Sportella

Sportella is a traditional cake hailing from Elba. This sweet bread is made with flour, sugar, butter, eggs, milk, lemon zest, baking powder, and anise seeds. The dough is rolled into a long cylinder that's shaped into a horsehoe, and the two ends are then connected and crossed over before being brushed with egg yolks, sprinkled with nib sugar and baked. Sportella is supposed to represent the female sexual symbol and it has a very ancient tradition – during the Festa della Sportella, on Easter Monday, sportella is blessed and given by girlfriends to their boyfriends (don't worry, the girls've gotten their cake called cerimito yesterday, on Palm Sunday, and sportella is usually just an answer to yesterday's love proposals).