For Cake (Pane di Spagne)

8 eggs, separated
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cup cake flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

about 1/4 cup rum and 1/4 cup Alchermes liqueur for drenching cake layers (or use some other liqueur to one's own liking such as Amaretti)

For Italian custard or pastry cream
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups scalded (whole) milk
2 to 3 tablespoons flour

Whipped cream for topping; Maraschino cherries or fresh berries for decoration

To make cake:



Cream egg yolks with sugar.

Add flour to egg and sugar mixture (a little at a time).

Add salt to egg whites and then beat egg whites with sugar until stiff.

Fold beaten egg whites to the flour, egg yolk and sugar mixture.

Divide batter in two or three portions and pour into 8 inch cake pans.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes.

Cool.



To make Italian custard or pastry cream:



Mix egg yolks, sugar, lemon zest, and vanilla.

Slowly add hot milk, beating constantly.

Add flour, beating very well.

Place mixture in a sauce pan and cook over low heat until it boils and then thickens, all the while stirring it (and making sure it does not burn).

Cool.



Drench the cake layers with liqueur. Then layer the cake with the Italian custard. Top with whipped cream and Maraschino cherries or fresh berries.

Nowadays "Zuppa Inglese" is inevitably made with ladyfingers. However, Alexander Lenard, a German chef, who investigated the cookery of Rome in the late 1950s, insists in his cookbook entitled "The Fine Art of Roman Cooking" that "Zuppa Inglese" was made with "Pane di Spagne." He also emphasizes the importance of the use of Alchermes liqueur in the cake. In fact, he seems to suggest you can't make "Zuppa Inglese" without it. All of the recipes in his book are traditional and some come very close to what first generation Italians were making when I was growing up so his research rings true. I gather then that prior to World War II "Zuppa Inglese" was made with "Pane di Spagne in the city of Rome. Nonetheless the book does have some curious errors. As the book was first written in German, it's possible something was lost in the translation. In any case I had to adapt a number of his recipes for them to work, including this one. I used 8 eggs rather than 6 eggs for the cake batter because with 6 the batter was too thick to work with. Also, I added flour to thicken the custard. I suppose a very thin custard can be made without flour, but then the custard would drench the cake layers (and perhaps it should?). In any case, even though this cake didn't taste anything like what I've come to know as "Zuppa Inglese" it did taste wonderful just the same. Photo: Mary Melfi

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