Plum Ricotta Olive Oil Cake with Honey whipped mascarpone

cook your fruit season is upon us

Apologies for the recipe delays! I’ve had a lot going on, but here is a new fall recipe with poached plums.

This recipe serves 6-8 people 

Ingredients 

Cake

Dry

• 1 cup packed dark brown sugar 

• 1 1/2 cup white ap flour 

• 1/2 cup medium or fine ground cornmeal

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Wet

• 1 1/4th cup whole milk ricotta (homemade when possible is better! Refer to this video to make your own:

• 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, and extra to grease cast iron or cake pan

• 2 large eggs room temperature

Whipped Marscapone

• 2tbsp mascarpone to 1/2 teaspoon honey for ~1 to 2 slices of cake

• 1 8oz container Marscapone to 2 tbsp honey for the entire cake  

Poached Plums

• I used some not-so flavorful plums I got and would recommend using just under-ripe plums for this recipe. Plum season is just about over but if you can find them at your grocery store, even if they’re just ok, that will work for this recipe. You can substitute plum with a winter fruit like pear. Alternatively, you can buy and top this cake with good quality canned stone fruit

• 4 plums, halved with pits removed

• 3/4 cup of water (just about enough to cover the plums in a saucepan) 

• 1/2 cup cane sugar 

• 1 whole cinnamon stick

• 1/3 tsp vanilla extract 

• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Preparation 

Cake 

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees

• Combine dry ingredients and mix well 

• Combine wet ingredients separately until smooth and well combined. Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix until combined and homogenous. Be careful not to overmix

• Let batter sit for 10 minutes and transfer into your cake pan, cast iron, or preferred baking dish

• Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until you can cleanly remove a toothpick from the center. Cook up to 40 minutes if needed

Poached Plum 

• Over medium-low heat pour water into a saucepan and add sugar, cinnamon stick, and vanilla extract. Stir to combine 

• Add plums into sugar-water mixture and let cook for about 7 minutes. A dark red, but still watery sauce should start forming. We want the sauce to thicken but not cook down all the way. Watch carefully and adjust heat to slowly cook down syrup and plums.

• At the 7 minute mark add 1tbsp lemon juice and mix gently into plum and syrup mixture. Be careful to not squash the plums. Turn down the heat to low

• Let cook down on low heat until a thick syrup forms. This entire process should take about 12-14 minutes. Once the syrup is just about thick ( a little thinner than maple syrup) turn the heat off and let cool

Whipped Mascarpone 

• Mix honey with the mascarpone until well combined