Christian custom’s special dessert honors St. Joseph on his day

Photo by SHEILA MESULAM

St. Joseph cake baked by Annie Prizzi, executive chef at Tony's C Place, gourmet Italian market.

St. Joseph’s Day is celebrated on March 19 in many Christian faiths to honor Joseph, the husband of the Virgin Mary and foster father of Jesus. Joseph is said to be a model for fathers and throughout his life displayed humility and holiness; among the countries that observe it, the holy day is often spent by visiting friends and eating a variety of meatless dishes, including bread baked in various shapes.

In Italian homes, especially Sicilian ones, zeppoles (fried dough) and a St. Joseph cake made with ricotta cheese are standard.

Italians believe St. Joseph protects the common worker from illness, bad weather, poverty and bad luck. One of the common stories is that when you are selling your home you should place a statue of St. Joseph upside down in your front yard and pray to St. Joseph to sell your home quickly. When you move dig up the statue and take it with you to your new home and reward Joseph by setting it upright in a place of honor.

Annie Prizzi, executive chef of Tony’s C Place, a gourmet Italian market, makes an orange sponge St. Joseph Day cake and zeppoles and offers them, with advance orders, for pickup on March 18 or 19.

This is Prizzi’s recipe for the icing and filling of an 8-inch diameter cake:

St. Joseph Day cake

Filling ingredients

2½ pounds ricotta cheese

1 cup shaved chocolate

3 cups shaved almonds

1½ cup confectioners sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

¼ teaspoon anise

Dark pitted cherries in their own juice to use as decoration

Preparation

n Mix the ricotta with the sugar and the chocolate until creamy.

n Ice the first layer and place the second on top and ice it and then the third and ice the top and sides finishing with sprinkling the almonds around the sides and part of the top of the cake placing the dark cherries around the perimeter of the top of the cake.

The recipe for this orange sponge cake is from Cooks.com:

Cake ingredients

4 large eggs

2 cups sugar

1 cup orange juice

Grated rind of two oranges

2 cups sifted flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

Preparation

Separate the eggs

n Beat one cup sugar with the yolks and then add

one cup juice and rind.

n Add the flour and the baking powder.

n Beat the egg whites and add one cup sugar gradually.

n Beat until the egg whites form a peak.

n Fold the orange mixture into egg whites.

n Pour into three 8 inch layer pans.

n Cook for 25 minutes at 350 degrees. Test to make sure a toothpick comes out clean in the center of the cakes.

n Let cool before icing.

Connect with Sheila Mesulam at www.naplesnews.com/staff/sheila_mesulam

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