This sweet is related with an ancient popular tradition: girls used to give it to their fiancé on Easter Sunday.  This is the ancient recipe: mix 500 gms. of flour with 3 eggs, 100 gms. of butter or shortening, 300 gms. of sugar, the grated rind of 1/2 lemon, and a small bag of baking-powder. Mix the ingredients carefully so as to obtain a dough of the right consistency.  Butter a mold, coat it with flour, arrange nearly all the the dough in it giving it a ring-like shape.  With the remaining dough form 2 strips and cross them on the cake.  Bake in a medium hot oven for about 40 minutes.  In the meanwhile beat 2 egg-whites until stiff:  when the cake is nearly cooked, brush it over with them, decorate the top with sweetmeats, then leave the cake in the oven for a few minutes more.

The original recipe also calls for a small glass of alkermes liqueur to be mixed in with all the ingredients before being cooked.

("Umbria in Bocca", by Antonella Santolini, Edizione Gulliver, printed in 2000,pg. 205)