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This Cannoli Poke Cake is a lovely vanilla cake soaked with sweetened condensed milk and covered in sweet cannoli filling. It’s a moist, indulgent dessert that will rock your socks off!
Cannoli Poke Cake
Can you believe I’ve never made a poke cake before? I’ve been wanting to for forever, but never quite got around to it. Until now. And boy have I been missing out! This Cannoli Poke Cake is super easy to make and SO tasty!
If you don’t know much about poke cakes, they are basically a cake that’s baked, covered in sweetened condensed milk which soaks up into the cake, making it incredibly moist, and then usually topped with some kind of whipped topping. There are a ton of variations out there. The sky is the limit!
A friend requested something “cannoli flavored” for her husband’s birthday a while ago and since I’ve been wanting to make a poke cake for so long, it just popped into my head and I knew I had to do it!
There are so many ways to make cannoli’s – particularly the filling – and when done right, they are absolutely delicious!
The filling really is the best part – and that’s exactly what this cake is covered in. Get pumped!
The cannoli filling “icing” on this cake is one of those things that you just cannot get your finger out of. I was lucky any of it made it onto the cake.
And my small group felt exactly the same way! They were basically licking the sides of the pan where the topping was left behind – using their finger of course. So stinkin’ good.
One thing I did a little differently with this poke cake is that I didn’t use an entire can of sweetened condensed milk when pouring it over the cake. I didn’t want to the cake to be too soggy, but I wanted it to have the moist-ness and delicious-ness that the sweetened condensed milk gives.
But since it didn’t all go into the cake, and I hate wasting things, I put it into the cannoli filling.
Best. Decision. Ever.
It sweetened the topping up just enough and made it even harder to resist. Pure deliciousness.
Have you seen my Baklava Poke Cake? Or my Cannoli Icebox Cake? So yummy!
Update 6/10/14: One thing to note about the topping on this cake is that it is not like a traditional icing. It is meant to be more like cannoli filling. The texture is kind of like whipped cream at the soft peak stage. If you’d prefer it to be thicker, you can do one or both of these two things – leave the sweetened condensed milk out of the topping (as it thins it out a bit) and/or add up to about 3 cups of powdered sugar (which would thicken it). I chose to leave it thinner so that I didn’t dilute the cannoli flavor from the cheeses – I love that flavor! And though it’s thinner, it’s still plenty thick to be on top of the cake. I’ve made this cake a couple of times and it has sat out at parties and the icing stays in place. So it isn’t so thin that it runs or anything, it’s just not a traditional icing. I hope that helps, as I know many have been surprised the fact that it isn’t thicker.
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5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.9 from 17 reviews
Author:Lindsay
Prep Time:20 minutes
Cook Time:Box Directions
Total Time:55 minutes
Yield:15-18 Servings
Category:Dessert
Method:Oven
Cuisine:American
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Description
This Cannoli Poke Cake is a lovely vanilla cake soaked with sweetened condensed milk and covered in sweet cannoli filling. It’s a moist, indulgent dessert that will rock your socks off!
Ingredients
1 box white cake mix, plus ingredients on box
1 14 oz cans sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
1 1/2 cups mascarpone cheese
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon, optional
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
powdered sugar, for dusting
Instructions
Bake cake according to directions on box for a 9×13 pan.
Remove cake from the oven and poke holes all over the top of the cake. (I used a straw)
Reserve half a cup of sweetened condensed milk and pour the rest of the sweetened condensed milk over the cake.
Put cake in refrigerator for about an hour to absorb milk.
Combine ricotta cheese, mascarpone cheese and vanilla extract in a mixer bowl. Mix until smooth.
Add powdered sugar and cinnamon, if using and mix until combined.
Add reserved sweetened condensed milk and mix until combined.
Once cake has absorbed milk, spread cannoli topping evenly over cake.
Top with mini chocolate chips and a sprinkling of powdered sugar.
Cover cake and allow to set in refrigerator for 2-3 hours. Cake should keep for 4-5 days.
Notes
Do consider straining the ricotta before using, especially if it’s a particularly watery brand. Also, when mixing together the ricotta and mascarpone cheese, DO NOT over mix it. If mascarpone cheese is over mixed, it becomes very thin.
To summarize, applesauce is a secret weapon for creating moist and healthier cakes. Its natural sweetness and moisture make it a great substitute for high-fat ingredients like oil or butter. So go ahead, embrace the power of applesauce and elevate your cakes to new levels of deliciousness!
Make sure the holes aren't too close together or too far apart—if they're too close together, your cake could be too moist; if they're too far apart, there may not be enough filling throughout the cake.
A clean wooden spoon handle is the best tool and gives you nice big holes to fill with liquid gelatin, but in a pinch a chopstick or even a fork could work. Holes about 1½ inches apart in a grid pattern are ideal, but poke cakes are forgiving; it'll be delicious regardless of the spacing.
Step 1: Look at the directions on the cake mix. Step 2: Add one more egg (or add 2 if you want it to be very rich). Step 3: Use melted butter instead of oil and double the amount. Step 4: Instead of water, use whole milk.
USE VEGETABLE OIL. While butter undoubtedly imparts excellent flavor, vegetable oil can really elevate a cake when it comes to moisture. Replacing butter with vegetable oil in your cake recipes typically yields moist results.
These basic ingredients for baking a cake are; flour, eggs, fat (usually butter), sugar, salt, a form of liquid (usually milk), and leavening agents (such as baking soda).
After the cake is baked and cooled, you take the back of a wooden spoon (that's what my mom always used), and poke holes all over the cake. A poke cake then has some kind of glaze or soak (caramel, chocolate, fruit soak, etc.) poured on top and is finished with a whipped cream topping.
Usually made with a boxed cake mix and either Jello (gelatin dessert) or pudding (thickened custard), it's made by baking the cake in a sheet pan, poking it with rather large holes (many recipes suggest using the handle of a wooden spoon) and pouring the filling on top so it fills the holes.
Bundt cakes are a round, one layer cake with a hole in the middle. The cake's name comes from the name of the cake pan with fluted sides that they are baked in. This special, aluminum non-stick cake pan is called a Bundt pan. These cakes are doughnut-shaped, and often drenched in icing or glaze.
Adding too much sugar can weaken the gluten structure in a cake to the point that it may collapse. Why does my cake have large holes or tunnels? When a cake batter is overmixed, gluten strands are strong enough to trap air bubbles inside the cake. Slowly mix batter on a low speed until ingredients are just combined.
You can counteract this by coating the chips with some flour or cocoa before mixing them into the batter. Place the chips in a bowl or jar, add a bit of flour or cocoa — I use 1/2 teaspoon for up to 2 cups (340g) of chips — and stir or shake to coat.
Sour cream is one of the fattiest dairy products; the extra fat content (for example, adding sour cream to a cake instead of milk) will make the cake moister and richer, says Wilk. "Fat, in any form (butter, lard, cream, etc.) shortens gluten strands, which essentially leads to the most tender baked goods," she adds.
For chemically-leavened cakes — that is, cakes calling for baking powder or baking soda — it's OK if you don't remember to add the eggs until the end. Martina says, “Late in the mixing stage, eggs will incorporate better if you lightly beat them before adding to the batter.
Success of a cake depends on the correct blending of ingredients, the careful creaming of butter and sugar, as well as the gentle folding of egg whites (if added separately) to maintain maximum aeration. Please read Basic Rules For Baking. Fold or Folding: A method of gently mixing ingredients.
Combine ingredients as gently as possible without overmixing. Creamed butter and sugar should be pale and fluffy, never yellow and gritty. Butter temperature is a vital detail that should not be overlooked. Don't open the oven door until goods are done baking.
Introduction: My name is Mrs. Angelic Larkin, I am a cute, charming, funny, determined, inexpensive, joyous, cheerful person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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