I decided I was going to to try and make a Cannoli Cake for the 1st time today. Because you see, I have a husband and a Brother-in -Law that are OBSESSED with it!! They are connoisseur’s (so they think!) Whenever they try Cannoli Cake from a new bakery, or a wedding, or whatever, they make comments like “It tastes Blah,” or “not enough rum” “or their famous word is “garbage!”. So believe me, I knew what I was up for. True Cannoli Cake has sponge cake layers, which that alone was alot of work. You had to separate the eggs and fold the whites into the creamed yolks. Bake that, let it cool, then slice into layers. Actually that turned out perfect. But I could see why you need to soak the layers because sponge cake is actually dry, there is no oil, or butter in it. I made a syrup of sugar, rum, orange slices and boiled that down on the stove. Let that cool. Then I had to mix the Ricotta, confectioners sugar, mini chocolate chips and a pinch of cinnamon for the filling. To frost it I made a vanilla buttercream and folded in some whipped heavy cream. When that was all done I proceeded to assemble everything. 1st I brushed on my Rum syrup, I didn’t put enough on, I should have polked holes in it and then brushed it on, it would have penetrated much better, and the FUSSY guys would have liked it better!!
Then a layer of filling , a layer of cake, more syrup, another layer of filling, then frosting all over. For decoration I put crushed cannoli shells on the side. All in all, it turned out pretty good, but it definitely needed more moisture on the cake layers. Would I make it again??!!! Heck No!!! It’s a lot of work with a lot of steps. My kitchen was totalled!!! And besides, there’s a great Bakery about 10 miles from me who makes it just the way they like it… SOAKED with Rum!!!
I’m Marie, a wife, mother, mother-in-law, and gramma of two beautiful girls. My passion is food, clear and simple but especially Italian food, hence the name of my blog, Proud Italian Cook. I want you to feel right at home here so grab a cup of coffee, I’ll get the pastries, take a look around and enjoy your visit! {
I really need to try one of these as ordered one for my bday but it wasn’t the real cannoli cake..hate when bakeries do that! I had an excellent one in a restaurant that closed in my area and it was amazing!! 🙂
I might be attempting this for my boyfriend’s father’s birthday. Of course I was scouring the Internet to find some examples of cannoli cake and I find my favorite Italian food blogger so I know its going to be good. 🙂 If you could recommend a good sponge cake recipe, that would be fantastico!
Does anyone have an actual recipe to pass along? I am trying to make it for my best friend’s birthday – it would be greatly appreciated!
Besides Cannoli we make Cannoli cake and Cannoli bread, but we make the filling more like a cassata,my dad was born in Abruzzo but he loved Cannoli and all the Italian sweets and desserts
That sounds like what my mother refers to as Cassata Cake. Here each layer is a different color (normally red,white & green) and each layer could be anisette, amoretto, rum or etc. soaked. The filling is a cannoli filling (again, mini chocolate chips, minced maraschino cherries and pistachios around my neck of the woods) and then the butter cream frosting on the outside. That is definitely our families favorite! Yours is absolutely gorgeous!
cannoli cake rocks! haha
canoli cake it’s the bomb
Canoli cake it’s a killer!!!!!