Recipe: How to Make an Italian Wedding Cookie Cake (Torta di Biscotto di Nozze), Wedding Cookie Tray Tips and Recipes
Holidays, CelebrationsHOW TO MAKE AND ITALIAN WEDDING COOKIE CAKE
(TORTA DI BISCOTTO DI NOZZE)
Source: Celebrations Italian Style by Mary Ann Esposito
Traditions surrounding Italian weddings vary from region to region and town to town. One that has descended from my southern Italian heritage is the wedding cookie cake, thought to have originated around Naples. A wedding cookie cake (shown on the jacket) consists of layer upon layer of a variety of cookies arranged in a pyramid, held together with icing, and decorated with candy, ribbons, and flowers. Making one is not difficult, if certain procedures are followed to ensure success.
You will want to make a variety of cookies so that the cake has many different layers, although layers can be repeated. I have suggested cookies that have worked well for me. Most of these cookies can be made up to a month ahead and frozen until the day before the wedding, when the cake is assembled. If you make the cookies ahead, freeze them carefully in single layers between wax paper or plastic wrap, and place them in airtight containers, not plastic bags. If the recipe is for a frosted cookie, frost as directed after baking and let the frosting dry completely before storing the cookies between layers of wax paper for freezing.
The Pasta Ciotti (Little Custard Tarts) cannot be frozen, but should be made the day before assembling the cake. Keep the tarts covered in the refrigerator after they cool.
In addition to the cookies, you will need white and green sugar-coated almonds, the traditional color for the bride and groom, narrow pastel-colored ribbons for streamers, and a nosegay or bridal top ornament. To hold the cookies in place, you will need to use "icing glue," which is just confectioners' sugar and a little milk mixed to a thick frosting consistency.
Build the cake on a decorative round dish or tray. I often use one sixteen inches in diameter, but smaller or larger trays can be used. The larger the tray, the more a flat pyramid effect will be produced. How large you make the cookie cake is a matter of choice, depending on the number of wedding guests. For a sixteen-inch tray, I recommend making about eight different types of cookies. Some of the cookies I use in my cookie cake are:
Chocolate and Black Pepper Cookies
S Cookies
Anise Cookies
Sesame Cookies
Marriage Cookies
Almond Cookies
Sicilian Fig Cookies
and Little Custard Tarts
(I usually put about eleven layers of cookies on a sixteen-inch tray.)
Use firm cookies, such as biscotti, for the bottom layers. The more delicate cookies should be used for the top layers. Arrange the biscotti on their sides on the tray, making sure the entire surface is covered. I like to have the ends of the biscotti protrude just a bit over the edge of the tray.
Build the second layer using a different kind of cookie, or a mixture of cookies, and continue building until you have a pyramid. For a sixteen-inch tray, the cake should be at least twelve inches high, without the bridal ornament or flower nosegay at the top.
As you build the layers, use the icing glue to anchor the cookies in place by dabbing just a bit of frosting on the bottom of each one. This is important, especially if the cake is to be moved any distance.
For the finishing touches, insert white and green almonds between the cookies all around the cake. Make ribbon streamers for the cake and place a nosegay of wedding flowers at the top. I leave an indentation at the top of the cake for the flower stems.
At the wedding reception, position the cookie cake next to the wedding cake, and post a graceful sign that asks guests to make their selections starting at the top, not the bottom of the cake - although with the icing holding the cookies in place, there is little fear that it will fall like the tower of Babel!
At a traditional southern Italian wedding, the wedding party surrounds the cake table in a circle and dances the tarantella before the guests begin eating the cookies. Many times the cookie cake gets more attention than the wedding cake itself. The best thing, of course, is that the tradition lives on.
HOW TO MAKE AND ITALIAN WEDDING COOKIE CAKE
TIPS AND VARIATIONS
Source: Combat Lit/alt.wedding/2002
Last week we made an Italian Wedding Cookie Cake. This cookie cake is on the cover of Mary Ann Esposito's 1995 book, Celebrations Italian Style. She calls it Torta di Biscotto di Nozze.
This baking and architecture project is easy to do, but it requires some planning and good organization.
On Thursday and Friday, I made 8 different cookies for the cake. All of the cookies were stored in air tight tins, not frozen. The cookies and the quantity were:
1. Biscotti di Prato (orange-almond flavor), 120
2. Pignoli (Pine Nut Amaretti), 50
3. Biscotti X (a dried fruit and nut filled Cucidati), 60
4. Zaletti (a cornmeal and currant formed cookie), 70
5. Dolcetti al Limone (a lemon-flavored cookie press cookie), 96
6. Palla di Neve (almond flavored snowballs), 100
7. Biscotti al Cioccolato con Pepe Nero (a spice cookie), 50
8. Biscotti Sposalizi (a chocolate nut cookie), 40
We used the first seven cookies to construct the cookie cake. In my opinion, the Biscotti Sposalizi were too fragile to go on the cake.
I had purchased an 18-inch white plastic platter at a local restaurant supply. The bottom of the platter was a 14 inch circle. The sides were sloped and scalloped. In the middle of the platter, I epoxied a 14 inch tall floral column which we used to support a nosegay.
On Saturday morning, we assembled the cake. [The wedding started at 3:00 p.m.] We started by putting two layers of Biscotti di Prato on the flat 14 inch part of the platter, fastening some of them to the base with a lemon flavored, powered sugar and milk icing. We also "glued" these same sturdy cookies around the floral column to give it additional support. [I put the icing/glue into two squirt bottles so we could easily add a dab of icing to a cookie.]
We then added layers of cookies until we reached the top of the column. We use white and green Jordan almonds to plug up holes and gaps, gluing them on as needed. We tied decorative ribbons to the top of the column letting them fall down the sides of the cake. Assembly to this point by two people took approximately two hours.
For transport and presentation, we placed the plastic platter on a bread board covered in a very decorative wedding gift wrap. We then drove the cookie cake to the home where the garden wedding was held.
There, in the kitchen, we finished the cookie cake. We alternatively placed Palla di Neve and Dolcetti al Limone on the scalloped border of the platter around the base of the cookie cake. We attached the bottom of the nosegay container to the top of the floral column with Sobo glue so it could be removed after the wedding and given to the groom's mother as a gift. All the extra cookies (and the too fragile Biscotti Sposalizi) were placed in a decorated and napkin-lined straw basket.
The cookie cake and basket were presented to the bride and groom (as a surprise) just after the cake was cut. The bride and groom had the first two cookies, then we disassembled the cake and put all the cookies from the cake in other straw baskets.
It appeared to me that many of the guests, especially the children and the older Italians, ate cookies instead of the wedding cake. In addition, the cookies were available for snacking after the cake was cut and gone.
EDITOR'S NOTE:
We'd love to hear from anyone who has recipes and/or tips to add to this. Please post your additions as a reply to this message.
Happy Baking!
Betsy at Recipelink.com
(TORTA DI BISCOTTO DI NOZZE)
Source: Celebrations Italian Style by Mary Ann Esposito
Traditions surrounding Italian weddings vary from region to region and town to town. One that has descended from my southern Italian heritage is the wedding cookie cake, thought to have originated around Naples. A wedding cookie cake (shown on the jacket) consists of layer upon layer of a variety of cookies arranged in a pyramid, held together with icing, and decorated with candy, ribbons, and flowers. Making one is not difficult, if certain procedures are followed to ensure success.
You will want to make a variety of cookies so that the cake has many different layers, although layers can be repeated. I have suggested cookies that have worked well for me. Most of these cookies can be made up to a month ahead and frozen until the day before the wedding, when the cake is assembled. If you make the cookies ahead, freeze them carefully in single layers between wax paper or plastic wrap, and place them in airtight containers, not plastic bags. If the recipe is for a frosted cookie, frost as directed after baking and let the frosting dry completely before storing the cookies between layers of wax paper for freezing.
The Pasta Ciotti (Little Custard Tarts) cannot be frozen, but should be made the day before assembling the cake. Keep the tarts covered in the refrigerator after they cool.
In addition to the cookies, you will need white and green sugar-coated almonds, the traditional color for the bride and groom, narrow pastel-colored ribbons for streamers, and a nosegay or bridal top ornament. To hold the cookies in place, you will need to use "icing glue," which is just confectioners' sugar and a little milk mixed to a thick frosting consistency.
Build the cake on a decorative round dish or tray. I often use one sixteen inches in diameter, but smaller or larger trays can be used. The larger the tray, the more a flat pyramid effect will be produced. How large you make the cookie cake is a matter of choice, depending on the number of wedding guests. For a sixteen-inch tray, I recommend making about eight different types of cookies. Some of the cookies I use in my cookie cake are:
Chocolate and Black Pepper Cookies
S Cookies
Anise Cookies
Sesame Cookies
Marriage Cookies
Almond Cookies
Sicilian Fig Cookies
and Little Custard Tarts
(I usually put about eleven layers of cookies on a sixteen-inch tray.)
Use firm cookies, such as biscotti, for the bottom layers. The more delicate cookies should be used for the top layers. Arrange the biscotti on their sides on the tray, making sure the entire surface is covered. I like to have the ends of the biscotti protrude just a bit over the edge of the tray.
Build the second layer using a different kind of cookie, or a mixture of cookies, and continue building until you have a pyramid. For a sixteen-inch tray, the cake should be at least twelve inches high, without the bridal ornament or flower nosegay at the top.
As you build the layers, use the icing glue to anchor the cookies in place by dabbing just a bit of frosting on the bottom of each one. This is important, especially if the cake is to be moved any distance.
For the finishing touches, insert white and green almonds between the cookies all around the cake. Make ribbon streamers for the cake and place a nosegay of wedding flowers at the top. I leave an indentation at the top of the cake for the flower stems.
At the wedding reception, position the cookie cake next to the wedding cake, and post a graceful sign that asks guests to make their selections starting at the top, not the bottom of the cake - although with the icing holding the cookies in place, there is little fear that it will fall like the tower of Babel!
At a traditional southern Italian wedding, the wedding party surrounds the cake table in a circle and dances the tarantella before the guests begin eating the cookies. Many times the cookie cake gets more attention than the wedding cake itself. The best thing, of course, is that the tradition lives on.
HOW TO MAKE AND ITALIAN WEDDING COOKIE CAKE
TIPS AND VARIATIONS
Source: Combat Lit/alt.wedding/2002
Last week we made an Italian Wedding Cookie Cake. This cookie cake is on the cover of Mary Ann Esposito's 1995 book, Celebrations Italian Style. She calls it Torta di Biscotto di Nozze.
This baking and architecture project is easy to do, but it requires some planning and good organization.
On Thursday and Friday, I made 8 different cookies for the cake. All of the cookies were stored in air tight tins, not frozen. The cookies and the quantity were:
1. Biscotti di Prato (orange-almond flavor), 120
2. Pignoli (Pine Nut Amaretti), 50
3. Biscotti X (a dried fruit and nut filled Cucidati), 60
4. Zaletti (a cornmeal and currant formed cookie), 70
5. Dolcetti al Limone (a lemon-flavored cookie press cookie), 96
6. Palla di Neve (almond flavored snowballs), 100
7. Biscotti al Cioccolato con Pepe Nero (a spice cookie), 50
8. Biscotti Sposalizi (a chocolate nut cookie), 40
We used the first seven cookies to construct the cookie cake. In my opinion, the Biscotti Sposalizi were too fragile to go on the cake.
I had purchased an 18-inch white plastic platter at a local restaurant supply. The bottom of the platter was a 14 inch circle. The sides were sloped and scalloped. In the middle of the platter, I epoxied a 14 inch tall floral column which we used to support a nosegay.
On Saturday morning, we assembled the cake. [The wedding started at 3:00 p.m.] We started by putting two layers of Biscotti di Prato on the flat 14 inch part of the platter, fastening some of them to the base with a lemon flavored, powered sugar and milk icing. We also "glued" these same sturdy cookies around the floral column to give it additional support. [I put the icing/glue into two squirt bottles so we could easily add a dab of icing to a cookie.]
We then added layers of cookies until we reached the top of the column. We use white and green Jordan almonds to plug up holes and gaps, gluing them on as needed. We tied decorative ribbons to the top of the column letting them fall down the sides of the cake. Assembly to this point by two people took approximately two hours.
For transport and presentation, we placed the plastic platter on a bread board covered in a very decorative wedding gift wrap. We then drove the cookie cake to the home where the garden wedding was held.
There, in the kitchen, we finished the cookie cake. We alternatively placed Palla di Neve and Dolcetti al Limone on the scalloped border of the platter around the base of the cookie cake. We attached the bottom of the nosegay container to the top of the floral column with Sobo glue so it could be removed after the wedding and given to the groom's mother as a gift. All the extra cookies (and the too fragile Biscotti Sposalizi) were placed in a decorated and napkin-lined straw basket.
The cookie cake and basket were presented to the bride and groom (as a surprise) just after the cake was cut. The bride and groom had the first two cookies, then we disassembled the cake and put all the cookies from the cake in other straw baskets.
It appeared to me that many of the guests, especially the children and the older Italians, ate cookies instead of the wedding cake. In addition, the cookies were available for snacking after the cake was cut and gone.
EDITOR'S NOTE:
We'd love to hear from anyone who has recipes and/or tips to add to this. Please post your additions as a reply to this message.
Happy Baking!
Betsy at Recipelink.com
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- Do not use the message boards for advertising or solicitation of our visitors.
- Do not post personal data about yourself or others such as resumes, phone numbers, addresses, etc.
- Be kind. Rude or offensive posts are not acceptable. If you should find a posting that is objectionable to you please do not post a response. E-mail a message to: help@recipelink.com If a complaint is made against a message it is removed.
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The message
boards are monitored and not all posts are accepted. We reserve the right to
modify, move, use or remove (or not remove) information posted at our discretion
and without prior notification or explanation. Failure to follow the guidelines
may result in loss of access. These guidelines are subject to change without
notice.
Not required, but a request:
Please take a moment to post a thank you to those that take the time (sometimes hours) to find the recipe or information you requested!
Thank you for participating!