Sicily.

Chocolate stracciatella

Candied Sicilian bright green pistachios

Creamy& milky mascarpone

 Giant Lemon trees

Candied oranges

 Fresh Sweet ricotta

Cassata Siciliana.

i never had a proper cassata siciliana.

(When in Italy I usually try to hunt for the perfect sfogliatelle. Therefor anything else usually gets put to the side…) But for some reason I could imagine exactly how this cake should be. 

Or better yet, how it should taste.

 when searching for those yummy Sicilian fresh flavors, 

I bring you the perfect recipe. 

My version of a cassata Siciliana.

For the white cake

120g soft butter

120g sugar

2 eggs

75g  flour

5g baking powder

85g corn starch

zest of 1 lemon

whip up the butter, sugar and lemon sezt  together using the paddle attachment on your mixer. When the mixture is whiter and fluffy, add the eggs, one by one.

Add powders and continue to mix until you get an homogenize cake batter.

Pour the battar into a 20 cm buttered cake pan.

(if you happen to have a square pan, all the better )

Bake at 180c, 20 minutes.

Let the cake cool.

For the filling

100g mascarpone cheese

350g ricotta cheese

40g chopped up candied orange peels

30g chopped up dark chocolate

40g chopped up candied pistachio

1 tbsp. powdered sugar

¼ tsp. orange water

mix all ingredients using a whisk.

For the syrup

3 tbsp. water

3 tbsp. sugar

3 tbsp. dark rum

get the water and sugar to a boil, let cool down, and add the rum.

For the frosting

150g-whipped cream sweetened with 1 tbsp. powdered sugar

Assembly

Cut the cake into squares, from a 20cm pan you should have around 10 squares.

Cut each square in the middle to half. Moisten one side with the syrup. Spread a thick amount of the filling, and cover with the other half. Cover each piece with the frosting. Shave some dark chocolate to garnish.


* to cut down the work, instead of doing individual pieces, you can leave the cake whole, cut it in the middle, drench with syrup, loaded it up with the filling, cover with the other half, and frost with the cream. just as good, i promise.




you can find the recipe in hebrew here- http://www.chef-lavan.co.il/default.asp?catid={0C8834B1-0191-4C80-897F-C1E31A287FF1}&details_type=1&itemid={2CC5C1AD-5199-4CFF-9CCC-A06747558CDA}