Sicilian Cream Cake (cassata Alla Siciliana)

Total Time: 15 mins Preparation Time: 15 mins

Ingredients

• 2 lbs ricotta cheese
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 ounce maraschino cherries or 1 ounce your favorite flavor liqueur
• 2 tablespoons shredded sweet chocolate or 2 tablespoons miniature chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup chopped candied fruit
• 1 sponge cake, cut into 1 inch slices
• confectioners' sugar (for sifting over unmolded cake)

Recipe

• 1 combine ricotta, sugar, vanilla and liqueur in a bowl and blend thoroughly until smooth.
• 2 add chocolate and fruit; mix well.
• 3 line the bottom and sides of an 8-inch spring form pan (or a large pan or bowl) with cake slices.
• 4 turn ricotta mixture into lined mold.
• 5 cover the top with remaining cake slices.
• 6 refrigerate overnight, or place in freezer for several hours.
• 7 to serve: if you used a pan or bowl as a mold, invert pan/bowl onto a serving platter, and remove mold.
• 8 sprinkle (lightly sift) confectioner's sugar over cake.
• 9 if you used a spring form pan, remove sides of pan, leaving cake on the pan bottom, place on serving platter, sift confectioner's sugar over cake.
• 10 variation: if you prefer, you can frost the cake with sweetened whipped cream flavored with a little almond extract.