Today I will explain how to make the traditional San Martino Cake, a traditional Venetian cake. On Saint Martin’s Day, November 11th in Venice it is customary to give this shortcrust pastry cake in the shape of Saint Martin on horseback, adorned with colorful chocolate sweets and icing. In bakeries and pastry shops, it is also found covered with chocolate and then iced.
On this day children walk the streets singing and reciting poems with a pot around their necks, banging it and asking for sweets. In pastry shops, it is sold at exorbitant prices, so for many years I have been making it at home. To create the San Martino Cake, I used a drawing that I printed on paper and cut out, then transferred it onto a sheet of baking paper so I could lay it on the shortcrust. Here is the pdf file to download and print; you can find it by clicking HERE, or you can buy a very handy plastic mold available both in large version and small version. You can prepare it with the traditional shortcrust, lactose-free, vegan or gluten-free according to your needs, try looking at all my shortcrust versions, you might find another variant to try. After baking the cake, let it cool and only then decorate with icing and immediately add the decorations you like, allow it to dry well for an entire day in a not too humid place, the icing must be very hard. Choose the candies and chocolates you like best and those that suit your needs, for instance, if you are vegan, opt for candies and chocolates without animal derivatives. Now let’s see how to make the San Martino cake, and if you try it, let me know. Barbara
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- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Inexpensive
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients to prepare the San Martino Cake
- 2 cups Flour
- 6 tbsp Butter
- 1 Egg
- 1/4 cup Powdered sugar
- 1 pinch Salt
- 1 pod Vanilla (or 1 sachet of vanillin)
- 2 cups Flour
- 1/4 cup Sunflower seed oil
- 1 Egg
- 1/4 cup Powdered sugar
- 1 pinch Salt
- 1 pod Vanilla (or 1 sachet of vanillin)
- 2 cups Flour (220 mix for cakes, 30 g hazelnuts if gluten-free)
- 1/4 cup Sunflower seed oil
- 1/3 cup Brown sugar
- 1 pinch Salt
- 1 pinch Baking soda
- 1 pod Vanilla
- 1/2 cup Soy milk (or rice milk)
- 1 tbsp Egg white
- 2/3 cup Powdered sugar
- Food coloring
- 2/3 cup Powdered sugar
- as needed Water
Tools
- Molds
How to prepare the San Martino Cake
Let’s proceed with the preparation of the San Martino Cake, pour the ingredients into a mixer or bowl and work them until you get a sandy dough and then continue working the mixture to become a compact ball. Remove it from the bowl, compact it and wrap it with plastic wrap, store it in the fridge for 30 or 60 minutes.
After the resting time, sprinkle flour on the work surface and roll out the pastry to a thickness of about 1/5 inch. Place the mold on the pastry and cut the edges with a knife. You can find the PDF file of the mold HERE.
Place it on a sheet of baking paper and on the oven tray, bake for about 20 minutes in a preheated oven at 350°F, it should be golden. Remove it from the oven and let it cool completely.
Pour egg white into a bowl, add powdered sugar, mix well until you get a homogeneous and glossy icing, add food coloring. Pour the icing into a piping bag and decorate the San Martino cake.
Pour powdered sugar into a bowl, add cold water gradually and food coloring, mix well until it is thick. Pour the icing into a piping bag and decorate the San Martino cake.
How to store the San Martino Cake
Store it at room temperature for 1 week, you can also keep it in a food-safe bag if you plan to give it as a gift.
