Cassata Cake

[celenes]

Here in Ohio or at least in Cleveland people order a lot of cassata cakes. I had never heard of them until I moved here.

Is this a popular dessert anywhere else?

I guess it would help if I mentioned that it is a yellow or white cake filled with bavarian cream or custard and strawberries. It is covered with whipped frosting.

People rave over it. It is not a personal favorite of mine but I have been making a lot of them particularly full sheet cakes which require making 4 half sheet cakes to make the full and as you can imagine it is very heavy. Which is why, I have more upper arm muscles at 40 Don't know if that is good or bad.

I have really had to learn how to pick this cake up without killing my back too.

[docsconz]

Cassata is a Sicilian cake and is authentically made with cannoli cream and sometimes rum. They also tend to have a lot of candied citrus and other fruit. True Sicilian Cassate are often very, very sweet - much too much so for me. The best ones to me are less sweet. These can be sublime. It is popular in Sicily and in NYC for people of Sicilian heritage.

What you have described sounds like a variation on the original.

[Zen Baker]

I love love love cassata cakes!! But you're right, I've only had them in Cleveland. Even here in Chicago, they're pretty rare. But when I went to college in Cleveland, there was nothing like a cassata cake from Little Italy on a hot summer night....yum!

Does anyone have a recipe or know where to get one? I'd love to make one day, maybe this summer!!

**Edited for spelling errors

Edited May 29, 2005 by Zen Baker (log)

[Wendy DeBord]

I can reccomend the recipe for cassata in the book, Spago Chocolate written by Mary Bergin and Judy Gethers, published by Random House. It's very good!!

I do one thing different then how they've published the instructions. I found their cake to be a bit too thin to layer, so I bake individual cakes for each layer.

[albiston]

Here in Ohio or at least in Cleveland people order a lot of cassata cakes.  I had never heard of them until I moved here.

Is this a popular dessert anywhere else?

I guess it would help if I mentioned that it is a yellow or white cake filled with bavarian cream or custard and strawberries.  It is covered with whipped frosting.

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The only cassata I knew before reading this was the Sicilian original John mentioned before. It's comforting to know that there's always something to learn here on the eGullet forums .

I was wondering if anyone has a picture (or a link to a picture) of this Cleveland Cassata: i'd be curious to see how it looks like.

[Swisskaese]

Here are a couple of recipes:

Cassata

Cassata II

These are not the Ohio version.

Edited May 29, 2005 by Swisskaese (log)

[celenes]

Quite interesting information. As you already know, the recipe that I have been exposed to is nothing like the ones which have been posted here. If I use these recipes I will definitely have to increase my price.

Thanks for sharing the recipes, I think I will try the Cassata II recipe just for testing purposes. Although I have been asked for a donation of an item for a UW fundraiser next week, so I might offer this up. I have to see how my schedule works out.

O.k. here are two pictures of cakes that I have done that are "Cassata Cake"

The first cake in the picture is the Cassata Cake for a wedding I did last summer

This mother-to-be loves Cassata Cake so this is what I came up with to match the decor which I also put together. Infact I am doing a 30th Birthday party luau cake for her in a few weeks and you guessed it, she wants a cassata cake.

They are classified as such because of the filling inside otherwise they just look like regular cakes.

Edited May 29, 2005 by celenes (log)

[docsconz]

Lydia, those are beautiful cakes and as you said indistinguishable from "regular' cakes from the outside. the same is essentially true of the Sicilian Cassata as well. That cake is baked and served for many of the same purposes as yours and as yours is determined by the filling. I would be very curious to taste yours or another Ohio version to see how it compares taste wise to the Sicilian. I imagine there are similarities as I would suspect the Ohio version is a derivative of the Sicilian.

[ruthcooks]

I've lived enough places to know that local and regional specialties are often known by names which mean something else to outsiders. For example, growing up in rural Illinois a half century ago, we never ate bologna or baloney--we knew it as "minced ham".

Sounds like the Ohio version of cassatta is simply a pastry cream filled Boston Cream Pie with frosting/topping instead of chocolate icing on top.

The best bread pudding I ever had was made with leftover Italian Cassata. I substituted cake cubes for about half the bread, and the bits of fruit and chocolate were simply wonderful in the warm pudding with whipped cream.

[celenes]

Thanks for the compliment John.

If this type of item would hold up in shipping I would gladly send you something to sample but I don't think it would ship well unless of course it is frozen which is not something I have tried and don't think I will.

I have an order for a cassata cake later in June so I may make the cannoli cream for that one haven't made up my mind yet. It's a really important service anniversary (40 years) and I am not sure if I should experiment for that particular cake.

I am still trying to work out design details because there will be a 100+ employees and upper management will be in attendance at this event.

[ludja]

Cassata is a Sicilian cake and is authentically made with cannoli cream and sometimes rum. They also tend to have a lot of candied citrus and other fruit. True Sicilian Cassate are often very, very sweet - much too much so for me. The best ones to me are less sweet. These can be sublime. It is popular in Sicily and in NYC for people of Sicilian heritage.

What you have described sounds like a variation on the original.

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And in its most elaborate incarnations Sicilian Cassata can also be covered with a thin layer of green-tinted pasta reale (marzipan). Dark chocolate bits may also be folded into the ricotta cream along with the candied fruit. And sometimes the rum (if liquor is being used) is replaced with maraschino. Yum, These are the types of cassata cake I grew up with in the northeast.

Funny though, a friend of mine from Cleveland had the "Cleveland" version as a wedding cake awhile back. An interesting regional specialty.

Edited May 30, 2005 by ludja (log)

[albiston]

And in its most elaborate incarnations Sicilian Cassata can also be covered with a thin layer of green-tinted pasta reale (marzipan).  Dark chocolate bits may also be folded into the ricotta cream along with the candied fruit.  And sometimes the rum (if liquor is being used) is replaced with maraschino.  Yum,  These are the types of cassata cake I grew up with in the northeast.

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You mean like this home made one?

(sorry for the bad picture quality: bad light conditions and ancient digital camera are a deadly mix)

[SushiCat]

We make a variation on these in our family too, they are an essential favorite! My nephew, (who is 9) started to request these as his birthday cake many years ago ... budding foodie that he is! I think our recipe is pretty similar to one posted here, but if I can find it in long form I'll type it in, my short form is to make a sponge, make a symple syrup with lemon peel and add some rum (or usually brandy), then make a ricotta filling split into different flavors, some with candied fruit and a bit with chocolate ... then start layering. We usually top with whipped cream.

My experience is that this is a cake that tastes better the next day, so is very useful for when you cannot fit the baking etc. into the same day as serving. Usually I'm quite fussy about same day baking, so I reserve this recipe for those times and also for any special occasions as it just sings out to all.

mmmn, now I want cake!

[ludja]

...

You mean like this home made one?

...

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That looks very nice. Can you buy the nice candied fruit you have on the cake or do you candy them yourselves?

[albiston]

That looks very nice.  Can you buy the nice candied fruit you have on the cake or do you candy them yourselves?

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It's not too difficult to those in Italy so I never made a serious attempt to candy fruit myself. Cherries, pineapple, oranges and citruses can be found almost everywhere. Others, like figs, mandarins, apricots or even better chinotti (the bitter citruis fruits used to make the same named soft drink) often need to be ordered way in advance. That, or you can order from a good s(but expensive) source like Romanengo in Genova, who makes some of the best candied fruits I've ever had.

BTW I did not make the cake, it's my younger brother's work.

[Jason Perlow]

Cassata cakes of course are not to be confused with molded gelato Cassata, which is similar to a spumoni. I'm not sure if its common in Italy or if its just an Italian-American thing.

[albiston]

Cassata cakes of course are not to be confused with molded gelato Cassata, which is similar to a spumoni. I'm not sure if its common in Italy or if its just an Italian-American thing.

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You do get Cassata "gelato" in Italy too, but while this might originate from Sicily as the cake does (not sure about this though) it seems much more popular in regions where the cake is not. As it is, I've seem much more gealto cassata in Northern Italy than in the South.

Edited May 30, 2005 by albiston (log)

[ludja]

That looks very nice.  Can you buy the nice candied fruit you have on the cake or do you candy them yourselves?

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It's not too difficult to those in Italy so I never made a serious attempt to candy fruit myself. Cherries, pineapple, oranges and citruses can be found almost everywhere. Others, like figs, mandarins, apricots or even better chinotti (the bitter citruis fruits used to make the same named soft drink) often need to be ordered way in advance. That, or you can order from a good s(but expensive) source like Romanengo in Genova, who makes some of the best candied fruits I've ever had.

BTW I did not make the cake, it's my younger brother's work.

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Yeah, I figured you would have good sources; it is more difficult here to just buy quality candied fruit. I must study andiesenji's great posts and get around to making some of my own sometime.

[Wendy DeBord]

I must study andiesenji's great posts and get around to making some of my own sometime.

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I've had Andiesenji's candied ginger and it is too die for.............so if your serious that's who's info. I'd start with!

[oli]

I am thinking of trying the "Zio Ciccio's Cassata" from Desaulnier. Someone's birthday is coming up, and this is a good occasion to make a cassata. This one is unglazed, what would you suggest - leave the cake unglazed or should I glaze it with something?

[Wendy DeBord]

I've made that specific recipe Oli. It's pretty good.

As I recall though it has two slight problem areas.

1. It's soft, so it's really hard to cut and serve (both the cake and the filling are very soft). I wound up freezing it a bit to cut it.

2. The filling was thin, runny as written. So I suggest you drain your ricotta really well. If I recall correctly I wound up adding either pastry cream or cream cheese to thicken it.

I think I finished mine with whipped cream. It's definately worth making..........just pointing out what my experience was. You could glaze it with chocolate too.

[chefette]

http://www.pastrynet.com./magazine/issue1-may05.pdf

pretty photos and an article here.

Originally from Pasticeria Internazzionale

also a recipe

Edited June 3, 2005 by chefette (log)

[celenes]

Thanks for posting chefette. I have really learned alot about Cassata cake. I don't think anyone here makes it like I have read on this thread. But maybe I will change up my recipe and see what happens.