Recipes I learned over the phone, Part 1:
Nonna Lucia’s Italian Birthday Cake
by Cassandra Marsillo
April 1, 2020
I’m not one for long phone calls. As a kid and a teen, though, I remember easily spending two to three hours on the phone after school and on weekends with friends, cousins, and crushes. My poor parents. I cherished my first phone: a transparent purple corded phone, just for me, in my room (sadly, no personal line). Once I started high school and had to take the metro there and back every day, I was gifted a Samsung E300. Phone conversations were easier when the alternative was T9.
Eventually, my purple phone became obsolete and cell phones came and went. Phone conversations started going straight to speaker so that I could multitask. And we reach today, to the realization that I’m just not one for long phone calls anymore. So it’s taken some adjusting getting used to the new normal, where my interactions with friends and family can only take place through phone conversations. And unlike teenage me, the first (and sometimes only) numbers I dial at the beginning or end of every day are: “home,” “Nonna Lucia,” and “Nonni Marsillo.”
One of the first questions my Nonna Lucia asks every single time we speak is: “Did you eat?” Our first conversation when she got back from Florida (a month early due to the Canadian government’s recommendations) and began her 14-day quarantine period was about food. Specifically, her groceries, which my parents had done for her. “It’s not enough!” she told me, “It’s not full like usual.” I laughed as I reminded her that her fridge didn’t have to be full “like usual.” She’d be cooking only for herself for the foreseeable future. I laughed even though this thought makes me sad and scared. My Nonna cooks for everyone. She lives above my parents and cooks for them almost every night. She literally cooks all day. Most of the miles on her car are probably from buying groceries. She organizes “zizi” nights, when my aunt, uncle, and cousin come over and we all crowd around the table upstairs eating a four-course meal. Thinking about this makes me ache because the moment when I can actually see them again still feels so far away.
I’ve realized through all these conversations about food that I’ve only ever learned recipes from her and my other Nonna through the phone. Things like tomato sauce and pasta e rapini, which I grew up on but had never learned how to make. Simple foods with few ingredients, but then it hit me: I literally don’t know what I need to do with, or how to combine, or in what order to make these three things. Sure, I can Google it, but I want to make it the way they make it.
The recipe I’m sharing with you today is one that I haven’t made yet, and that’s why I’m sharing it (you’ll see). A few days ago, I called my Nonna Lucia to ask her how to make Italian birthday cake. Italian birthday cake - or as my nonna called it that morning, “ah, the sponge with yellow cream and chocolate cream” - is iconic. It’s central to so many second- and third-generation Italian-Canadian and Italian-American childhood memories. My Nonna Lucia’s Italian birthday cake is soaked in coffee and always a little crooked. Her mother, Nonna Angelina, used to make it for Easter. Before it became a staple birthday cake, this is what it was typically made for in the small town where they’re from - Cantalupo nel Sannio, Italy - because they couldn’t afford to make it more often. When I asked my Nonna why they would make this cake, she answered: “Boh, like that.” I can just imagine her shrugging.
Before I hung up, she asked me if I needed to make the cake right away. I told her maybe, as I was considering making it for this post. She said no, I can’t, because she has to show me how to soak the cake properly. She said, “It’s something you have to see. The first time, we make it together.” So, I’ll have to get back to you on that. And that’s why, for my first contribution, I’m sharing an incomplete recipe in the hopes that my Nonna and I can make it together very soon, in her small kitchen, maybe for our next zizi night. When I think of our crowded tables, our inside jokes, going home with bags of leftovers in aluminum trays, how we always say “we won’t stay late” after lunch but linger until 7 PM, I ache all over. This recipe will be my reminder that this will end. I can’t wait to share that celebratory Italian birthday cake with you.
Until then, I look forward to our next phone call so that I can update Nonna Lucia on what we’re having for dinner tonight: salmon.
Nonna Lucia's Italian Birthday Cake
For the Sponge
The trick, Nonna Lucia explained, is to base the recipe around the number of eggs used. The tablespoons of sugar will always be double the amount of eggs. The tablespoons of flour will always be equivalent to the number of eggs. So, for example, 10 eggs means 20 tbsp of sugar (double) and 10 tbsp of flour (equivalent). I know, it took me a while to understand this, too.
Ingredients
12 eggs
24 tbsp sugar
12 tbsp flour
1 tsp Magic (baking powder)
Steps
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Beat the eggs with the sugar. A lot.
Mix the Magic with the flour.
Add the flour mix to the egg and sugar mix one spoon at a time.
Pour the batter into two 8-10” round cake pans (this is her trick to make sure the cake doesn’t deflate too much when it cools).
Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden. She suggests to test it with a toothpick once you see that it gets golden on top.
When cooled, cut the two cakes in half and soak in either cold coffee or some liqueur that you like using a spoon. Proper technique TBC.
Add the 3 layers of cream (one in the middle of the top sponge, one between the two sponges, and one in the middle of the bottom sponge).
For the Creams:
Ingredients for Vanilla Cream
5 egg yolks
¾ c sugar
⅓ c flour
2 c milk
Pinch of salt
2-3 drops of vanilla
Steps
Beat yolks, salt, and sugar with a whisk until it’s a pale cream. About 10 min.
Add flour to your pale cream and beat until it’s smooth.
Bring the milk to a boil in a pot and remove from heat. Add your cream mixture.
Cook on low heat, stirring continuously, because it will easily stick to the bottom of the pot.
When you have the consistency of custard, remove from heat.
Add the vanilla, mix.
Put in a bowl, covered with saran wrap. Make sure that the saran wrap is tight, even touching the cream, otherwise the custard will get crusty as it cools.
Ingredients for Chocolate Cream
5 egg yolks
¾ c sugar
⅓ c flour
2 c milk
4 oz of baking chocolate or cocoa powder
Steps
Beat yolks and sugar with a whisk until it’s a pale cream. About 10 min.
Add flour to your pale cream and beat until it’s smooth.
Bring the milk and chocolate (she suggests baking chocolate for first timers, as the cocoa is more difficult to mix in) to a boil in a pot and remove from heat. Add your cream mixture.
Cook on low heat, stirring continuously, because it will easily stick to the bottom of the pot.
When you have the consistency of custard, remove from heat.
Put in a bowl, covered with saran wrap. Make sure that the saran wrap is tight, even touching the cream, otherwise the custard will get crusty as it cools.
Ingredients for Lemon Cream
5 egg yolks
¾ c sugar
⅓ c flour
2 c milk
2-3 slices of lemon
Steps
Beat yolks and sugar with a whisk until it’s a pale cream. About 10 min.
Add flour to your pale cream, beat until it’s smooth.
Bring the milk and lemon slices to a boil in a pot and remove from heat. Remove the lemon slices and add your cream mixture.
Cook on low heat, stirring continuously, because it will easily stick to the bottom of the pot.
When you have the consistency of custard, remove from heat.
Put in a bowl, covered with saran wrap. Make sure that the saran wrap is tight, even touching the cream, otherwise the custard will get crusty as it cools.