A cannoli cake with some Ramen noodles.

Well here we are with another entry from the Vienna Bakery.  I think we are becoming one of their better customers with four or our senior people living in Barrington and patronizing the bakery.  Today's cake volunteer brought in something very good looking that we hadn't see before - and we have seen a lot of Vienna cakes!!  Because it had a small cannoli on top we presumed it to be a cannoli themed cake and that turned out to be the case.

Where have we seen this before?

Another visual treat from the Vienna!

Stripes of chocolate and something else on the top!

Cannolis are a thin tube-shaped fried dough that is stuffed with sweetened ricotta cheese. Sometimes chocolate can be added to the filling and also as a dipped coating around the edges. If you have ever been to the North End of Boston, any of the bakeries there feature cannolis with Mike's Pastry being the most popular. One thing about cannolis - they are practically a meal.  There is quite a bit of the cheese which tends to fill you right up.

Yes that is a mini-cannoli on top!

So how would today's cake follow a cannoli theme? That's a good question and it turns out it is mainly through the use of sweetened ricotta for the filling between the layers of the cake.  The cake layers were chocolate and the ricotta was used for the filling between the layers and also on the top of the cake. The sides of the cake and rim of the surface were frosted with whipped cream - a fave - and some chocolate shavings.

The whipped cream is especially enticing.

The cake was good and fresh and certainly satisfied the sweet tooth. There was a total of three layers separated and topped by 3 layers of the cheese as mentioned.  That was probably one layer two many as far as the cheese is concerned. Although the cake was very good if the middle layer, like the sides, had been whipped cream it would not have been so rich and less heavy. Like a cannoli, you tended to get filled up right away. That is not to say we didn't enjoy it - we did!

Three total layers of cake and filling!

That's quite a bit of cheese in between the layers.

For and added treat, one of our colleagues picked up some Japanese treats for us to try.  These included Ramen snacks.  This is not a pack of Ramen that you put water into and toss in the microwave but rather some dried noodles that are salted and spiced to be eaten as is.  They weren't bad but not as much fun as the spicy peanuts!

It's a pack of ramen but don't boil the water!

A crunchy and previously unknown snack opportunity!