Each year, before my birthday, my mom would ask me what kind of cake I wanted. In my early years, I’m sure the answers were along the lines of “The Little Mermaid” or “My Little Pony,” but then there came a time when I cared more about what was under the frosting than what was on top of it.
When that time came, the entire world of cakes narrowed into two choices: cassata cake or ice cream cake.
It is important to mention, at this juncture, that I grew up in Northeast Ohio. This means that during December, the month of my birthday, it is very cold, and people do not much care to eat ice cream cake (also, it was difficult to find, as my town’s Dairy Queen closed annually during off-peak months). As a result, I often ate cassata cake, and it was delicious.
The cassata siciliana. Delicious though it may be, this is not what I wanted to eat. Image via Wikipedia.
I recently decided to make a cassata cake, so I searched online for a recipe. What was this? All of the cassata recipes were wrong! How could every recipe on the Internet be wrong?
I did some searching, and it turns out that I’d been living a lie.
You probably think you know what cassata cake is, and you’re wrong. Well, technically, you’re right, but that’s neither here nor there. According to Wikipedia,
The cassata siciliana consists of round sponge cake moistened with fruit juices or liqueur and layered with ricotta cheese, candied peel, and a chocolate or vanilla filling similar to cannoli cream. It is covered with a shell of marzipan, pink and green pastel colored icing, and decorative designs. The cassata is finally topped with candied fruit depicting cherries and slices of citrus fruit characteristic of Sicily.
If you’re like me, you read that description and think, “Ew. That sounds disgusting.” (To be fair, I have never had the cassata siciliana. It may well be delicious.)
What I have had – and, in fact, what I had eaten my entire life – was the Cleveland cassata, a miraculous culinary creation. Again, from Wikipedia:
In and around the city of Cleveland, Ohio (USA), the term “cassata cake” refers to a sponge cake soaked in syrup or rum, filled with strawberries and custard, and covered with sweetened whipped cream. The “Cleveland” cassata first appeared in the early 1920s at the local Italian bakery LaPuma Spumoni & Bakery. The children of the owners did not like traditional cassata cake, made with sweetened ricotta, chocolate chips, and candied fruit. Using what they had in the bakery, Tomasso LaPuma created what was to become the Cleveland cassata cake. The fifth generation of this bakery still continues to make the original version of this cake at their bakery of the same name on Cleveland’s Eastside.
I have never been to LaPuma Spumoni & Bakery, but the next time I am in town, I will have to detour there to pay homage to the greatest cake known to man.
Cleveland really does rock. Image via Wikipedia.
Please check out the Cleveland cassata recipe below!
Just found you from Veronicas blog….and I too live in the Cleve suburbs. I have to say, I have never much been a fan of the Cassata cake, and never knew the version I was familiar with was actually born in Cleveland…but if I had to indulge in it, I think Ritos bakery makes the best in town these days. lol
Hello! I was really shocked when I found out that cassata means something completely different than I thought it did! I am not familiar with Ritos, but I’ll have to check it out now that I know! Thanks!
Corbo’s is the version I’m most familiar with and I love it – they’re right in the heart of Little Italy
Hi Alicia! Thanks for writing. I have tried the Corbo’s version. (I lived just up Mayfield Road for a few years!) Oh, how I love Little Italy!
Lindsey, thank you for writing about the casatta cake on your blog, one of my customers told me about it, as far as the other bakeries mentioned in the comments, we were the. first, we are the best, as my late father once was quoted in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, about 1977, when asked “what is your opinion of the competition of other Italian bakeries in Cleveland”? He plainly said “we are often imitated, but never duplicated”. I would ask any of you, including you Lindsey, to take the ride out to Chesterland and see us, we are a full line retail bakery, we make everything from scratch and still use the 5 generation old recipes and methods, we also make lemon ice and spumoni…..hope to see you soon!
Thank you so much for writing! I would love to come for a visit the next time I am in town!
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