Ingredients

Poached Fruit

  1. 1 cup (165g) seasonal fruit (stone fruit or pears) (approximately 2 peaches)

  2. ½ cup (110g) sugar

  3. ½ cup (125ml) water

  4. 1 Queen Vanilla Bean Pod, split and seeds scraped

Cake

  1. 170g butter, at room temperature

  2. 1 ½ cups (370g) full cream firm ricotta cheese, room temperature

  3. Zest of ½ orange (1 tbsp)

  4. 3 tsp Queen Organic Vanilla Extract

  5. 3 tsp Natural Almond Extract

  6. 1 ½ cups (330g) caster sugar

  7. 3 large eggs

  8. 1½ cups (225g) plain flour

  9. 3 tsp baking powder

  10. 1/3 cup (35g) almond meal

  11. 1 tsp salt

  12. 1 ½ cups (185g) fresh mixed berries or frozen, thawed & drained

Method - Poached Pears

  1. 1

    Cut stone fruit or peeled and cored pears into eighths, set aside. Bring sugar and water to a boil in a small saucepan, mixing until sugar dissolves. Add stone fruit or pears, split Vanilla Bean Pod and seed, and rum, poaching fruits until just softened, about 10 minutes. Drain and set aside, reserving poaching syrup.

Method - Cake

  1. 1

    Preheat oven to 180°C (fan forced), grease and line a 23cm round cake tin. In a stand mixer, cream butter until pale and creamy. Add ricotta, orange zest, Vanilla and Almond Extract and mix until smooth then add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time until mixture is smooth. Sift in flour, baking powder, almond meal, salt and mix until just combined. Fold in 1 cup of the mixed berries, taking care not to crush berries.

  2. 2

    Pour batter into prepared cake tin. Place poached stone fruit on top and scatter with remaining berries. Bake for 65 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Check the cake at 45-50 minutes – if the berries on top are starting to darken too much, cover with foil to prevent further browning.

  3. 3

    Allow to cool in tin for 15 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack or serving plate. Serve with a drizzle of poaching syrup and a light dusting of icing sugar.

Recipe Note:

Cake can be kept for up to 3 days in an airtight container.

Some of our bakers noted that this recipe took a little longer than the original 60 minutes. If the skewer does not come out clean, pop it back in for another 10 minutes.

Related products

  • Queen Organic Vanilla Extract

    Queen Organic Vanilla Extract

    View

  • Queen Finest Vanilla Bean Pods 2pk

    Queen Finest Vanilla Bean Pods 2pk

    View

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Comments & Reviews

Would love to make this cake but wondering if is it possible to make it gluten free. What changes would I make…..increase the almond meal and replace the balance of flour with GF flour? Anyone else attempted a GF version?
Thank you,
Angela

Angela

Hi Angela! We would recommend just swapping out the plain flour for gluten free – no need to adjust the amount of almond meal 🙂

Queen Fine Foods

Hi, just wondering if I can use canned peaches as a substitute?

Dani

Hi Dani, yes you absolutely can. Just be sure to drain them thoroughly and pat them dry before placing onto your batter 🙂

Queen Fine Foods

This looks really really yummie. I have a question, you say defrost berries but past experience has been mush and now I put them in frozen, will it make any real difference please..

Lindi

We find rinsing frozen berries with room temperature water is a great way to defrost without them turning to mush. You can use frozen berries, however keep in mind that they may add additional moisture to the top of you cake if they are too icy.

Queen

This was amazing! I made it for friend’s visit yesterday, and it was a massive hit.
Tasted simply divine. Easy to follow recipe, did take longer to cook than it said, but was worth the wait.

Lisa

Thanks for your feedback Lisa! How long did you end up baking it for?

Queen Fine Foods