Honey ricotta cake with sauteed nectarines

Before I went to Croatia I promised you the recipe of this cake. Sorry it took so long to finally post about it. Anyways…I kept on seeing this ricotta honey cake in this fun little baking book called Bake It. It looked so delicious that I had to try it out. Also a great way to use up the kg of ricotta that was left over from my birthday party. I was planning to make cheese filled kadaif but the kadaif dough I bought was off even though the use by date was ok. I guess it’s wasn’t properly stored at the store. Luckily the ricotta’s use by date was somewhere in September so I wasn’t pressed to use it immediately.

So I finally make this cake and I don’t like it 😦 It’s probably just me being difficult so I’m going to give you the recipe regardless.

It was both the taste and the texture I didn’t like. I guess the texture had a lot to do with ricotta being the main ingredient. It was the first time I baked with ricotta, even had ricotta. I think the only ricotta I’ve eaten was inside tortellini. And maybe the fact that I made the recipe gluten-free by using cornflour instead of regular flour had a little bit to do with it too….I don’t know.

The honey I used was too heavy, I’m not much of a honey connaisseur so when I read thyme honey in the supermarket it sounded delicious. I did have a little taste and thought it was good but quite heavy but thought it would be ok in the cake…it was not 😦 The cake was totally edible but just not my cup of tea. Can’t win them all 😉

ps I made half the recipe but I thought the nectarines we’re a bit too big for the slices of cake. The recipe below is the original size.

Honey ricotta cake with sauteed nectarines (adapted from the Dutch version of Bake It by Murdoch Books)

makes a 18 cm (7 in) cake

1 kg (2 lb 7 oz) ricotta

175 g (6 oz) mild honey

seeds of 1 vanilla bean

60 ml (¼ cup) lemon juice

2 lemons, finely zested

4 eggs, lightly beaten

35 g (1 ¼ oz) flour ( I used cornflour)

2-3 nectarines, in 8 slices each

1 tbs butter

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Grease a 18 cm (7 in) springform and dust with flour.

Puree the ricotta in a food processor. Add the honey, vanilla bean seeds, lemon juice and zest, and eggs. Mix until well blended. Add the flourand pulse until just blended.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared springform and bake for 1 hour or until lightly golden brown and somewhat soft in the middle. Turn off the oven, open the oven a tiny bit and allow the cake to cool in the oven. Chill the cake in the fridge before taking it out of the springform.

Sautee the nectarines in the butter for 1-2 minutes.

Serve at room temperature with the nectarines.