It is an ancient typical cake of Christmas time, very popular throughout Umbria. Respecting the opinion of some writer, it dates back to the Etruscan time. Ingredients
300g sweet almonds (roughly ten bitter) 300g sugar 2 egg-yolks 1 grinded peel of lemon 2 coffee beans powder of cinnamon flour pine seeds

Preparation method
Trite sweet and bitter almonds, combine them with sugar and grinded peel of lemon. Whisk egg whites with just a little bit of flour necessary to bind the mixture and add the before compound, pour the lot on a bowl and cover it with a cloth, leave the dough to rest all night long in a fresh and dry place. Now lay down the pastry on a baking pan and mould it shaping a snake. Take an almond and set it at an end of the cake in order to shape the tongue whereas use the coffee beans to make he eyes of the “snake”. Decorate it with pine seeds, put in the oven at 180 °C and leave to cook for about twenty minutes. Leave it to cool down before serving it.

Notes – Pieces of candid fruit are not used in the area of Perugia but they are added in the remaining territory of Umbria during the first phase of pastry. According to some people, the cake has lake origin and the “snake” symbolizes the eel with evident meaning of good wish.