Genoa cake (Italian: pandolce or pandolce genovese)^[2] is a fruit cake consisting of sultanas (golden-colored raisins), currants or raisins, glacé cherries, almonds, and candied orange peel or essence, cooked in a batter of flour, eggs, butter and sugar.^[1][3]

Although the name Genoa cake is mainly used in the United Kingdom, where recipes for it have been around since the 19th century,^[4] it is a variant of the pandolce (Italian: [panˈdoltʃe]; Ligurian: pandoçe, Ligurian: [paŋˈduːse]; lit. 'sweet bread') cake which originated in 16th-century Genoa as a Christmas cake. Unlike Genoa cake, traditional pandolce includes pine nuts as a major ingredient and uses yeast as its raising agent, which requires several hours to rise, like bread.^[5] This original form is today^[when?] known as pandolce alto ('deep pandolce'), whilst a simpler variant which uses baking powder is known as pandolce basso ('flat pandolce') and is essentially the same as the Genoa cake sold in the UK, with a moist but crumbly texture.^[6][7]

The term Genoa cake is also sometimes used to refer to two other Genoa-related cakes, neither of which are fruit cakes: Genoese cake, a light sponge cake,^[8] and pain de Gênes ('Genoa bread'), a dense almond cake.^[9]

• Cuisine of Liguria
• Genoese cake – French sponge cake
• Pain de Gênes – ground almond cake