Classic Italian water cake recipe

today

Ciambellone All’Acqua is an Italian classic, and amazingly soft, light and delicious. I turned to the chef and writer Carla Tomasi, currently in lockdown in Rome, for her recipe, and she recommends it for Easter breakfast. You can follow her on instagram at @carla_tomasi.

Prep time: 10 minutes | Cooking time: 35 minutes 

SERVES 

Eight to 10

INGREDIENTS 

  • 100ml sunflower oil, plus extra for greasing
  • 350g plain flour sifted with 4 tsp (16g) of baking powder (or use 365g self raising flour), plus extra flour for dusting
  • 200ml water, at room temperature (not too cold from the tap)
  • 200ml orange juice (from about 2 oranges), plus grated zest of 1 orange
  • 180g granulated sugar

SWAPS

  • No orange? Use lemon zest instead of orange, in which case the juice of one lemon will be plenty (make up the rest of the 200ml juice with water).
  • Add 50g cocoa powder and use coffee instead of orange juice and zest for a mocha version.
  • You can even replace some of the sugar with jam or marmalade: instead of the orange zest, juice, 180g sugar and 200ml water use: 150g jam or marmalade, 100g sugar and 350ml water.

METHOD 

  • Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/Gas 4.
  • Oil and flour a 25cm tube pan, bundt pan or 22cm round cake tin.
  • When the oven is hot, place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and whip well to a smooth batter with an electric whisk. Pour into the tin and bake for 35-45 minutes until a skewer stuck in the middle comes out clean. Cool for five minutes in the tin and then turn out on a wire rack to finish cooling.

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