“Good Housekeeping Illustrated Book of Desserts”

(This week’s recipe came from the “Good Housekeeping Illustrated Book of Desserts”.)

I was casually flipping though cookbooks the other day at work (as I often do), and came across the recipe for a Cannoli Cake in the “Good Housekeeping Illustrated Book of Desserts”. It looked pretty awesome, so I decided I would try it. The recipe didn’t seem too difficult (just time-consuming) and I thought my co-workers would enjoy it. And I haven’t done a cake since Week One, so it won.

The recipe started with an angel-food like cake that was comprised of an egg white mixture:

and an egg yolk mixture:

These two mixtures were folded together and poured into a springform pan:

The cake was baked and came out looking quite nice. The pan was flipped upside down on a rack to cool and finally was released:

While the cake cooled, I mixed up the filling, which consisted of ricotta cheese, cream cheese, confectioner’s sugar, chocolate chips and a couple of other ingredients. I tried to get it as smooth as possible, but ricotta cheese is not the most cooperative stuff:

The cake was cut into two layers and each layer was liberally brushed with fresh-squeezed orange juice:

The filling was then heaped onto one of the layers, with more filling in the middle to create a dome shape:

I then cut a wedge out of the top layer and arranged the pieces on top of the filling. Cutting a wedge was necessary so the top layer wouldn’t crack trying to conform to the domed filling:

The cake was then ‘dirty iced’ (as Buddy from “Cake Boss” would say) with a vanilla cream frosting made of whipped heavy cream and confectioner’s sugar (and it was delicious, by the way):

Finally, the rest of the frosting was dolloped on and I attempted to make a pretty pattern on the top with some melted chocolate:

I took the cake to work the next day and my co-workers descended on it like a pack of wolves, of course:

The cake and frosting were delicious. I wasn’t too crazy about the filling, but then again, I am not the biggest fan of ricotta. My co-workers seemed to enjoy it though!

This week, I plan to bake an apple coffee cake thing. It will be my last Columbus baked good, and the last baked good that my co-workers will get to enjoy. I’m happily passing the torch to my co-worker Danae, who I’m sure will keep our co-workers’ stomachs full.