Blood Orange, Cornmeal, and Ricotta Cake

When Liz Prueitt (of Tartine fame) shared a couple of photos of a blood orange, cornmeal, and ricotta cake on Instagram - along with a short form recipe in the caption, I just couldn’t get it out of my head. Turns out Deb from Smitten Kitchen and Amelia from Bon Appétempt were drawn to this recipe too, for good reason. To be honest, I almost didn’t add my voice to the chorus evangelizing for this delicious cake, but I just got the photos back from the lab and the cake was too pretty not to share.

I also made a few small changes to the method that streamlined it a bit – this was mostly because I didn’t feel like separating the eggs and folding them into the batter (a kitchen task I avoid whenever possible!), so I added the whole eggs instead. I figured the finished batter was already pretty thick and heavy from the ricotta and almond flour that the small amount of additional air that step would provide would be pretty inconsequential.

The finished cake is dense and rich, punctuated by slightly bitter candied orange slices, and totally delicious. Prueitt described it as cheesecake-like, which is totally on the money. I can't wait to try this with blueberries and stone fruit in the summer.

Blood Orange, cornmeal, and ricotta Cake

adapted from Liz Prueitt who adapted from The River Café Cookbook

This cake is dense and moist, almost custard-like in texture. Make sure to slice the oranges very thin so they soften and caramelize a bit while the cake bakes.

Topping

2 blood oranges scrubbed and cut into very thin slices (I used a couple of cara cara slices too)

1/2 cup (100g) sugar

2 tablespoons water

Cake

1/2 cup (100g) unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar

3 large eggs, at room temperature

3/4 cup (170g) whole milk ricotta

zest and juice of 2 lemons

1 cup (135g) almond meal/flour

1/3 (45g) cup cornmeal

1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat your oven to 300ºF. Butter a 9-inch baking pan and line it with parchment paper. Butter the paper too, then dust the pan and paper with flour. Stir the water and sugar together, then spread it on the bottom of the prepared pan. Arrange the orange slices in a single layer on the bottom of the pan.

Cream the butter and sugar together with the lemon zest until very light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing for 30 seconds in between each addition. Then beat the mixture for 5 more minutes. Beat in the ricotta and lemon juice.

Stir in the almond meal, cornmeal, and salt. The batter will be very thick.Spread the batter over the orange slices and bake the cake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 40-50 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan for about 20 minutes, then invert it onto a platter.

Roasted Quince Crumb Cake and a Video

video by Pete Lockhart

I'm so excited to share a new video with you today, along with the recipe for this amazing and very easy crumb cake! It's the kind of recipe I know I will make over and over again, switching out the fruit and maybe adding some warm spices, depending on the season. I saw this cake, which is by the legendary Fergus Henderson, pop-up on the Herriot Grace blog last month and immediately thought to make it with quince. I used the roasted quinces from The Violet Bakery Cookbook, which is one of my very favorite books from this fall's releases. This recipe makes for the most vibrantly hued quince I've ever cooked. They were practically neon!

The cake itself has a very dense crumb and a generous amount of sandy, crumbly topping which is nicely offset by lots of fruit. It would be the perfect thing to serve at a holiday brunch and you could definitely bake it a day ahead of time. 

Quince Crumb Cake

adapted from Fergus Henderson via Herriot Grace

This cake was originally made with sliced rhubarb, but you could substitute an equal quantity of just about any fruit. Nikole made this cake with gorgeous pluots, but I imagine that plums would also be lovely or apples, pears, or even sweetened fresh cranberries. Use your imagination! The original recipe calls for macerating the fruit with a bit of sugar and citrus zest, for this version I just added a bit of the syrup leftover in the quince pan after roasting to mimic the juices that would have accumulated after roasting the fruit.

Cake

one pound roasted quince, cut into 1-inch pieces (recipe follows)

3 tablespoons quince syrup (from the roasting pan)

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

scant 2/3 cup sugar or caster sugar

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/3 cups self rising flour

pinch salt

scant 1/4 cup whole milk

Crumble

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup ground almonds

pinch salt

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

Preheat oven to 375ºF and line the bottom and sides of an 8-inch springform pan with parchment paper. Butter and flour the parchment.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Slowly stream in the eggs and beat until well combined. Fold in the flour and salt, followed by the milk.

To make the crumble, combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the butter and mash the mixture together with your fingertips until well combined and like wet sand.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, top with the quince and their syrup. Spread the crumble over the top evenly.

Bake the cake until golden and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 60-75 minutes. If the crumble gets too dark before the cake cooks, tent the pan with foil.

Serve warm with creme fraiche, whipped cream or ice cream.

Roasted Quince

from Claire Ptak's Violet Bakery Cookbook

This recipe makes beautiful rosy quince that are quite tart, due to the generous amount of lemon juice. When cooked this way the quince hold their shape quite well making them perfect for all sorts of uses. This book was written with gram measurements in mind so they are listed below, as in the original recipe. 

4 or 5 quince

300g ( 1 1/2 cups) sugar

100g (7 tablespoons) water

200g (3/4 cup) fresh lemon juice

zest of 2 lemons

2 or 3 bay leaves

1 vanilla bean

Preheat oven to 355ºF/180ºC.

Peel and core the quince and cut them into wedges by cutting them in half from top to tail and then cutting each half into thirds. Spread the wedges in a single layer in a large, heavy-bottomed gratin or roasting dish. Sprinkle with the sugar and cover with the water and lemon juice. Add the zest, bay leaves, and vanilla bean. Cover tightly with foil and roast for 23-35 minutes or until deep pinky orange and tender to the touch.

Store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 1 month.