Zuccotto may be the best dessert you've never heard of of. It's Italian, it's no-bake, and you have to make it ahead of time!
Nonna Anna suggested making Zuccotto for dessert on our Cooking with Nonna Anna Day, and I asked, "what's Zuccotto?"
Zuccotto means pumpkin in Italian, but it was spring...why would we serve pumpkin in the spring? The name Zuccotto comes from the shape, not the ingredients!
After learning what Zuccotto is I knew that was the dessert for us! How can you go wrong with a dessert that's a cake...but not a cake? Well, it is a cake...but not really.
You start with a pre-made pound cake, so there's no cooking. Just some slicing, drizzling, and assembling. That seems to be the way with many Italian desserts.
Take Nonna Anna's Tiramisu, for example, no cooking or baking, just assembling. And both of these desserts are dee-lish-us!
Whatever the season, you will want to make this. No baking required but you end up with a beautiful company worthy presentation.
Zuccotto Step by Step Instructions:
Start by slicing the store bought pound cake then cutting the slices diagonally.
Make sure the slices get cozy in the bowl once they are coated in the syrup!
Add the raspberry cream layer, making a bowl in the middle.
Fill with the chocolate creamy goodness... yum!
After chilling, turn the cake out and this is what it will look like before frosting with the ganache. You can also just sprinkle it with cocoa if you don't want to frost it.
Then serve yourself a slice... go ahead, you deserve it!
Assemble a day ahead of time, and when it comes time to serve, don't be stressed... it's just dessert (which is stressed spelled backwards)!
Don't forget to lick the beaters!
Here's another idea, you could change out the flavors and fruits depending on the season. But how pretty would this be just like it is for Christmas?
To display this delicious dessert I found this covered cake plate that can fulfill SIX different functions (not at the same time!😂) In addition to being a pretty cake stand, it can also be a divided veggie and dip server, a punch bowl and more!
Nonna Anna’s Zuccotto
Ingredients
- ¼ cup water
- ½ cup sugar
- ¼ cup raspberry liqueur, such as Chambord
- 1 12-ounce pound cake, Sara Lee frozen works well
- 2 cups whipping cream
- ¼ cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
- ¾ cup slivered almonds
- 1 pint raspberries, divided
Chocolate ganache
- 1 ¾ cups heavy whipping cream
- 10 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
Instructions
- Line a 1 ½-quart bowl with plastic wrap. Leaving some extra hanging over the edges.
- In a small sauce pan stir together the water, sugar and liqueur and bring to a boil. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Remove the syrup from the heat.
- Slice the pound cake into ½-inch slices. Cut two-thirds of those slices on the diagonal.
- Pour the Chambord syrup into a shallow bowl.
- Dip both sides of each diagonal slice into the raspberry syrup and lay into the bowl covering the bottom and sides of the bowl. Set the bowl aside. And set the remaining raspberry syrup aside.
- Melt 6-ounces of the chocolate in a microwave-proof bowl on 50% power for 1 minute. Stir, and heat for another minute at 50% in the microwave. Continue in 30-second intervals until the chocolate is completely melted. Let sit out to cool slightly.
- Beat 2 cups of the cream with the powdered sugar and almond extract until stiff, but not dry. Beating whipped cream is always easier if your bowl and cream are both very cold.
- Fold ⅓ of the whipped cream into the melted chocolate, add the slivered almonds to this mixture.
- Into the remaining ⅔ of the whipped cream fold ½ of the raspberries.
- Into the bowl of cake slices evenly spread the raspberry whipped cream mixture, leaving an indentation in the middle. The raspberry whipped cream should be about ¾" thick.
- Then put the chocolate/almond whipped cream mixture into the indentation.
- Smooth the top.
- Take the remaining pound cake slices, dip each side into the raspberry syrup and lay on top of the cream mixture, completely covering the cake. Brush any remaining syrup over the top.
- Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. Overnight is best.
- A couple of hours before serving make the ganache.
Chocolate Ganache
- Put the chocolate in a heat proof bowl.
- Heat the cream to scalding (just until bubbles appear around the edge).
- Pour the cream over the chocolate and let stand for 8 minutes.
- Stir until smooth.
- Let cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.
- Remove the Zuccotto from the refrigerator and invert onto a serving plate. Then remove the plastic wrap.
- Smooth the ganache over the surface of the cake.
- Garnish with remaining raspberries.
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