Sicilian cake with ricotta
INGREDIENTS:
For a truncated cone-shaped cake mold with 20 and 18 cm diameters:
For the sponge:
4 eggs
150 g sugar
120 g all-purpose flour
30 g starch
a pinch of salt
vanilla
For the ricotta cream:
500 g ricotta
220 g powdered sugar
70 g chocolate drops or chocolate slices
100 g sugared fruit candies (cut into cubes)
vanilla
For the syrup:
50 g sugar
100 ml water
1 tablespoon Marsala wine
For the almond marzipan:
100 g ground almonds
100 g powdered sugar
1 tablespoon glucose
20 ml water
green confectionery pain
For the buttery cream (to be spread onto the cake):
40 g softened butter
80 g powdered sugar
1 teaspoon milk
For the royal icing:
175 + 20 g powdered sugar
20 g egg white
25 ml lemon juice or limoncello or water
For decoration:
sugared fruit candies
PREPARATION:
The sponge
Separate the yolks from the egg whites. Whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they form peaks. When you are almost done whisking add half of the sugar and beat until it gets absorbed by the egg whites. Beat the yolks with the remaining part of the sugar and the vanilla in a separate bowl until they combine. Sift the flour and starch onto them. Add the whisked egg whites and stir until they combine. Pour it into a wide baking tray (in my case 40 x 36 cm), covered with a sheet of baking paper. Smoothen the mixture so that it is only about 5-7 mm thick. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180°C for 15-20 minutes or until it browns a little. Leave the sponge to chill and remove it from the baking paper. Cut out two circles (18 and 20 cm in diameter) from the sponge. These will be used in the truncated cone-shaped mold.
Almond marzipan
Put the powdered sugar, glucose and water in a small casserole. Heat them and once it starts boiling keep it over the heat for a minute and remove. Add a drop of the green confectionery paint and stir. Add the ground almonds and stir with a spatula until the mixture chills. Knead it until you get the marzipan. Roll it using plastic wrap and leave it in the fridge.
The syrup
Heat the water, Marsala wine and sugar and stir until the sugar melts. Leave the syrup to chill.
The ricotta cream
Get the ricotta through a sift in order to make it smoother. Mix it with the powdered sugar and vanilla and stir until you get a homogeneous cream. Add the chocolate drops and sugared fruit candies (chopped into small cubes) and stir.
ASSEMBLING:
Cover the truncated cone-shaped mold with plastic wrap.
Cover the walls with pieces of the sponge as shown below. Place the smaller circle onto the bottom of the mold. Syrup the sponge using a pastry brush.
Fill it up with the ricotta cream.
Cover with the bigger circle and syrup it with a pastry brush.
Cover the cake with plastic wrap and put it into the freezer for about 1-2 hours.
Buttery cream
Beat the butter (softened at room temperature beforehand) with the sugar and milk until they combine.
Once the cake has chilled and hardened, turn it around so that the bigger circle is at the bottom. Spread the buttery cream onto the sides of the cake to ensure that the marzipan can stick to the cake easily after that.
Get the marzipan out of the fridge and make it into a long strand. Flatten it using a rolling pin so that it is slightly wider than the cake’s height.
Using a knife make sure that one of the sides of the strand is perfectly straight. Place it onto the sides of the cake with the straightened end of the strand facing up. Cut out the excess marzipan from the lower side.
Royal icing
Whisk the egg white and add powdered sugar (175 g) and the lemon juice/limoncello until they combine. Set aside 100 g of the royal icing to be used for decoration. Cover the cake with the remaining part of the glaze. Leave it to harden.
Add another 20 g of powdered sugar to the 100 g of the royal icing that you set aside in the previous step. Stir and put the mixture into a piping bag with a very narrow circular tip. You can also use a cone made of baking paper instead of a piping bag.
Put sugared candy fruits onto the cake. It’s better if they are different colors as that will make the cake more beautiful. Decorate the cake using the piping bag. I also used silver confectionery sugar balls.