More Than Cake: Building Layers of Flavor

with Natasha Pickowicz

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When

April 27 – May 2, 2026

Price

Single Room: € 4,100

Double Room: € 7,500

Example Program

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.

Info

Included

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.

Not included

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.

Natasha Pickowicz

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.

We've been telling everybody what great experience we've had at Case Vecchie: breadmaking, Sicilian cooking lessons, daily walks to the winery, visit to the flour mill and ricotta maker and the sheep, your beautiful grounds filled with fruit trees and vegetable gardens and the chicken coop.

Y.W.

The whole experience, from the accommodations (food, the beautiful location) to all the people we encountered was top notch. The kitchen crew was awesome in every way! I will definitely recommend to friends. David was great, enjoyed his casual style and expertise.

J.N.

My time at Case Vecchie was one of the best experiences I've ever had. The setting is gorgeous, the hospitality amazing, and all of the cooking events were exactly what I had hoped for. I've spent my career in the food business and although I had made a lot of the recipes before I still learned so many things. Emiko is a wonderful teacher-so easy to relate to and a wonderful instructor. I would love to return.

F.C.

The people I met: both the staff (kind, energetic, happy, informative) and the other folks in my group. Gathering around the table and laughing, learning and sharing stories is what stands out. And the fact that roosters crow all day which I didn't know. The setting is truly special as well - felt worlds away from the distractions of everyday life and instead in a rich, hands-on learning environment.

S.M

Everything about the week was worth the effort to get there and the planning was well worth it. It was a week of gourmet eating. The participants were all enthusiastic about being there and that helped make the overall "experience".

S.M

That was such a great experience and it was so much fun to be with all of you during the week. Please extend my thanks to the entire team who made things so fantastic. I can't wait to get started in my own kitchen!

C.H.

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