Putizza is another dessert typical of Trieste. It is similar to Friuli’s ubiquitous spiral cake called gubana, with a filling of biscotti crumbs, dried fruit, nuts, and spices, but I find putizza to be much more decadent as it also contains chocolate. For the whole cakes, I made spirals out of a color mix of Fimo vanilla, Premo ecru, white, and translucent, cutting a few cracks in the edges where the filling would naturally peek through. I then used a toothbrush, needle tool, and crumpled aluminum foil for texture and shaded the cakes with soft pastels for a golden-brown baked effect.
Once the cakes were baked, I filled in the cracks with a mix of TLS (translucent liquid Sculpey) and grated flecks of previously baked Premo burnt umber. After a second baking, I sealed the cakes with Helmar Crystal Kote Matte spray varnish, so that the pastels wouldn’t rub off. Finally, I added a little matte varnish on the tops to create the subtle sheen of an egg wash.
Unlike gubana, which is baked as a free-form loaf, putizza is typically baked in a cake pan. In bakeries, paper liners are often used (like the ones you’d find encasing panettone, only shorter). Since the bottoms wouldn’t show, I only needed to create a paper ring around the cakes. I Photoshopped an image of the characteristic brown and gold pattern, reduced it to scale, and printed it on regular printer paper. I cut out strips, using pinking shears to create the scalloped border, then glued these around the cakes. Finally, I glued the cakes onto circles of gold cardstock.
The real-life Pasticceria Penso did not actually sell individual slices of putizza. However, I find the swirly spirals of dough and filling so captivating that I couldn’t resist showing off the center of the cake. To make the slices, I first made a jellyroll cane out of the above dough color and a mix of Premo raw sienna and translucent. I then formed this into a spiral, in precisely the same manner that the dessert itself is actually prepared. After slicing the cake into wedges, I gave the interior some texture with a needle tool. Like with the presnitz slices, I embedded pre-made raisins and walnuts into the filling, along with some chocolate chunks (chopped bits of previously baked Premo burnt umber). I then textured and shaded the outside of the dough as described above. After baking, I dabbed on some TLS mixed with brown soft pastels to give the effect of melted chocolate in the filling.
Here is a photo of the putizza and presnitz on the bakery rack. (I’ll post photos of the putizza slices in their tray once I’ve completed the other desserts that they’ll be sharing the tray with.)
