It’s the most renowned sweet specialty of Bergamo’s cuisine. Made from sponge cake, chocolate, butter, hazelnut creams and rum.

The sponge cake is covered with yellow marzipan, then dusted with crystals of yellow sugar. The little birds then placed on polenta are made from marzipan covered with a layer of chocolate.

INGREDIENTS: (about 2 kg when finished)

For the sponge cake:

• 390 gr sugar

• 15 gr Honey

• 320 gr eggs

• 150 gr volks

• 320 gr flour

• 130 gr potato-flour

• 1/2 teaspon of leaven

Chocolate and hazelnut butter cream (for the stuffing):

• 500 gr butter

• 200 gr white chocolate

• 50 gr rum

• 50 gr hazelnut paste

Butter cream (for the covering):

• 200 gr egg whites

• 50 gr sugar

• 600 gr butter

• 100 cl. alcohol

Other ingredients:

Baked sugar (made with 1kg sugar, 50gr glucose, 75gr water), Curacao, yellow marzipan, chocolate marzipan (for the birds), yellow sugar in crystals, apricot jam, little cubes of candied citron and cocoa.

Preparation:

Sponge cake: Whip sugar with honey, eggs and yolks and add slowly flour, potato flour and leaven, previously mixed. When all the mixture is homogeneous, pour in greased moulds in the shape of a semi-sphere. Bake for 20/30 minutes at 200°. To have 1kg of finished product, the mould shall have a diameter of about 12/14cm. Chocolate and hazelnut butter cream (for the stuffing): whip butter with white chocolate previously melted and then add hazelnut paste and rum.

Baked sugar: Moisten sugar with water and add glucose and bake until it reaches 120°.

Butter cream (for the covering): Beat egg whites stiff, add the baked sugar and let cool down the mixture. Add to butter previously whipped.

Arrangement of polenta: Halve the sponge-cake semi-sphere and moisten with a bit of Curacao, stuff with the chocolate and hazelnut butter cream. Replace the half-sphere, spread the upper part with the butter cream and cover with a yellow marzipan pastry 4/5mm thick.

Final decoration

Sprinkle polenta with crystals of yellow sugar. In the middle of polenta spread apricot jam and add the little cubes of candied citron alternating them with the chocolate marzipan little birds (their little paws shall always be turned upwards), spread with the remaining apricot jam and sprinkle with cocoa.