A four-layer yellow sponge cake soaked in light syrup and stacked with whipped cream, custard and fresh strawberries, finished with strawberry glaze.

Cleveland's cassata diverges from the Sicilian original (ricotta, candied fruit, marzipan). Italian-American bakers in Little Italy adapted it to local strawberries and dairy cream from the early 1900s, with Presti's (1903) and Corbo's (1958) defining the modern Cleveland-Italian wedding-and-Christmas cake.

Where to eat Cleveland-style cassata cake in Cleveland

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Make it at home

Serves 103 hrIntermediate

Ingredients

  • Four 23cm yellow sponge cake layers, baked and cooled
  • 600ml double cream, very cold
  • 100g icing sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 500g vanilla pastry cream, chilled
  • 500g fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced
  • 120g strawberry jelly or glaze, warmed
  • 120ml simple syrup, light

Method

  1. Brush each cooled sponge layer with simple syrup until just damp, not soaked.
  2. Whip the cold double cream with the icing sugar and vanilla to firm peaks, do not over-beat.
  3. On a cake stand place layer one, spread with pastry cream then a single layer of sliced strawberries.
  4. Top with layer two, spread with whipped cream then more sliced strawberries.
  5. Repeat with layers three and four, alternating fillings, ending whipped cream on top.
  6. Cover the top with the remaining sliced strawberries, brush with warm strawberry glaze, refrigerate 2 hours before serving.

Editor tip. If you can't find pastry cream, fold half the whipped cream into 200g mascarpone for a quick substitute.

Common allergens: Gluten, Dairy, Egg.