What is a Cannoli?
Cannoli is a popular Italian pastry that consists of a tube-shaped shell of fried pastry dough filled with a creamy filling of sweetened cheese.
For additional flavor, there are a variety of popular add-ins, from chocolate chips to chopped nuts or candied fruit! There are so many wonderful variations and I’m getting hungry just thinking about it!
Ricotta Cheese vs. Mascarpone?
As I mentioned above, cannoli are filled with a delicious sweetened cheese filling. Traditionally, the filling is made from ricotta cheese, however mascarpone has also become a popular option for it’s creamier texture.
Ricotta has a slightly grainy texture as well as a higher moisture content which can make using it as a filling a little trickier.
Cannolo, Cannoli, Cannolis, oh my!
If you have a connection to Italian culture or speak Italian, you know this already… but I was surprised to find that Italians refer to one of these pastries as a cannolo…and the plural is cannoli.
But english speakers often use cannoli as the singular and cannolis as the plural. Whether you offer me a plate of cannoli or cannolis, it doesn’t matter to me- I’m just going to be happy!
How to Make a Cannoli Cake
Start by baking three 8 inch vanilla cake layers according to our instructions. If you are baking well in advance, you can freeze the freshly baked layers by wrapping them with plastic wrap while still slightly warm, them follow with foil.
These will keep in the freezer for up to a few months! When ready to use, simply thaw the wrapped layers on the counter top for 30 minutes or so until condensation has formed on the wrapping and the cakes begin to soften.
Next, for the delicious Mascarpone Filling! Just the sound of it sounds amazing, doesn’t it? This filling comes together very easily- simply mix it with a spoon or spatula along with powdered sugar, vanilla and cinnamon.
We folded in chocolate chips as well. Spread this between your vanilla cake layers as you assemble the cake
Cinnamon Whipped Cream Frosting
Finally, we made a light and delicious cinnamon whipped cream for our frosting. Don’t forget to chill your bowl and whisk attachment in advance so that your heavy cream will cooperate! Whip until stiff peaks form.
We used this whipped cream to lightly frost our cake, and while the flavor is amazing, whipped cream doesn’t spread flawlessly as a buttercream or cream cheese frosting would (there are tiny air pockets). So, the pirouettes are the perfect way to finish off the sides of the cake. We finished things off with cinnamon whipped cream piped through a french tip!
*Because of the mascarpone filling and whipped cream frosting, you’ll want to keep this cake refrigerated until close to serving time.
We hope that this recipe becomes a new favorite for your family and friends! Enjoy!
Cannoli Cake
A delicious scratch Cannoli Cake recipe! Three moist vanilla cake layers with chocolate chip mascarpone filling!
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 1 1/2 sticks (170g) unsalted butter, slightly softened
- 2 cups (400g) sugar
- 4 eggs
- 3 cups (342g) cake flour (spooned into measuring cup and leveled off)
- 2 teaspoons (8g) baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon (3g) baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt
- 1 1/4 cups (296g) buttermilk — if you do not have buttermilk, see substitution below
- 1 Tablespoon (12g) vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup (54g) vegetable oil
For the Mascarpone Filling
- 2 (8-ounce) Containers Mascarpone Cheese
- 1/2 cup (41g) powdered sugar
- 1 Tablespoon (12g) vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 cup miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips
For the Cinnamon Whipped Cream
- 2 cups (484g) heavy cream or whipping cream
- 1/4 cup (61g) powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
For Decorations
- Two containers of Pirouettes
- Chocolate Chips for Garnish
Instructions
For the Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, grease and flour three 8x2 inch round pans.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt for 30 seconds. Set aside
- In another bowl, add the buttermilk, oil, and vanilla. Set aside.
- In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and mix at medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and continue to mix on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears.
- Alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of liquid).
- Do not mix above medium speed or over mix the cake batter.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just few crumbs attached. Let cool 10 minutes and turn out.
For the Mascarpone Filling
- Using a spoon or spatula mix by hand the mascarpone, powdered sugar and vanilla and cinnamon. Fold in the chocolate chips. Refrigerate until ready to use.
For the Cinnamon Whipped Cream
- Chill the mixing bowl and whisk attachment in the freezer for about 10 minutes. Add the cream, powdered sugar and cinnamon to the chilled bowl. With the mixer on medium speed beat until stiff peaks form. Watch the entire time as this can happen in just a few minutes.
Assembly
- After filling our vanilla cake layers with the mascarpone filling, we frosted the cake with the cinnamon whipped cream frosting. Before pressing the pirouettes into the sides of the cake, we first trimmed them down with a serrated knife so they wouldn't be as tall. This is an optional step.
- Then, we used a french piping tip to pipe stars around the top edge of the cake which we garnished with chocolate chips. Any large star tip will do. We used a Wilton 8B.
Notes
Substitution for Buttermilk: No Buttermilk? Here is a substitution: To a measuring cup, add 1 Tablespoons vinegar or lemon juice. Add milk to the 1 1/4 mark, stir. Wait 5 minutes and it is ready to use.
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Looks and sounds delish! :-) You gals keep adding to my To Bake List LOL! Can’t wait to try it – I’ve never had a cannolo/cannoli :-)
This looks very intriguing!! I am not a fan of cannoli’s, but my husband is, and I am a huge fan of cake!!! Sounds like a must try to me!!!
Hi Paula, We would love to know your thoughts when you give it a try.
Looks awesome! I’m going to make this
I will report back when I make this cake!!
This cake looks delicious and moist too. Love the addition of the Pirouettes on the sides and can’t wait to try. Did you add any gelatin to your whipped cream to stabilize it? Just wondering how long it held up outside/inside of the refrigerator.
Hi Helen, We did not add any gelatin, but you could do so if you would like to. At day 3 it still looked fine but was beginning to lose a bit of volume.
I have made several cannoli cakes in the past several years. They are definitely involved, but are so worth the work and time.
Thank you so much! Can’t wait to make this for my son’s birthday!!
How many does this feed?
Hi Claudia, Here is a link to the Wilton Serving Chart
https://www.wilton.com/cake-serving-guide/cms-baking-serving-guide.html
It says 20 party size servings for an 8 inch cake. This is just a guideline, it all depends on the size of your serving.
Looks delicious…love cannolis. Is there an alternative you could recommend to replace the cinnamon whipped cream frosting?
Which Pirouette flavor should be used? Choc fudge or choc hazelnut?
Hi Katie, We used chocolate fudge. Hope you enjoy the cake!
Hi. I have to make a cake that serves around 70 for a communion. Will this hold up good if I make a sheet cake? I’m going to make an 11 x 15 cake. Double layer. I think I will use a buttercream frosting tho. What are your thoughts.
Hi Fran, This recipe would be fine to make for a sheet cake. An 11×15 pan will need 11 cups of cake batter. The recipe makes 6 1/2 to 7 cups batter so you will need to double the recipe for each of your layers. You will have a bit of leftover batter for cupcakes. Bake at 325 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes. Below are links to 2 batter chart that you might find helpful.
http://www.fromkarenskitchen.com/tips/party_cake_batter_amounts_baking_times_2inch_pan.php
http://www.wilton.com/cake-serving-guide/cms-baking-serving-guide.html
I will be making this cake as a birthday cake next week. I have made the cake a few times before not using pirouette cookies. Do the cookies stay crisp or should they be added prior to serving?
Hi Deborah, I’m glad to hear that you’ve made this cake a few times already! Like you, we do not always put the pirouette cookies on the outside. My memory is that they soften a little but do not become overly soft and so it shouldn’t be a problem. You would be fine to add them the day before.
Could you tell me what size round pans you used and how many please?
Hi Krist, I used three 8×2 inch round cake pans ( it is in the first line of instructions). I hope you will love the cake.
We are making this but our icing will not thicken up ??♀️ Any suggestions?
Hi Jen, I am sorry that happened. You may not be able to save it now. To make a whipped cream frosting everything should be cold including the bowl and beaters. This will help it to come together quickly. Don’t beat too long or the cream could curdle and fall apart.
Do the pirouettes get soft from sitting it the frosting, or do they stay crisp?
Hi JoAnn, I do not remember that being a problem when we made the cake. They must soften a bit but not to the point where it would be an issue.
Can I make this using a sugar substitute?
Hi Cambria, We haven’t tried this cake using a sugar substitute, so I cannot say for sure. Do you have a cake recipe that works well with a sugar substitute ? If so, you could use it with our filling and frosting.
Hi. Thank you for the recipe. I use this recipe for my vanilla cakes so I wanted to out if its stable though for stacking cakes. I use white chocolate ganache as my layer underneath my fondant
Hi Tebobo, Thank you for your nice comment on this cake. It will be fine for stacking. Using ganache underneath is always a good idea.
Hi there! I’m currently in the kitchen making this cake now for Christmas tomorrow and I’d like to double check something. I’ve never weighed my ingredients before but thought I’d give it a try to make sure the batter is perfect.
With regards to the Baking Powder… the recipe says 2 teaspoons (8g). When I measured one teaspoon into my weighing bowl (after it had already been zeroed out on the scale), my scale read 8g.
Should I go with 2 tsp @ 16g or 1 tsp @ 8g?
If It’s the 2 tsp @ 16g, does that mean each of the measurements given in grams represents one unit of said item?
Hi Brandi, The total gram weight for 2 teaspoons is 8 grams. My scale weight for 1 teaspoon is 4g. Your scale should not be weighing 8g for 1 teaspoon. Are you using a measuring teaspoon and leveling it off before weighing? Hope all goes well and you enjoy the cake.
Hi! Thanks so much for this recipe. I made this cake once before and it was delicious. I was wondering if I half the recipe if it would work with two 8 inch round pans? I’m thinking of halving each layer to make it a four layer cake, just not as tall. We had so much left over last time!
Hi Rachel, I am glad you enjoyed the cake. I did not make note of the exact cups of batter in the recipe. I think there is 7 1/2 to 8 cups. If there is only 7 1/2 cups the 2 layers will be thin which may make it difficult to split them. You could also make the full recipe putting 2 1/2 to 3 cups batter in two 8×2 pans and make cupcakes with the remaining batter. The cupcakes could be frozen for later use.
My family loved this cake! A new family favorite!!! Thanks
Hi Chantell, Thank you so much for your nice comments! Your cake looks great, so glad you posted the photo.
All I can say is WOW ! I made this yesterday for a Girl/boy Scouts fundraiser & it sold for $130. It really took a long time to cut the cookies, I ended up using an Exacto Knife, it didn’t crumble the cookies as much. It really is a beautiful cake. Thank you so much for a great cake recipe.
Your cake is absolutely beautiful! I love the look and that it sold for $130. that was great for your fundraiser! Using an Exacto knife is a wonderful idea. Thanks so much for posting your photo and for your nice review of the recipe.
Hi!
Thank you for the recipe. I made it today and the cake looks great! However, I feel that there isn’t much taste with the filling. I don’t have a sweet tooth but it wasn’t sweet enough. I wondered if I had done somethng wrong… What does it suppose to taste like?
Thanks!
The filling is very runny. A waste of ingredients as far as I’m concerned.
Hi Kim, I’m sorry you had a problem. It will be soft but not runny. The mascarpone should be kept refrigerated until ready to mix the ingredients together. You can make the filling in advance and refrigerate until ready to use. Once the cake is completed it should be refrigerated because of the perishable ingredients.
Hi! I am going to make this cake for a friend. Couple questions. Serving tomorrow, I have 8 inch square pans, as I only had 2 of the round, this should be ok? I was unable to find any of the cookies, but she LOVES whipped cream frosting, should I wait to frost until tomorrow or will the whipped cream/cinnamon be ok overnight. I am planning on storing in the fridge, once made? any help would be great!
Hi Sharon, This recipe makes 7 1/2 to 8 cups of batter. An 8 inch round pan can hold 3 cups of batter. Eight inch square pans hold 4 cups of batter so you will only need to use 2 square pans. You can complete the cake the night before your event. The whipped cream frosting will deflate just a tiny bit, not enough to be a problem. The cake is perishable so refrigerate until 1 1/2 hours before serving so the cake will not be quite as cold. I hope you enjoy the recipe
My daughter requested a cannoli cake for her birthday. Do you think I can use this recipe with 2 9×13 pans instead of 3 8 inch?
Hi Christine, I think this recipe makes approx. 7 1/2 cups batter. You will need at least 7 cups batter for one 9×13 sheet cake. So the recipe as written can be made in thee 8 inch rounds, (2) 9 inch rounds or (1) 9×13 pan.
Thanks for the advice! Doubled the cake and frosting recipe. Used the filling as is. Probably could have used a bit more filling but then would have been too much. Thank you!
Hi Christine, I love it as a sheet cake! Thanks so much for posting a photo. I happy all went well.