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We wish choosing between cannoli and cake for dessert was a predicament we ever actually suffered through, rather than our usual sweet snack options of “stray fruit snacks left on toddler’s plate” and “Doordash the world’s most expensive cookies out of desperation.” But for those who have experienced the conundrum, we feel for you, because it feels like an impossible choice. Cannoli, cake, cannoli, cake…cannoli cake? Giada De Laurentiis just shared her recipe for Sicilian Cassata cake, and it’s basically a domed cake stuffed with cannoli filling and served with cherries and pisachios. If you love Italian desserts, you’re about to get your socks knocked off, and you’ll never have to choose between your two favorite sweets again.
The best part of this cake is that it’s actually a no-bake dessert. The base of the cake is a store-bought loaf of pound cake, which gets cut into slices, then lines the bowl you’ll be making the treat in and gets drizzled with Amaretto. Amaretto is an Italian liqueor with a bittersweet almond flavor. It’s great in coffee too, and coffee or espresso would be really delicious served with this dessert. Just sayin’!
The first layer of filling is a whipped chocolate cream. It’s a simple blend of melted chocolate and whipped cream folded together, and it’s good enough to remember this two-ingredient chocolate whipped cream recipe for other applications. We think it would be great piped on top of cupcakes, crowning mugs of steaming hot cocoa, or dolloped onto scoops of ice cream or gelato.
Next up comes the whipped ricotta cream, which tastes just like cannoli filling. It’s flavored with almond extract, and once it’s whipped, mini chocolate chips are added. The cake is filled with the ricotta whipped cream, then gets topped by more cake. After refrigerating overnight, the bowl can be flipped, and you have a creamy, cannoli-inspired cake to devour. Decorate it traditionally with amarena cherries, pistachios, and more mini chocolate chips if desired.
For such a show-stopping dessert, it requires surprisingly little effort for such a tasty payoff, meaning this is one Italian cake recipe you’ll likely turn to again and again.
Before you go, check out the gallery below:
Watch: How to Make Giada De Laurentiis’ Stuffed Lasagna Rolls
