cools, chopped fruit, key lime and sugar are added. The mixture is served as a beverage called "chicha morada". Picarones: a sweet, ring-shaped fritter with a pumpkin base; often served with a molasses syrup. Picarones were created during the colonial period to replace the Spanish dessert Buñuelos, as buñuelos were too expensive to make (They had an egg custard filling) and some ingredients were unavailable (lemon rinds). Peruvian Picarones are made of squash or pumpkin dough and sweetened with chancaca, raw cane sugar melted into a syrup. Tejas: another modified Spanish dessert. The original Spanish version contained ingredients that were prohibitively expensive in Peru, such as almonds. The Peruvian version of this candy is filled with manjar blanco and coated with a fondant-like shell. Some are also made with a chocolate shell (chocoteja). King Kong: is made of cookies (made from flour, butter, eggs and milk), filled with milk candy, some pineapple sweet and in some cases peanuts, with cookies within its layers. It is sold in one-half and one kilogram sizes. It is known as part of the culture of Lambayeque Region. Suspiro a la Limeña: Is another Spanish-influenced dessert that uses dulce de leche, which derives from the Spanish Blancmange. The bottom layer is made of dulce de leche enriched with egg yolks. The top layer consists of meringue made with port wine. This classic criollo dessert is said to have been named by the famous Peruvian poet and author José Gálvez whose wife doña Amparo Ayarez was famous for her cooking. When asked what inspired the name, he reportedly replied, "Because it is soft and sweet, like the sigh of a woman." In this case, it would be a woman from Lima, a Limeña. Panetón: is a type of sweet bread with dried fruit. It is usually served for breakfast around Christmas with a cup of hot chocolate. They used to come in big boxes only with huge panetóns inside but now they also sell personal portions. Chocotón is variety of panetón that replaces the fruit with chocolate bits. The bread is very light and sweet. Because Christmas is the hottest time of year, people often replace the hot chocolate with coffee or a drink that's served cold. Flan de leche is also a very popular dish. Cachanga: Also known as a sopaipilla, sopapilla, sopaipa. This desert is a kind of fried pastry and a type of