Cassata ice cream is a multicolored ice cream made of alternating layers of different flavors topped with liqueur-soaked sponge cake. It is inspired by a popular dessert in Sicily and can be made easily at home with store-bought ice cream and sponge cake.
Cassata ice cream is a multicolored ice cream made of alternating layers of different flavors topped with liqueur-soaked sponge cake. The term cassata stands for tiny case, and ice cream is typically shaped like a brick. It is believed that this ice cream is inspired by a very popular dessert in Sicily called cassata. It can be made ahead of time and keeps well when stored frozen. A wonderful dessert, cassata ice cream is also quite popular in India.
The dessert upon which ice cream is based is a complex affair made up of cottage cheese, jellies and fruit preserves. With layers of sponge cake moistened with liqueur or fruit preserves, a Sicilian cassata cake is completely covered in a layer of marzipan. It could have a very decorative glaze on several designs of different colors and shapes, such as flowers, fruits and rosettes. Sometimes cassata is topped with candied fruit.
The ice cream itself is not as complex to prepare as the dessert. A basic cassata ice cream can be made easily with different types of ice cream and sponge cake. In Spumone, Italy, dessert makers make cassata spumoni, an ice cream molded with fruit and nuts. The traditional ice cream flavors they use are cherry, chocolate and pistachio.
Making cassata ice cream at home is a simple affair if all of the ice cream is store-bought. Some dessert makers prefer to make each ice cream flavor themselves, but this takes more time. Most recipes use at least three different ice cream flavors such as pistachio, strawberry and vanilla. The other main ingredients required are a sponge cake and a liqueur such as rum. To make a more complex cassata gelato, they can use dried, mixed fruit, candied peel, spice powder, and nuts such as hazelnuts or toasted almonds.
Cooks take a loaf pan or rectangular cake pan and lightly spray with oil. They line the base with plastic wrap and then insert a sliced rectangular cake layer. After pressing it lightly, they line all sides of the box with sliced pieces of cake that fit. They eliminate any excess and fill in any gaps. Then they mix some sugar water into the liqueur and brush the cake slices until they are quite moist.
Now the vanilla ice cream that has been left to soften in a bowl is used. The cook spreads it on the base of the sponge, evens out the surface and lets it rest in the freezer for about half an hour. If the cook wants a more complex ice cream, he mixes rum-soaked raisins, candied peel and crushed walnuts into the vanilla ice cream before distributing it on the sponge cake.
The cook then uses strawberry ice cream that is softened in advance and spreads it over the layer of frozen vanilla ice cream. For a more interesting flavor, cooks can combine spice powders like ground cinnamon into ice cream before dispensing it. This is again allowed to freeze until set. Finally, the third layer of pre-hardened pistachio ice cream is spread over the strawberry layer and placed in the freezer.
Cassata ice cream needs to set for a couple of hours or until firm. Some cooks prefer to leave the ice cream in the freezer overnight. To serve, the cook flips the ice cream onto a plate and cuts it into wedges. To cut ice cream easily, cooks can run hot water over a knife until it gets hot, pat it dry, and then cut the ice cream. Chocolate curls or grated chocolate sometimes serve as a side dish.
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