Italian Easter cake Sicilian cassata

Name: Italian Easter cake Sicilian cassata
Total time: 2 h 30 min
Yield: 12
Ingredients: 3 Eggs; 90 g Sugar; 100 g Wheat flour; 1 teaspoon Lemon zest; 180 g Sugar; 500 g Ricotta; 40 ml Liquor; 100 g Bitter chocolate; 40 g Pistachios; 100 g Candied fruit; 90 ml Water; to taste Pistachios; 250 g Heavy cream; 1 tablespoon Powdered sugar; to taste Candied fruit mixture

Surprise your loved ones with a delicious Easter cake! Sicilian cassata is a magical Italian cake that is traditionally prepared for Easter and wedding celebrations. This cake is tender, juicy, crispy and chocolatey in places! The taste is simply incomparable and unique! We can talk a lot about this cake, but I still advise you to prepare it and try it, besides, there is a reason, because very soon we will all have a bright holiday - Easter.

164

11016

Eva Garcia

Author of the recipe

Calories

386Kcal

Protein

10gram

Fat

17gram

Carbs

41gram

*Nutritional value of 1 serving

Ingredients

Servings: 12

3

90g

100g

1teaspoon

180g

500g

40ml

100g

40g

100g

90ml

to taste

250g

1tablespoon

Candied fruit mixture

to taste

Step-by-step preparation

Cooking time: 2 hr 30 mins

STEP 1
Prepare the ingredients for the sponge cake.
STEP 2
Carefully separate the eggs into whites and yolks. Pour the whites into a large, clean, dry bowl.
STEP 3
Beat the egg whites with a mixer until light and fluffy. While beating, increase the mixer speed as the volume of whites increases.
STEP 4
Next, add sugar in small portions and beat the whites until stiff peaks form, the sugar should completely dissolve.
STEP 5
Add the yolks to the well-beaten whites, one at a time.
STEP 6
Add lemon zest. By the way, remove the zest carefully, trying not to catch the white part, otherwise it may give the biscuit an unpleasant bitterness.
STEP 7
Sift the flour and mix into the dough in small portions.
STEP 8
Mix the dough carefully so that it retains its volume as much as possible.
STEP 9
Cover the bottom of the baking pan (diameter 20-22 cm) with paper; do not grease the sides of the pan with anything. Place the finished dough into the prepared pan.
STEP 10
Bake the biscuit in an oven preheated to 180 C for about 25-30 minutes. Do not open the oven for the first 20 minutes, otherwise the biscuit may fall due to temperature changes. Check the readiness of the sponge cake with a wooden skewer; if you pierce the center of the sponge cake with it, it should come out without traces of sticky dough.
STEP 11
First let the finished sponge cake cool a little in the mold, and then carefully run a pastry spatula or narrow knife along the sides and remove the sponge cake from the mold. Let it cool completely, and if you have time, let it sit for 6-8 hours after baking, so the sponge cake will thicken and make it easier to work with.
STEP 12
Prepare the ingredients for the syrup, it will be needed to prepare the filling.
STEP 13
Pour water into the bottom of the saucepan and pour all the sugar into the center of the saucepan.
STEP 14
Place the saucepan over low heat, bring the contents to a boil, cover the saucepan with a lid and simmer the syrup for 20 minutes until golden brown. Do not stir the syrup while cooking.
STEP 15
Prepare the filling.
STEP 16
Chop the dark chocolate with a knife.
STEP 17
Also chop the pistachios and candied fruits (I have small candied fruits, so I left them whole).
STEP 18
Place the ricotta in a bowl and beat with a mixer or mash with a whisk until fluffy for 1 minute.
STEP 19
Without ceasing to stir, pour in the cooled syrup in a thin stream (if the syrup thickens during cooling, gently heat it to make it more liquid). By the way, as an option, I think sugar syrup can be replaced with regular powdered sugar.
STEP 20
Add candied fruits, chocolate and pistachios to the ricotta.
STEP 21
Stir thoroughly. Place the filling in the refrigerator and chill for an hour or more.
STEP 22
Cut the biscuit into 2 parts.
STEP 23
Place one part of the sponge cake on the bottom of the springform pan (I lined the edges of the pan with border tape, this is not necessary, but thanks to it the edges will be smooth and neat).
STEP 24
Sprinkle both halves of the sponge cake with liqueur (by the way, it is most often customary to use clear cherry liqueur, but if you don’t have it, then you can use any other light liqueur or even use regular fruit syrup).
STEP 25
Place the filling on the biscuit layer.
STEP 26
Cover the filling with the second part of the sponge, moistened side down. In this form, place the cake in the refrigerator for 5-7 hours (I kept it in the freezer for another hour before removing it from the mold)
STEP 27
Remove the well-cooled cake from the mold and transfer to a plate. In general, the cake is ready, now you can decorate it.
STEP 28
Prepare your ingredients.
STEP 29
Beat the well-chilled cream with powdered sugar (you can increase the amount of powder if desired, but keep in mind that the top of the cake will be decorated with candied fruits, which are quite sweet). By the way, if necessary, you can add a thickener to the cream, so it will hold its shape better. Cover the cake on all sides with whipped cream. Carefully level the surface.
STEP 30
Use a spatula to decorate the side of the cake. If you don’t have such a spatula, then you can leave the sides even or decorate them to your liking.
STEP 31
Place a small portion of the whipped cream into a piping bag fitted with a small star tip. Squeeze out the cream in small portions and decorate the bottom of the cake along the entire diameter.
STEP 32
Pipe the remaining cream around the cake in the form of curls, to do this, use a nozzle with rounded ends.
STEP 33
Decorate the top of the cake with candied fruits and nuts.
STEP 34
Italian cake Sicilian cassata is ready.
STEP 35
Bon appetit!