Place the cream in a smaller saucepan over low heat. Crumble the saffron with your fingers and add it to the cream along with the scraped vanilla bean. Bring the cream to a near boil and then turn off the heat. Leave the cream to steep, stirring occasionally, as it cools to room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease and flour (or use something like Baker's Joy, which I do) a 12-cup bundt pan, or a 10 cup bundt pan, in which case also grease and flour a mini bundt pan or 2 mini loaf pans. Set aside.

Whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder. Set aside.

Mix the eggs and sugar together; either using a mixer or some serious arm power, beat on medium high speed for 5 minutes, until pale yellow and thick.

Beat in the vanilla bean seeds, vanilla extract and fiori di sicilia.

Pour the cooled cream through a sieve--after you have removed the vanilla bean, add as much of the saffron back into the cream as possible.

While mixing (on medium low if with a mixer), pour 1/3 of the cream into the egg mixture in a steady stream. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture and mix just to combine. Scrape the sides down and repeat twice, until all of the flour and cream has been used. At the end beat on medium speed (or use your hand) for 1 minute to combine.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan(s). Bake the cake for about 25 minutes for mini cakes, 50 minutes for a 10 cup pan and 1 hour for a 12 cup pan. Either way watch for signs: the baked cake(s) will be fragrant and golden brown, and a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake should come out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. The sides will also pull away from the pan.

Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes and then invert it onto a cooling rack (I like to do this on top of parchment paper so that the cake does not sink into the wires). Let cool completely before dusting with powdered sugar and slicing.