Like the hot fudge cake or the St. Louis gooey cake, the Sicilian love cake is a little bit of culinary magic. A cheesecake-ish filling is spooned atop a regular old chocolate cake mix batter. The filling sinks as the cake bakes, transforming the entire dessert into something new and amazing. What’s more, it gets topped with a chocolate pudding frosting. The end result is a sheet cake guaranteed to make any crowd swoon.
Ingredients:
Cake:
1 box chocolate cake mix, plus the ingredients in the directions
Additional oil, for greasing the pan
Filling:
1 32-ounce tub ricotta cheese
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
Frosting:
2 cups whole milk
1 box instant chocolate pudding mix
Directions:
Preheat the oven according to the directions on the box of cake mix. Coat a 9-by-13-inch pan with oil. In a large bowl, prepare the cake batter (per the directions), pour it into the pan and set the pan aside.
Combine the ricotta, eggs, sugar and salt in the same bowl and mix until smooth.
Pour the filling onto the cake pan over the chocolate batter.
Bake until the cake is firm and the chocolate layer has risen to the top, about 40 minutes. Let the cake cool completely.
In a bowl, blend the pudding mix and milk until smooth, then frost the cake. Serve it straight out of the pan.
From Valerie Bertinelli’s book, “Enough Already: Learning to Love the Way I Am Today” as posted on Salon.com