s so named because the first stories of this ‘doge’s bread’ date back to the doge Silvestro Valier (1630–1700) who supposedly ate it in Villadose, a small town near Rovigo, about 50 km (31 miles) south-west of Venice where he was served this ‘bread’ (originally it would have been a leavened sweet dough, akin to panettone, but today it is more of a cake), sweetened with honey and full of the ingredients often associated with the Christmas season: candied fruit, dried sultanas and figs, and nuts such as walnuts.
In the pastry shops in Venice, you may see this as a log-shaped treat, somewhere between a crumbly cake and a soft biscuit, and other times a round but rather flat cake, sometimes studded on top with blanched almonds, or coated in a generous dusting of powdered icing (confectioners’) sugar for appeal.
As soon as I brought this precious package back to Florence and tasted the delicious, fragrant cake, I knew I needed to re-create it and luckily my friend Zaira had a recipe for me – and it was even better than Dal Mas’. Zaira Zarotti is an artist, born into a family of artists in Venice, who seems to have come from another time. She is Artemisia Gentileschi with a camera.
Together with her partner, Francesco, they produce beautiful raku ceramics (you’ll spot them in these pages) and the two of them are often found on the Venetian lagoon, in their boat, Zaira’s long auburn hair fl owing like she’s a fi gure out of a John Everett Millais painting, or dressing up and creating portraits next to dilapidated Palladian-style villas in the countryside. They are the most romantic Venetians I know.
Zaira is also a wonderful food writer and storyteller, and this cake of hers – which will delight you as it is baking by perfuming your house with citrus zest, honey and toasting nuts – is my favourite version of this historic treat. I have only tweaked it ever so slightly to reduce the batter a bit so that it is bursting with fruit and nuts, because that is the part for which I am most greedy.
Fresh scallops from the Rialto market from Emiko Davies' latest cookbook, Cinnamon & Salt. Photo: Emiko Davies
Schie fritte (fried Venetian prawns) Pan del doge di Zaira (Zaira’s fruit cake) from Emiko Davies' latest cookbook, Cinnamon & Salt. Photo: Emiko Davies
“As soon as I brought this precious package back to Florence (from Venice) and tasted the delicious, fragrant cake, I knew I needed to re-create it and luckily my friend Zaira had a recipe for me.”
Pan del doge di Zaira (Zaira’s fruit cake) from Emiko Davies' latest cookbook, Cinnamon & Salt. Photo: Emiko Davies
Photo: Emiko Davies
PAN DEL DOGE DI ZAIRA (ZAIRA’S FRUIT CAKE)
Serves 8-12
INGREDIENTS
100 g (3 ½ oz) sultanas
125 ml (4 fl oz/ ½ cup) rum, or water
160 g (5 ½ oz/ 2/3 cup) unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
1½ tablespoons honey
2 eggs
finely grated zest of 1 orange, or lemon
200 g (7 oz/1 1/3 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour, plus extra for dusting
1 teaspoon baking powder
50 g (1 3/4 oz/ 1/33 cup) almonds, roughly chopped
40 g (1½ oz/ 1/4 cup) pine nuts
50 g (1 ¾ oz/ 1/4 cup) candied orange, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
dusting of icing (confectioners’) sugar (optional)
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 180°C (35°F). Grease with butter and dust with flour a 23 cm (9 in) baking tin with a springform base. Place the sultanas in a small bowl with the rum and let them soak for at least 15 minutes.
In a large bowl, whip together the butter, sugar and honey until combined, then add the eggs, one at a time. Add the orange zest and fold through the flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt. Tip in the nuts, candied orange and the soaked sultanas, drained (you could add a splash of the rum too, if you like) and, finally, the vanilla and fold with a spatula until the ingredients are well incorporated.
Tip the batter into the prepared baking tin and smooth out the top. Bake for about 35 minutes, or until the top is deep golden brown and the cake’s surface is springy when touched. If you like, dust the top with some icing sugar once cool. There won’t be many leftovers once you taste how delicious this cake is, but it does keep well at room temperature for several days, covered.
VARIATIONS
You can substitute any dried fruit or nuts that you prefer – dried figs, walnuts, hazelnuts, candied citron (which Zaira calls for) or other candied fruit. You could add a splash of rum (why not some of the rum used for soaking the sultanas?) or grappa, if you prefer, or you can leave it out. If you don’t have rum to soak the sultanas, substitute with white wine or simply use water. If you would like to put whole almonds on top, as some pastry shops do in Venice, you’ll need another 50 g (1 ¾ oz/ 1/3 cup) to cover the top of the batter before putting the cake in the oven.
