Italian easter cake sicilian cassata

12 servings
2 hours 30 min

Prepare the ingredients for the biscuit.

Carefully divide the eggs into squirrels and yolks. Pour the squirrels into a large, clean and dry bowl.

Whisk the whites with a mixer until a light, puffy foam. During whipping, increase the mixer speed as the volume of proteins increases.

Next, add sugar in small portions and whisk the proteins to solid peaks, while the sugar should completely dissolve.

Inject yolks into well-beaten proteins one at a time.

Add the lemon zest. By the way, remove the zest carefully, trying not to hook the white part, otherwise it can give the biscuit unpleasant bitterness.

Sift the flour and stir into the dough in small portions.

Stir the dough gently so that it retains its volume as much as possible.

Cover the bottom of the mold (diameter 20-22 cm) for baking with paper, do not lubricate the sides of the mold with anything. Put the finished dough in a prepared form.

Bake the biscuit in the oven preheated to 180 for about 25-30 minutes. Do not open the oven for the first 20 minutes, otherwise the biscuit may fall from the temperature difference. Check the readiness of the biscuit with a wooden skewer, if it punctures the center of the biscuit, then it should come out without traces of sticky dough.

Let the finished biscuit cool a little in the form first, and then carefully walk through the confectionery spatula or a narrow knife along the sides and remove the biscuit from the form. Let it cool completely, and if there is time, then lie down after baking for 6-8 hours, so the biscuit will compact and work with it easier.

Prepare the ingredients for the syrup, it will be needed to make the filling.

Pour water into the bottom of the saucepan, pour all the sugar into the center of the pan.

Place the saucepan over a small heat, bring the contents to a boil, cover the pan with a lid and boil the syrup for 20 minutes until golden. Do not mix the syrup during cooking.

Prepare the filling.

Chop black chocolate with a knife.

Also grind pistachios and candied fruits (I have small candied fruits, so I left them whole).

Place the ricotta in a bowl and whisk with a mixer or mash until fluffy for 1 minute.

Do not stop mixing, pour a cooled syrup into a thin stream (if the syrup thickens strongly during cooling, then gently heat it so that it becomes more liquid). By the way, as an option, I think sugar syrup can be replaced with ordinary sugar powder.

Add candied fruits, chocolate and pistachios to the ricotta.

Stir carefully. Send the filling to the refrigerator and cool it for an hour or more.

Cut the biscuit into 2 parts.

Put one part of the biscuit on the bottom of the razor mold (I lined the edges of the mold with curb tape, this is not necessary, but thanks to it the edges will be even and neat).

Spray both halves of the biscuit with liquor (by the way, it is most often customary to use clear cherry liquor, but if it is not there, then you can take any other light liquor or even use ordinary fruit syrup).

Put the filling on the biscuit layer.

Cover the filling with the second part of the biscuit, wetted side down. In this form, send the cake to the refrigerator for 5-7 hours (I held it in the freezer for another hour before getting it out of the mold)

Remove the well-chilled cake from the tin and transfer to a dish. In general, the cake is already ready, now it can be decorated.

Prepare the ingredients.

Whisk the well-chilled cream with powdered sugar (you can increase the amount of powder if desired, but take into account that the cake on top will be decorated with candied fruit, which is quite sweet). By the way, if necessary, you can add thickening agent to the cream, so they will better keep their shape. Coat the cake on all sides with whipped cream. Carefully flatten the surface.

Using a shaped spatula, trim the side of the cake. If you don't have such a spatula, then you can leave the sides flat or decorate to your liking.

Put a small part of the whipped cream in a pastry bag with a small star attachment. Squeezing out the cream in small portions, garnish the cake from below across the diameter.

Squeeze the remaining cream into a circle of cake in the form of curls, for this use a nozzle with rounded ends.

Garnish the top of the cake with candied fruits and nuts.

Italian cake Sicilian cassata is ready.

Enjoy your meal!