Photo by Travis Rainey, Food Styling by Kaitlin Wayne, Prop Styling by Maggie DiMarco
If you’re unfamiliar with the unabashed pageantry that is Italian cassata, let me enlighten you. The Sicilian showstopper consists of a booze-soaked sponge cake layered with sweetened ricotta that’s cloaked in a bright green marzipan cape and adorned with all kinds of candied fruit with decorative piping. It’s a cake that demands attention, and one that rejects the notion that simple is best. With cassata, more is more.
This version takes those components and transforms them into a sheet cake, making the process a bit simpler to pull off. Instead of shaping the cake in a special form, you use the walls of a 13x9" baking pan to contain everything. And the top can be gussied up or down as much as you like.