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.
You might also like
Cannoli Layer Cake
Cannoli Cheesecake
Cannoli Tart
Cannoli Icebox Cake
Baklava Poke Cake
Cannoli Stuffed French Toast
Cannoli Poke Cake
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: Box Directions
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 15-18 Servings
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
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 cup ricotta cheese
- 1 1/2 cup 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
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.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Slice
- Calories: 429
- Sugar: 28.5 g
- Sodium: 144.5 mg
- Fat: 22.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 50.6 g
- Protein: 8.3 g
- Cholesterol: 75.7 mg
Keywords: cannoli cake, cannoli cake recipe, poke cake, poke cake recipe, cannoli recipe, cannoli cream recipe, italian christmas cake, italian dessert recipe, moist vanilla cake recipe, moist cake recipe
Filed Under:
Enjoy!
Cannoli topping modified from The Vintage Mixer.
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I am wanting to makw this for my small group , but I am having a hard time finding Marscapone. Can it be made with just Ricotta? If not what is your suggestion for a replacement?
I usually find it with the specialty cheeses near the deli. If you can’t find it though, all ricotta should be ok. You could also try using some cream cheese.
Can you make this a head of time like the day before
Yes, definitely.
Hi- can I freeze this? If yes- even the topping on it?
I haven’t ever frozen a poke cake. There’s a lot of moisture in there and I’m not totally sure if it’d get mushy upon thawing. I’m guessing the topping would be ok, but I really haven’t tried it and am not sure.
Is there a specific white cake mix brand that you liked?
Pillsbury or Betty Crocker usually work great.
Can you use a yellow cake mix instead of white cake mix?
Sure.
I’m actually reading this recipe while eating a cannoli. Do you use semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips?
Lol. I use semi sweet.
Can I use Angel food cake with this instead of white cake mix??
I’m not sure if angel food cake would hold up well with all that moisture.
Lindsay, When you say mix in the recipe, do you mean by hand (stir) or with an electric mixer, and if with an electric mixer, how long and what speed. Sounds Yummy 😋
Thank you
I would mix on a lower speed and only until all is combined so that you don’t over mix it. Mascarpone cheese can get thin and watery if over mixed. If you have a stand mixer, you could use a low speed on that. But hand mixers usually don’t have very low speeds. You could also do it by hand.
What happens if it gets too watery? How do you fix it?
I haven’t really been able to fix watery mascarpone before, I’m sorry.