The Mimosa cake was created in Rieti, Lazio, and was inspired by the women's day flower. It is a classic Italian pastry created by Adelmo Renzi in 1960. The cake consists of a dome-shaped sponge cake, layered with custard, covered with cream, and topped with crumbled sponge to recreate the flower from which it takes inspiration. Adelmo Renzi was a restaurateur and pastry chef from San Filippo di Contigliano who trained in the best restaurants in the capital before returning to his city to found the hotel institute where he taught for many years and opened his own business. In the 1960s, along with Frangipane and Coffee Bavarian cakes, he began offering Mimosa Cakes in his famous restaurant at the Teatro Flavio in Rieti, which was very popular during breaks between shows. In May 1962, Adelmo took it to Sanremo for a pastry making competition, won the competition, and gained fame in Sanremo and throughout Italy. Only later was the cake associated with International Women's Day, which had established the mimosa as its symbol.
Adelmo's restaurant closed in 1989, but his wife and daughters - Maria Rosaria, Alessandra and Paola - were determined to continue the family confectionery tradition and a few years later opened a pastry shop specializing in cakes. But in 2005 this business also closed. 10 years later "Japanese national television", says his daughter Maria Rosaria, "contacted us because in homage to the mimosa, the flower most loved by the Japanese, they wanted to create a program on the cake of the same name and on my father". The service renews interest in this dessert and the three sisters, the sole custodians of the original recipe, decide to try again. On 8 December 2018 they inaugurated La Mimosa di Adelmo, with two locations in Rome and Rieti, recovering pieces of furniture from the first restaurant and the father's desserts that his daughter Paola made. The most imporant element obviously remains the Mimosa Cake. Adelmo died last December, at the age of 93, but his talent was also recognized by the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella who appointed him Commander of the Republic in 2022.
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