Directions: |
Directions:Separate eggs and beat separately. Beat yolks until lemon color. Add sugar and mix well. Add flour and baking powder gradually, alternating with juice. Add rind along with flour and baking powder. Fold in beaten still egg whites. Pour into ungreased tube pan and bake in pre-hearted over for 40-50 minutes or until done at 350 degrees.
Filling/Topping:
1 ½ lbs. Ricotta
1+ cups powdered sugar
¼ cup mini-chocolate chips
¼ cup candied fruit peel, chopped fine
1-2 Tblspns. Rum or Rum flavoring (according to taste)
¼ cup Pistachio nuts, chopped
Beat Ricotta cheese with egg beater slowly until it is smooth. Add all other ingredients slowly and mix well. Save nuts for last. Chips should be folded in by hand with spoon. Slice the cake across to make into 2 or more layers. Frost with filling, or layer slices of cake in flat pan, spreading topping in between layers. Keep refrigerated.
|
Personal
Notes: |
Personal
Notes: I have learned more about my Sicilian food heritage as an adult than I even remember as a child. For one thing, Cassata cake was something we never prepared at home in my growing up years. When we started doing St. Joseph Day in my home, Mom found this recipe and decided to try to make it. It was very involved and I remember thinking why would it take so long? I tasted it and liked it, but knew we wouldn't be making it any time soon.
The first time I went to Sicily, I took my Mom. We had been on a 9-day tour throughout Italy and after the basic trip, she and I decided to spend three days in Sicily. We were going to try to find my grandparents hometowns and meet some distant relatives. The day we left Rome, she and I started feeling sick. We were developing bronchitis and didn't know it. The minute we made it to Palermo, to the Jolly Hotel, we went right to bed. We were in bed the entire three days. The last day there, our cab driver sent up soup and a thermometer and when he saw we had high fevers, he took us to a nearby hospital. It was more like a refugee medical center. All they had to give us was Penicillin. Since I was allergic to it I didn't take it. Mom had a shot and the way they do it, they give it in three doses. Needless to say, she didn't get another and when we got home, we were treated with Zithromax and felt better almost right away.
As I said, Mom and I went to the hospital and after we returned to the hotel, Mom went back to bed. I asked the cab driver to show me something of Sicily, even though I was sick. He took me to Monreale and the Cathedral with the ceiling in gold mosaic tiles and depictions of Scripture, which the people used to teach Bible classes to the peasants used for their education many years ago. Right next to the Cathedral was a bakery. We went in and there was a Cassata cake. I bought a small one and took it to the hotel. Unfortunately, I was too sick to even taste it.
We were supposed to go back to Rome and spend Easter weekend there, but I called the travel agent and told her to get us home as soon as possible. So, on Good Friday, we departed from Sicily and traveled 24 hours straight before we arrived home in Nashville. We spent our Good Friday sick, without sleep and on a plane with no leg room. It was our offering to God. Our Easter was blessed with family back home and we were so happy to be back.
Now, my friend Pam Orlando makes the Sicilian cassata cakes for our parish's St. Joseph Day meal.
|
This recipe for SICILIAN CASSATA CAKE is from