Ginger and lemon ciambellone

15 November 2024

Ciambellone is my favorite cake, ever.

I love ciambellone for two main reasons: it’s super easy and you can change the recipe every time. I already shared the recipe for a classic ciambellone, the one my mother in law and my mom have always made. This one is slightly different, a couple of ingredients have been changed to make it even better and tastier.

Key steps for a perfect ciambellone

There are not many secrets to make a nice ciambellone. I find that there are two main things you want to focus your attention on:

Temperature of the ingredients: Always have the eggs and milk at room temperature. Cold eggs do not whip the same. and a cold batter won’t grow as much in the oven.
Leavening agent: Even though 20gr of baking soda might seem too much, do not reduce that amount. It is very important to give enough strength to the batter. Outside Italy I saw recipes calling for both baking soda and baking powder. I actually never used baking soda in my baking. I find it gives an unpleasant sour taste to the cake and also a yellowish color. That is due to the alkaline solution that generates when the baking soda is heated). Using enough baking powder (that is usually sodium carbonate) will help the cake rise and won’t change the taste or color.

Ciambellone recipe: how much sugar is too much?

What remains unchanged is the reduced content of fat and sugar in the recipe. Whenever I want to make a cake for my afternoon tea, I go online and search for new recipes but end up making the same again and again. This is because most of the recipes I find on line are too loaded with sugar, and I absolutely hate over sugary sweets.

I have found recipes that call for 300gr of sugar for 8 servings. That is almost 40gr of sugar per serving. I cannot even imagine to eat that amount in a single serving of cake.

I found with time, that the amount of sugar can be easily reduced, a little at a time for taste and trials. Once you reach the amount you want you adjust the recipe to your likings. This recipe originally called for 200gr of sugar, that is still a fair amount for a cake, but I managed to reduced it to 150gr and still get a great cake.

Reducing the daily sugar intake is possible, slowly with a bit of time. But after a few weeks you’ll reap the benefits and won’t miss the super sugary food you ate before.

Healthy additions to ciambellone

My go-to healthy additions to this cake are definitely:

ginger: spices are always a good choice, they give the cake flavor and also help our body in many ways
almonds: the almonds on top add some protein and good fats as well as fibers
ancient varieties of grain: you can always swap half of the all purpose flour for einkorn, spelt, barley or whole wheat flour. This will add variety, fibers and minerals to your cake.

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