Ina's Fig Ricotta Cake...YUM
Why have I not made this cake?
I am a fig lover and a ricotta cake maven.
Well, now I have.
The recipe is from Ina's book Cook like a Pro (which I don't own).
It is almost identical to my ricotta raisin cake, which is my absolute favorite cake, except here, we are using fresh, ripe summer figs.
How can it be bad? It can't.
I suggest you get yourself some figs pronto, and make this cake.
Ina is my queen.
By the way, my pet peeve (one of many) is when people mispronounce her easy 3 letter, 2 syllable first and last name.....
It is Ina: "EYE-NUH" Garten: "GAR-TEN".
NOT GARDEN.
Why so difficult?
I know I am so bossy.
Here's the cake recipe. ;)
I changed a few things around, but it is basically the same recipe from her book.
9 tbsp softened butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs, at room temperature
1 cup fresh ricotta, at room temperature
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
zest of a grated lemon
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon sea salt (or half the amount table salt)
8 large (or 12 medium) fresh figs, stems removed, quartered through the stem
1 tablespoon raw sugar for the top
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter and flour a 9-inch round springform tin.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then add eggs, one at a time, scraping down the bowl and making sure each is fully integrated before adding the next.
Add the ricotta, sour cream, vanilla, and lemon zest and mix until combined.
In a small bowl, mix together the flour, cinnamon (my addition), baking powder and salt. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the ricotta batter, mixing just until combined, then pour into the prepared tin and smooth down the top.
Arrange the figs on the cake, cut sides up, in snug but not overlapping circles.
Sprinkle with the raw sugar and bake for 45-50, until the top is lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Allow cake to cool in the tin on a baking rack for 15 to 20 minutes, before turning out and serving.
This was only DELICIOUS!
Comments
Take care, Bill & Eileen
As I'm not in a Southern climate, we grow our fig trees in big pots that overwinter in our garage. This summer, when we were losing a bunch of figs to what we had previously thought were birds or squirrels, we began to grow suspicious when we found broken branches on the trees. Turns out opossums like figs, too. My daughter came home late one night, and found one happily climbing around gobbling up our figs. So, we put the pots on wheels and tucked the trees in the garage each night. Our fig harvest increased substantially after that.