Milanese baking is traditionally reknowned for yeast raising cakes, fragrant and delicious with many legends behind their long history.

We chose three of the most traditional: Panettone, Veneziana, Colomba

Natural cream butter, fresh eggs, flour, natural yeast, candied fruit, raisins, sugar and a good artisan baker is the recipe for a good panettone, antique cake of Milanese tradition since the 1300’s when, for Christmas, the Milanese got together around the fire and ate this rich “bread” they called “pan de ton” made of whole grain wheat. A romantic legend is tied to this cake. Once upon a time...In the 1400’s a certain Cavalier Ughetto degli Atellani fell in love with the beautiful Adalgisa, daughter of Offelee (a baker) of Porta Vercellina. Out of love for Adalgisa, Ughetto, turned baker, prepared a wonderful Christmas cake for his beloved with flour, eggs, sugar, candies fruits and raisins. The cake was so delicious that Adalgisa fell in love with Ughetto and they were married and they named the cake after the bride’s father, “Pan de Toni” (Toni’s bread)

This is the story we like to tell our clients and we too believe that with such a cake you can win the love of any girl!

Perhaps it doesn’t have the same passionate history as the Panettone but it is for sure one of the most refined and delicate cakes which calls to mind the fragrance and taste and the warm atmosphere of the artisan bakery. Prepared with flour, yeast, butter, candied orange peel and covered with a veil of powdered sugar and almonds, it has become the traditional New Year’s cake. Tradition has it that to eat a slice of Veneziana the end of the old year and the beginning of the new year will certainly bring good luck!

Luckily for us, you can find it year-round in our bakery, always fragrant and tasty.

Another cake with a mysterious back-ground is La Colomba (the dove), the Easter cake. For many the dove is the symbol of peace, appropriate for the Easter season but here agian there is a legend involved.

Towards the end of the year 1100 Italy was trying to expand its regions and Lombardy was trying to gain independence from the Germanic empire. Emperor Federico I, known as Barbarosso (Red Beard) himself lead the Germaic army against those revolting. Having won the battle of Pavia, Barbarosso ordered the capture of all virgin girls of the city. But a strange thing happened, the people of Pavia, knowing Barbarosso’s passion for hunting doves, asked all the bakers in town to prepare a cake in the form of a dove to give to the Emperor. Every one of the girls brought a dove cake to the Emperor declaring that her name was “Colomba” and Barbarosso tasted each girl’s cake. In the end he was so full and satisfied that he decided to free the girls and not distroy the city of Pavia, the city that gave the delicious Colomba its name.