Zuppa Inglese with Amarula, Chocolate, and Custard

Zuppa Inglese with Amarula Cream Liqueur, Chocolate, and Custard, a traditional Italian dessert made of  Pan di Spagna (sponge cake), soaked in liquor, and layered with custard and chocolate. I made a Zuppa Inglese cake and drenched the sponge with the delectable Amarula Cream Liqueur before adding layers of vanilla custard and cocoa-flavored custard.  A decadent dessert, perfect to entertain your adult guests during the holiday season.

[This post is sponsored by Amarula Cream Liqueur. As always, all opinions are our own.  Many thanks to our followers who support the brands that help fuel the passion that makes Sugarlovespices possible.]

I had in my mind the idea of making a Zuppa Inglese cake for quite some time. I wanted to bring back to the spotlight this great Italian classic, an evergreen dessert. 

 

 

Amarula Cream Liqueur

When we received two bottles of Amarula Cream Liqueur (with other goodies, like chocolate shot glasses!) just in time for the holidays, I knew that this Zuppa Inglese with Amarula Cream Liqueur, Chocolate, and Custard was meant to be.

Amarula, the original Marula-based alcoholic drink, was first launched as a clear spirit in 1983. In 1989, cream was added to the Marula-based spirit changing it to a cream liqueur. It is distilled and 2 years matured in aged French oak casks. It is available at your local liquor retailer.

Amarula is a gift from the marula tree. It is authentically African: uncultivated, sun-ripened, handpicked organic fruit of the marula tree. The trees bear their fruit just once a year at the end of Africa’s summer; the scent attracts the elephants from the surrounding areas that come to feast on the fruit. That's why the shape of an African elephant’s tusks are sculpted into the bottle. This is inspired by Africa’s majestic elephants who are known to walk for miles just to taste the ripe Marula fruit. 

• Amarula Cream Liqueur has a beautiful light caramel color. The taste is rich and velvety smooth, with hints of vanilla and caramel and the exotic, natural Marula fruit (which adds a lingering hint of nuttiness).
•  Its distinctive, well-rounded taste and creamy texture are extremely versatile. It can be enjoyed neat, with ice, infused in cocktails, or added to hot drinks like coffee, tea, and hot chocolate.

We used the Amarula Cream Liqueur to soak our Pan di Spagna, the Italian sponge cake. How delicious that was!

Pan di Spagna (Italian Sponge Cake)

You need 3 simple ingredients -eggs, sugar, and flour- to make Pan di Spagna. However, it is not the easiest cake to make, since there is no leavening agent all is left to the beating of the eggs and sugar and how much air they incorporate.

 There are three types of Pan di Spagna you can make, according to the crumb (sponge) you want to obtain: light, medium, or dense. I chose a medium sponge for this Zuppa Inglese, thinking that the cake would hold its shape better. Nonetheless, all 3 methods are good, you just end up with a different texture.

In the light Pan di Spagna, the sugar and flour are 50% of the weight of the eggs (yes, you need a scale); in the medium sponge the sugar and flour are 75% of the eggs (that's the one I used); in the dense sponge the sugar and flour are the same weight as the eggs.

Pan di Spagna is perfect for liquor-infused desserts like Zuppa Inglese.

Zuppa Inglese

Zuppa Inglese is a classic Italian dessert that alternates layers of liquor-infused sponge cake to layers of custard and chocolate. It can be presented in a glass bowl like a trifle, in individual serving glasses, or in the shape of a Zuppa Inglese cake, as I did.

To make Zuppa Inglese:

• Prepare the Pan di Spagna (sponge cake) first, possibly the day before, and store it well wrapped in plastic wrap.
• Afterward, the day of the assembly, make the vanilla custard. To make the chocolate custard, simply sieve unsweetened cocoa into half of the vanilla custard (my mother made it for me many times when I was young!).  
• Measure 1 cup of Amarula Cream Liqueur, and have a brush ready to soak your sponge.

The Assembly

Loreto and I, we love to work together in the kitchen and share the tasks, especially for the ones that seem more daunting, like the cutting of the cake, and the assembly of a layered cake.

On the first layer, we put the chocolate custard but not before soaking the sponge with the Amarula Cream Liqueur. Actually we poured first some Amarula at the bottom of the serving dish and placed the cake on top to ensure that the bottom layer was nice and moist. On goes the middle layer of the sponge cake, again saturated with the liqueur, followed by a layer of the vanilla custard. To finish it off on goes the top, some more Amarula, and a final layer of vanilla custard and a topping of chocolate shavings.

Zuppa Inglese with Amarula Cream Liqueur, Chocolate, and Custard

It was fun to assemble the Zuppa Inglese,  now we have to wait a few hours before we can taste it. The Amarula Cream Liqueur has to work its magic into the sponge. As a matter of fact, the more the cake sits the more flavorful and moist it becomes. Leave it in the fridge in the glass dome stand and take it out of the fridge about half an hour before serving.

     

The Flavors

This is truly a luxurious dessert, from the sponge cake to the chocolate and vanilla custard, and the incredible fruit-based Amarula that added a richness to the array and not too strong to overpower any of the other components of the cake. As a result, a wonderful festive dessert, for any of your upcoming gatherings.

Let's share Zuppa Inglese among friends and family

During this holiday season, it is nice to invite family and friends to share great conversations, food, and of course, a wonderful dessert like this Zuppa Inglese. It is heartwarming to see the appreciation on their faces which in return makes us feel like we have given it our all.

We enjoyed it with a nice espresso and a toast utilizing the chocolate shooter cups filled with the Amarula liqueur.

Loreto always wanting to kick things up a few notches, came up with an Amarula butter which amazingly complemented the Zuppa Inglese.

Happy Holidays to everyone from us at Sugarlovespices!

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What we also love about this product

Amarula and the elephants are intimately connected through our African roots and the Marula fruit. This is why the Amarula Trust was created in 2002 with the aim to safeguard the African elephants. In 2016, the Amarula Trust formed a partnership with the CEO, Dr. Paula Kahumbu, of Wild Life Direct with the shared vision to drive conservation through education. With less than 400,000 elephants left in the world, and their numbers decreasing at an alarming rate, we are going to work together to help protect our elephants and safeguard our heritage – so that in the years to come we can continue meeting them beneath the Marula trees.

Drink responsibly!