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Colonial Dessert · Rum-Soaked Cake

Pío Quinto

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The dessert is popularly said to be named after a 16th-century pope, even though the cake itself is a purely Nicaraguan invention with no known Roman connection.

A moist sponge cake cut into cubes, soaked in a sweet rum-spiked syrup, and topped with meringue or whipped cream. Vendors around Granada's central park and the Calzada spoon it into small cups for a quick, sweet bite.

Why it's made this way: The dessert is closely tied to Granada's colonial confectionery tradition, where Spanish-descended households refined sugar-cane syrups and egg-based sweets passed down through the city's old convents and bakeries.
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