At first, I thought about doing a cake with a cheesecake middle. We love cheesecake, this seemed reasonable. However, on second thought, I worried about things like "Would it be too think in the middle?", "Is it too much?", "Would the cheesecake make the cake soggy?" After some thought on the situation, I came up with a better filling for the cake...Cannoli Cream.
I had already chose a white cake recipe from my Good Housekeeping cook book. The white cake was flavored with almond extract, which in the end went great with the cannoli cream. They complemented each other well. The buttercream frosting was just divinity added to it...so without further or due...is a recipe combo all my own...
Almond Cannoli Cake
Cake ingredients:
2 cups of cake flour (not self rising)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
4 large egg whites
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 cup milk
Cannoli Cream ingredients:
2 cups ricotta cheese
1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup mini semi sweet chocolate chips
Frosting ingredients:
1/2 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk or half and half, more if frosting is too stiff to spread (as in my case)
1 tsp vanilla extract
food coloring as needed
For cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 8 inch round cake pans. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. In a medium bowl, with mixer at high speed, beat egg whites until soft peaks form when beaters are lifted. Sprinkle in 1/4 cup of sugar, 1 table spoon at a time, beating until sugar has dissolved and egg whites stand in stiff, glossy peaks when beaters are lifted. In a large bowl, with mixer at low speed, beat shortening and remaining 1 cup sugar until blended. Increase speed to medium. Beat in vanilla and almond extracts. Reduce speed to low; add flour mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat just until smooth, occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula . Gently fold in beaten egg whites, one-third at a time, just until blended. Divide batter between prepared pans, spread evenly. Bake until toothpick in center comes out clean (about 30 minutes). Cool pans on wire racks about 10 minutes. Run thin knife around layers to loosen from sides of pan. Invert onto racks to cool completely.
For Cannoli Cream:
Beat ricotta, cream cheese, confectioner's sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla in a small bowl until smooth. Stir in chips. Cover and refrigerate until cake is cooled (1 hour at least).
For Icing:
Beat butter with an electric mixer in a large bowl until butter is soft and fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, alternately with the milk. Beat in the vanilla. Beat in food coloring (if desired), add extra milk, 1 tsp at a time, if needed. Cover and refrigerate until needed.
Assembling cake:
Once the cake is cooled, place some wax paper on a cake plate (I forgot to do this), in an angle that makes it easy to pull out when done. Place one cake layer on the plate. Liberally spread the cannoli cream onto layer. When you have a desired about of cream, place the other cake layer on. Then refrigerate for at least a half and hour.
Using a butter knife or spreader, do a crumb coat of icing on the cake (enough to cover it once thinly). Then refrigerate for at least a half an hour. After a half hour, ice the cake again, using the rest of the icing, or as much as you desire. Decorate as you'd like.
ENJOY!
When I get a chance, I'll post pictures.
