We dropped by our favourite local Italian deli to see if they had any good pandoro for the holiday season. Indeed they did. From Perbellini — the best.
But more than that, they also had a small supply of these, from the same company. With a box this beautiful, how could we resist?
The design is a classic, taken from a hand-drawn motif.
My Italian is a bit rusty but, as I understand it, fior d'albicocca means 'apricot flower'. I didn't know that apricots had blue flowers — but maybe they do in Bovalone (it's a small town close to Verona, northern Italy), where these cakes are produced.
The golden-brown glaze on the outside has a hint of marzipan/bitter almond, and is studded with chips of sweet almond. And those sweet morsels inside the fluffy yellow sponge certainly aren't bits of flower — they're nuggets of apricot fruit.
To quote the company's own description:
This extremely light cake is available all year round. The light sponge encloses small, tasty apricot confit drops, while the top is covered by a soft almond glaze. It is packaged in a delightful box with a hand drawn print of apricots making it an ideal gift...
In this case it was us who deserved the present. Sometimes we need fluffy little (or not so little) indulgences like this to help us make it through the busy year-end season.
