Italy!

It's my birthday week and that means one thing - CAKE! Specifically, cassata cake which is a Cleveland-born version of Sicily's traditional cake. There was a recent article about the roots of the cassata cake in Cleveland and a Facebook post where readers were asked to weigh in on their favorites around the city. Baraona's Bakery seemed to be the clear winner so I headed there for my first taste. 

Baraona's in Maple Heights has been serving up sweet treats since 1949 -- long enough to be able to claim www.bakerycleveland.com as their website domain! It's a small brick building full of sugary goodness inside. They are known for their cakes and there was a brisk business of folks coming in to pick up beautifully decorated cakes for their special occasion. Cassata is their specialty, but they offer several different flavors as well as cupcakes in a few of the flavors if you're lucky enough to find them still in the case.

The Sicilian version doesn't have much in common with its Cleveland cousin. In Sicily, it's is a liqueur-soaked sponge cake layered with a creamy ricotta filling similar to a cannoli. It's then covered in a shell of almond or pistachio paste in a fondant style and decorated with candied fruit and pistachios. The cake has been attributed to Arab influences in the 10th century near the port city of Palermo. It sounds (and looks!) incredible! 

Cleveland's Sicilian immigrants had a slightly different take on it. The LaPuma family, which emigrated from Sicily to Cleveland in the late 1800s, is credited with creating the first Cleveland style cassata in the 1920s at their family bakery. Word on the street is that the LaPuma kids didn't like the ricotta filling of the original (and probably all the time and effort it took to make one!) and decided to reinvent it using locally-available ingredients. 

Behold, the Cleveland cassata cake! 

Layers of sponge cake filled with custard and glazed strawberries and iced in a whipped cream frosting. I mean, come on. What's not to love about this?! I cut a tiny sliver, appropriately oohed and ahhed over the beauty, and then was cutting and eating my second slice before I even knew what happened. 

It's really, really good. Really good. And lucky for you, you can find them at almost every bakery in Northeast Ohio! While writing this post, I saw that Baraona's offers an Italian-style cassata for special order -  layers of sponge cake filled with ricotta cheese, chocolate chips, and maraschino cherries, and iced in whipped cream. Buttercream & Olive Oil offers a class where you can learn to make the original Sicilian style cassata and take a full cake home with you! 

Cleveland has a large Italian population including its own bustling Little Italy neighborhood. From Cleveland Historical: "One of Cleveland's most enduring ethnic neighborhoods, Little Italy was established in the late 19th century by immigrants largely from Italy's Abruzzi region. Giuseppe Carabelli, an Italian artisan came to Cleveland via New York to open a sculpting and stone masonry business. Carabelli's early employees developed reputations as expert stonemasons due to their contributions to monumental works at nearby Lake View Cemetery. The residential space to the south of the cemetery became occupied with numerous Italian families near the turn of the century.

Interestingly, Little Italy was not the only Italian neighborhood on Cleveland's east side. The Woodland Avenue/ Central Market area defined the "Big Italy" neighborhood in Cleveland. It was an older and much larger home to Italian and Sicilian immigrants. This area fell into decline after World War II and, by the 1960s, had been essentially destroyed by encroaching freeways and urban renewal."

As you can probably imagine, the Italian Cultural Garden is big and beautiful! The Italian Cultural Garden of Cleveland, Cleveland's cultural monument to Italy,  was dedicated in 1930 "as a symbol of the contribution of Italian culture to American democracy." The upper level fountain in this Renaissance garden was modeled after the fountain in Villa Medici in Rome. This cultural monument to Italy highlights carved images of famous Italians in the Arts & Letters and Arts & Science. Two large Renaissance fountains grace the garden with sweeping, winding staircases leading to an lower level amphitheater.

In 2008,  "Opera in the Italian Garden" was revived for the first time in 65 years and continues on today. 

The Italian Cultural Garden is the most used of the 70 acres of cultural gardens in Rockefeller Park that are under the jurisdiction of the Cleveland Cultural Gardens Federation and the City of Cleveland.

24 down, 28 to go! 

Baraona's Bakery

15842 Libby Rd. 

Maple Heights, Ohio 44137

Website

Hours:

MON | 7:45am -4pm

TUES-FRI | 7:30am -5:30pm

SAT | 7:30am -4pm

SUN | closed