STRONGSVILLE, Ohio – When Cleveland.com’s best cassata cake creator Jennifer Thornton moved to France in 2007, she was not a baker. She was not an aspiring baker. She had not been to Sicily or even tasted cassata cake.
She moved to Provence to become a fluent speaker of the French language. She’d studied French language and international studies at Baldwin Wallace University. That led her to a job teaching English in Aix-en-Provence for two years.
During that second year of teaching, she visited Les Baux-de-Provence and fell in love with fresh olive oil. That changed her passion and her vocation. She was so interested in olive oil that she started doing tours and tastings. That turned into working with Christine Cheylan at Cheylan’s family estate Château Virant in Provence. The estate is the largest olive oil mill in France and also produces wine.
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Jennifer Thornton, Owner & Culinary Educator, Buttercream & Olive Oil
Online: https://buttercreamandoliveoil.com/
– Photo by Yadi Rodriguez, cleveland.com
The experience led Thornton, who was fluent in French, to managing an olive oil store Première Pression Provence in Paris’s Marais and Île Saint-Louis neighborhoods.
Multiple trips to Sicily led to Thornton enrolling in a cooking class with chef Anna Tasca Lanza, who runs a cooking school in Case Vecchie, Sicily. Those trips expanded her culinary passions to include traditional Sicilian food, including (voila!) cassata cake.
Like Clevelanders did in the past, Thornton has customized the recipe she received from Lanza. That interpretation earned her version the title “best cassata cake in Cleveland” from Cleveland.com judges.
Sicilian Cassata cake from Buttercream & Olive Oil
– Photo by Yadi Rodriguez, cleveland.com
“My cassata is based on the recipe I learned in Sicily,” says Thornton. “I’ve adapted it to my style and ingredient preference, replacing the corn syrup with my own organic simple syrup infused with bitter almond oil.
“I carry the almond theme through to the sponge cake, omitting the limoncello-soaked sponge,” she says. “I’ve created a richer glaze for the top and like to keep it simple with just a few candied fruits and incorporating either the Sicilian pistachios or almonds for a more natural cake.
“The secret to good cooking and baking is using quality ingredients,” she says. “I really spend a lot of time studying the ingredients and researching the best possible ingredients.”
Some of these include organic Romana almonds from Sicily, exceptional and rare olive oils from various countries, authentic French ingredients grown and produced there, and a central focus on local ingredients, followed by organic.
While her cassata cake received judges’ approval, Thornton is still looking for an Ohio cheesemaker who uses traditional methods to produce fresh ricotta from goat or sheep milk, just like the cheesemakers in Sicily. That, she expects, will make the cake’s flavors and textures even better.
French macarons with (strawberry buttercream) from Buttercream & Olive Oil
Can be purchased online at https://buttercreamandoliveoil.com/
– Photo by Yadi Rodriguez, cleveland.com
Now living in Strongsville, Thornton travels with her mother to Europe every year to learn more about baking and to gather ingredients like bitter almond oil.
“I missed the things I used to eat in France,” she says. “So, I book time with favorite chefs and get authentic recipes as a foundation for my cooking classes.”
Those classes, offered through her business Buttercream & Olive Oil, have grown from a handful to two dozen, including French classics, three Sicilian classes and several cooking classes. She also organizes olive oil tastings and education. While Thornton focuses on teaching, her mother Donna specializes in replicating the European pastries for sale from Buttercream & Olive Oil by special order.
Though she didn’t set out to become a baker until recently, Thornton has become one who, arguably, makes the best cassata cake in Northeast Ohio.
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Paris Wolfe is a life and culture reporter for Cleveland.com. She has a special interest in food and dining. You can reach her with restaurant and food news and story ideas at pwolfe@cleveland.com. Here’s a directory of her latest posts. Follow her on Instagram @pariswolfe.