Hi everyone,
I'm not sure if any of you have heard of a sfoglia cake. It's an italian cake that tastes something like a flakie. I think it's make with fillo because it's light and crisp and airy. If so, does anyone have a recipe they can share with me. Please please help me out!!! I've looked everywhere for it and came up with nothing because I don't know the english name for it!!!!! TIA

well.............
An old world recipe which derived from the Italian word "sfoglia" meaning leaves. This pastry is made by a layer intensive process where the dough is rolled paper thin and enveloped with a delicious filling of ricotta combined with sweetened fine wheat, fresh orange peel and a hint of cinnamon. It is then baked in our old world oven to a crisp flakey perfection.

I think this is it.. Hope someone else can help if not. The meaning of sfoglia has nothing to do with this recipe. BUT after looking at 1000 sites I did read it was some sort of cake soaked and sometimes called a special cake..

http://www.theitaliantaste.com/italian-cooking/dessert/torte/dolci_012_a_filled_sponge_cake_for_a_special_occasion.shtml

Thanks for your reply briansbaker!! The cake is called sfoglia but I have no clue what we call it in English. I tried looking for the recipe on the net but I had no luck. I'm hoping someone will recognize it and give me the english equivalent so that maybe I can find the recipe somewhere!!!


I appreciate your help!!
Take care.

Hi Daniela,

hope this will help you: Sfoglia is, as briansbaker wrote, a dough rolled and typicall layered with butter in several steps (ThePastryDiva may know how to do it). I think the engl. word is puff pastry, flaky pastry or phyllo (thats all my dictionary says )

Thanks for the info Tuggy, I'll pm thepastrydiva and see what she comes up with.

Have a nice day

it is very much like puff pastry or filo, and the cake is vaguely reminiscent of "napoleon" pastries. my boss got me a sfoglia cake for my birthday, and despite my usual distaste for pastry cream, it was awesome! italian pastries rock!

Aunt Judy,
You don't have any idea where I might find a recipe for that, would you??

i've searched all over the net, and can't find a recipe...
my wonderful italian boss (currently on mat leave) actually swung into the office today, so i asked if she could find me a recipe, and if she comes up with something, i will pass it along.
if you're feeling frisky, you might just want to buy yourself some frozen filo or puff pastry dough, cut and bake off some layers, and then fill with cream and fruit. filo is drier, and each sheet bakes into a single super-thin papery layer, so you need to bake lots of layers to make a layered pastry, whereas puff pastry has been laminated, which means that it has been rolled out and folded many times with lots of shortening in between the layers, so when they are baked, the dough "pulls away" from the fat layers, and you end up with a puffed-up many-layered product which you need to torte into layers to make a cake. for both types of dough, if you want a round cake, you need to cut the dough into that shape before baking, as they become too brittle after baking.

As I´m on holiday in Italy next week, I will keep my eyes open for a recipe.

I don't have a receipe but after having one at a shower I created one myself to rave reviews. I just bought frozen puff pastry, thawed it and then rolled it to the desired size. Pocked holes with a fork all over to stop it from puffing too high. Bake according to package. Once cooled I layered the puff pastry with pastry cream (I mixed homemade vanilla custard which I mixed with whipped cream with a little stablizer in it) and I added fresh cut strawberries and then another thin layer of pastry cream and then repeated the whole process. I usually had 4 layers of puff pastry. I would cover the whole thing with stablized whipped cream. You should let it sit refridgerated for aleast 4 hours before serving. It really is to die for.

if it's just layered puff dough with pastry cream then it's easy to cheat this one.

a quick way to do this is to make vanilla custard or pudding with less milk, like for pie filling. let it cool with a sheet of cling wrap pressed against the cooling pudding so it doesn't form a skin.

then you whip some whipping cream and fold together.

You can bake your puff pastry inside of a parchement lined bottom cake pan or on a cookie sheet.

you layer a few sheets together the fat solids in the sheets will melt and the steam will keep the layers flaky.

when it's cool you fill with the lightened pudding and slice fruit over it. you can make some clear jello or lime flavored jello or warm some apricot jam and brush over the fruit to keep them from turning on you.

I think....!?

Hope this helps...I didn't have time to ask anyone at school since we are doing our PRACTICAL FINALS...and we have a TON of things to put together...

we have a 36 inch pastillage pole with a crate and bowl...we have to have some cocoa painting on it someplace...we have to do 6 pulled sugar roses and 6 apples MINIMUM to fill the crate....

Then we have to do another chocolate box and truffles

Be done by 11 am on Thursday and we are off this Monday..so, I'm a little stressed! ( sorry!!!)

Daniela, if you're going to buy the dough: GO WITH PUFF PASTRY (like from Tenderflake) and NOT PHYLLO DOUGH. I did this once not knowing the difference and when I added my filling, the layers became soggy after a few hours. Puff pastry will definitely hold the filling better. Plus, I definitely recommend using a french custard filling (half custard or pastry cream and half whipping cream) like lou suggested. I like using strawberries only, but I've had some from the bakery where they used other fruit like kiwi, grapes, and canned peaches. If you want some decorating ideas for this type of cake, try icing it with whipped cream and layering the fruit you used on top with a glaze. If you need to write something (ie.Happy Birthday), pipe the words on a thin block of chocolate.

Thanks for the posts everyone. I was going a bit nuts over this recipe but I feel much better now!!

Tuggy, I'm so jealous!!!!!!!

Thanks for all your wonderful advice Aunt Judy, Lou, thepastrydiva and Patriciav!!!!! I know I can always rely on my friends here on CC to help me out when I'm in a jam.

I can't wait to try out the cake. I will definately let you all know how it turns out!!


Take Care

Oh, nevermind...the woman who told me about the recipe SAID it was puff pastry, but it wasn't...

Has me searching the dang net looking for it! I did find the recipe, and someone here posted it in the Christmas Cookie Exchange thread...

I think its on the 4th page, under Bushie's Good Cookies...(thank you to nashsmom!!!)