Who knew our recent recipe and tutorial has such a long history?
With our recent recipe posting of the Italian Sponge Cake or Pan di Spagna (pahn dee 'spahn-yuh), is a classic Italian Sponge cake, or literally translated, it means “Spanish bread,” really referring to sponge cake. We use it in our Espresso Tiramisu, an assemblage of soaked cake and creamy fillings. A sponge cake is a type of unshortened (foam) cake.
It is thought the cake was derived from the Spanish bizcocho, a thirteenth- century name for a twice-baked biscuit made from semolina flour(hard wheat), called hardtack, also known as ships’ biscuit. (Macaroni and couscous were also made from hard wheat.) The second baking made it hard and preservable, where it could be stored in sacks. Later, Bizcocho also came to be known as “sponge cake” – a light cake made with many eggs and starch, such as corn or potato starch, a history that is somewhat unclear. (It is thought to be derived from beaten eggs being added to hardtack dough to create a lighter cake.) 
By the time is traveled to Sicily (Italy), it became known as or Pan di Spagna(bread of Spain) or an egg sponge cake. It was known as a “keeping cake” because it had excellent longevity (keeping quality). It could be used dried, because it soaked up all of the liquids or soaking syrups it was brushed with. Served fresh, it is delicate and spongy.
It appears as though the French learned to make it from the Genoese or Genovese, named after the city of Genoa, Italy, and gave it the French name Génoise, another type of unshortened (foam) cake. According to the food historians, this cake was *invented* in the early 19th century. Génoise is a basic building block of much French pâtisserie and is used for making several different types of recipes.
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