3:00 pm | Arrival and settle into your accommodations
7:30 pm | Welcome aperitivo & dinner at Case Vecchie
9:00 am | Breakfast
9:45 am | Garden tour with Fabrizia
10:30 am | Baking session: Defining conceptual frameworks, timelines, and getting organized. The mise en place of everything you need to know before you begin. We’ll discuss how to prepare unique flavors, textures, colors, and more, as you design and map out your unique cake.
12:30 pm | Aperitivo and lunch
5:30 pm | Butter making class! Learning how to make delicious butter from fresh milk to incorporate in our buttercreams later.
7:30 pm | Aperitivo & dinner at Case Vecchie
7:45 am | Departure to visit Filippo the cheesemaker and picnic breakfast at his farm
12:30 pm | Sicilian cheese tasting followed by lunch
5:00 pm | Baking session: Building flavor through local and regional products like grains, nuts, cheeses and more. We’ll make the foundation of what will be our show stopping layer cake: a light, not-too-sweet sponge, made with regional grains and infused with your unique herb and spice pairings.
7:30 pm | Aperitivo & dinner at Case Vecchie
9:00 am | Breakfast
10:30 am | Baking session: Making flavourful mousses, ganache, and fruit-based preserves for our dream layer cakes. In other words – the flavorful and rich creamy fillings that bring your cake into focus. We’ll finish by building the cake layers, so it can rest and settle overnight.
12:30 pm | Aperitivo and lunch
5:30 pm | Baking session with Enza: Discovering the Sicilian classics
7:30 pm | Aperitivo & dinner at Case Vecchie
9:00 am | Breakfast
10:30 am | Baking session: Finishing up our cakes – we’ll whip up a rich buttercream and discuss the inventive ways to coat a cake, including creative applications through piping and other decorative techniques. And last but not least: a joyful finish to every cake, with an abundant, colorful explosion of fresh ingredients to garnish and decorate your finished masterpiece.
12:30 pm | Aperitivo and lunch
5:30 pm | Tea and cake time! Enjoying your own layer cake creations
7:30 pm | Dinner at Case Vecchie
9:00 am | Breakfast
10:00 am | Goodbyes and departure
Planned activities and schedules may change at short notice due to seasonal rhythms of life in Sicily.
Accommodation
5-night stay at Case Vecchie or in one of the nearby cottages.
Shuttle Transfer
Group shuttle service from/to Roccapalumba train station, upon request.
Meals
All meals are included. Lunch and dinner are served with wines from the Tasca d’Almerita estate. Typical menus and cooking lessons feature three or four courses.
Excursions
Guided visits and local experiences as indicated in the program.
Lessons
All cooking classes and other activities specified in the course schedule.
Transportation
Private transportation to and from Case Vecchie is not included. Take a look here to know what is the best way to reach us.
Flight
Airfare is not included.
Insurance
Travel insurance must be arranged independently by participants.
Unfortunately, we are unable to accommodate guests with celiac disease or a vegan diet due to the limited availability of specific ingredients in our rural and isolated location.
Join four-time James Beard nominated pastry chef and cookbook author Natasha Pickowicz for an intensive, immersive and joyful look exploring the vast and varied world of cake.
Through this course you’ll investigate the way myriad technical strategies, an endless pursuit for baking knowledge, and an obsession with aesthetic and philosophical principles intersect to shape a dessert that is wholly you. Natasha will guide you through her tried-and-true strategies for not just executing technically perfect and deeply delicious cakes, but to bring them to life using Sicilian regional and seasonal (and sometimes unexpected) ingredients, handled and arranged with an eye for visual rigor, form, and a sense of play.
is a California born, New York City–based chef, a four-time James Beard Foundation Award finalist, and the author of More Than Cake, which was a New York Times Best Cookbooks of 2023 as well as a 2023 James Beard Foundation finalist.
Much of her pastry work explores the relationship between baking and social justice, including ongoing collaborations with seminal New York City institutions like Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, God’s Love We Deliver, the Brigid Alliance, and Planned Parenthood of Greater New York, for whom she produced a massive city-wide bake sale, raising more than $200,000 between 2017 and 2024.
Pickowicz’s recipes and writing have been published in the New York Times, Vogue magazine, the Wall Street Journal, Bon Appetit, Saveur, Food & Wine, New York magazine, Cherry Bombe, and many other publications. Follow her on Instagram at @natashapickowicz.
The majority of the website showcases the beautiful photography of Anne Embrun. Other photos are done by the Anna Tasca Lanza team and staff.
The visual identity and website were designed by StudioForward.