A rather short post as we head into the holiday weekend. I ended up staying Illinois for a week longer than I intended, but we're on our way back to California today. Mack has been such a trooper through the whole process and I've taken away one thing: this little boy loves to be out and about. This time away has also helped me bring focus to what comes next in terms of work and this site. I have a few personal projects I'm excited to focus on and hopefully in the not-to-distant future, I'll be sharing with you what they are. In the meantime, there's ricotta cake.
I stumbled upon this cake in one of the recent issues on Bon Appetit. The thought of ricotta cake sounded amazing and akin to my favorite beet cake- rich and moist. They call for frozen berries but as you can probably tell from the image, I used fresh. And then a few days after testing this cake, I made a fresh peach version (also good, I just thought the berries made for a nicer looking cake). I worked this recipe a few times and after a few trials with trying to account for the maple syrup, I went back to their recipe and just upped the flour slightly and it worked wonderfully.
Mixed Berry Ricotta Cake
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 60 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 mins
- Yield: 8 to 10 servings 1x
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- ¾ cup maple syrup
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose unbleached flour (see note)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1½ cups whole-milk ricotta (see note)
- 3 large eggs
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups mixed berries: raspberries, blackberries, blueberries (see note)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350˚ and line a 9" cake pan with parchment paper then spray with nonstick oil (I prefer coconut oil).
- In a small sauce pan,melt the butter and maple syrup together, set aside to cool.
- In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the ricotta, eggs, and vanilla extract. Fold into the dry ingredients until just combined.
- Repeat the folding process with the butter/maple syrup mixture, being careful to not over work the batter. Finally, fold in 1 cup of the fresh berries. Pour batter into prepared pan and sprinkle with remaining ½ cup berries. Take a spatula or spoon and lightly press the berries into the top of the cake.
- Bake the cake for 50 to 60 minutes. The cake should be golden and have a knife come out clean when inserted into the middle. Let the cake rest for at least 20 minutes before removing from the pan.
Notes
+Flour: While I got the best results using the unbleached all-purpose flour, I did also enjoy using whole wheat pastry flour and even a sprouted spelt flour. If you're feeling adventurous, play around with the flour combination.
+Ricotta: If buying store-brand ricotta, you most likely won't need to drain it. However, if you're using fresh or homemade ricotta, drain the excess liquid from the ricotta my placing it in cheese cloth over the sink in a strainer and allowing to drain for 30 minutes.
+Berries: The original recipe called for frozen berries, which creates a slightly nicer swirl pattern on the top. You can always freeze fresh berries (or just use frozen) but I usually forget.
Find it online: https://naturallyella.com/ricotta-cake-with-mixed-berries/
Hannah says
Fabulous! The perfect 'let's celebrate Summer while it's still here' cake! x
★★★★★
Kerstin says
THAT looks and sounds amazing! Absolutely have to try this in the near future - thanks for sharing 🙂
Love, Kerstin
http://www.missgetaway.com
Haley Musial says
I'm obsessed with any and all ricotta cakes... MUST. MAKE. THIS. ONE. 😉
Lori says
Couldn't wait to make this, so went out and got ricotta. When mixing, the batter smelled amazing. In the oven, smelled amazing. And the taste... AMAZING. LOVE THIS. Not overly sweet. Nice tart berries. Perfect. Thank you!
★★★★★
Kirsten says
Delicious! I didn't have enough berries, so I added some peaches I had previously frozen. The only problem with this cake is it was gone too quickly!
★★★★★
Allyson says
That looks like a perfect, everyday, end of summer cake. I hope you enjoyed Illinois!
Jennifer @ Delicious Everyday says
Looks like the perfect cake for an afternoon tea! 🙂 I'm thinking of subbing the ricotta with my very own homemade ricotta from skim milk when I try this recipe.
Barbara (BarbB) says
A nice simple cake. Looks yummy. I hope you enjoyed Illinois.
Eileen says
A cake like this is one of the best ways to eat summer berries. So good and so easy.
Nikki says
What could I use as a substitute (if anything) for the eggs? My son is allergic but I know he's LOVE this ricotta cake. Any suggestions? Thanks!
erin says
I've not played around really with egg replacers but The Kitchn has a good article of 5 different ones and the best uses for each! http://www.thekitchn.com/5-vegan-substitutes-for-eggs-in-baking-tips-from-the-kitchn-136591
alexandra s.m. says
Hi Erin!
Thank you for this wonderful recipe! I made it this past Sunday and love it.
I used fresh fruits also and really enjoyed the true taste of berries.
I have linked your recipe on this blog post:
http://www.artscrapandmore.com/2015/09/2015-in-52-pages-week-34-semaines-34.html
I love your recipes! Keep up the great work!!
Greetings from Chicago~
Bridget says
I've made this recipe twice now, and both times it's been delicious.
However, the second time I used frozen mixed berries that included some strawberry pieces. DO NOT DO THIS. While the cake is cooked through, the strawberries just completely disintegrated into goo, and there are little blobs of strawberry gunk throughout the cake where they were. Still tastes great, but the blobs are not great to look at and give the appearance of the cake being underdone.
I would recommend being sure to stick to blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries. Maybe cherries.
Kaitlin says
That is so good to know! I bought a bag of frozen mixed berries for this and was just reading through comments before beginning and wouldn't have thought twice about the strawbs--I'll be taking them out of the mix!!
Ozge says
Can I use molasses instead of maple syrup, because it is hard to find maple syrup in Turkey.
erin says
You could but it would definitely change the flavor. You might check the original recipe and use sugar.
Timea says
Hello Erin! The cake looks great! Do you think it would work with gluten free flour? Thank you!
Timea
Erin Alderson says
I do- if you have a solid flour mix you like to use, I'd say go for it. Another option is using Bob's Red Mill 1:1 flour!
Mariah Heley-wright says
Absolutely delicious
★★★★★
Sue says
I just made zitti and had leftover ricotta to use up. I found this recipe a while back and just made it. VERY yummy. Please be advised, tho, that it is a lot denser than a "cake". Which was fine with me. I'll be keeping this recipe.
★★★★★