Honey Ricotta Pear Cake

Name: Honey Ricotta Pear Cake
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 25 min
Yield: 8-10
Cuisine: Middle Eastern

Desserts

Honey ricotta pear cake is a sandwich-style dessert with a creamy soft ricotta filling. A new family dessert favourite,

PREP TIME

25 minutes

COOK TIME

25 minutes

Assemble

10 minutes

SERVES

8-10

About this recipe

Honey ricotta pear cake is a sandwich-style dessert with a creamy soft ricotta filling. A new family dessert favourite, this cake is super easy to make thanks to the step-by-step recipe. I also added my Middle Eastern twist with two flavours I really love —pistachio and orange blossom water. My friend Carmen gave me this honey ricotta pear cake recipe and as she describes it now: ‘A typical cake from the Amalfi coast with a Rouba touch’!

Watch it here

Ingredients

Cake Disks

4 eggs
140g sugar
150g almond flour
30g unsalted butter (melted)
60g plain flour
pistachio handful coarsely crushed
1 tablespoon orange blossom water (optional)

Filling

250g ricotta (drained)
80g sugar
300ml thickened cream whipped
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon honey
1 sachet gelatine (use the warm pear juice)
1 can pears in juice (410g) sliced thinly

Notes from Rouba

Ricotta is an ideal filling for desserts. However, it’s high in moisture and your filling will most likely ooze out from the sides. I buy mine from the Deli section in wedges as it’s much drier. Otherwise, you will need to strain it.
You can easily bake this mixture in one tin and slice it in half once cooled.

Method

Step 1.

Preheat the fan-forced oven to 180°C degrees. Lightly grease and line the base of a 2 x 20 cm round cake pan with baking paper. (see notes from Rouba above if using one baking tin)
Whip the cream until soft peaks form, set aside
Drain the pears and reserve the pear juice. Slice the pears thinly and set aside.

To make the cake disks, combine the eggs, sugar, almond flour, butter and plain flour in a food processor and blend. Divide the mixture between the 2 cake tins and smooth the top. Sprinkle crushed pistachio onto 1 of the cake disks. Bake for approximately 25-30 minutes or until cooked and golden in colour. Remove from the oven. Drizzle the cake disk without the pistachio with the orange blossom water (optional). Alternatively, you can drizzle 1 tablespoons of the reserved pear syrup. Set aside to cool completely.

Step 2.

To make the filling, Soak the gelatine in the reserved warm pear juice. Stir quickly with a fork until dissolved and leave for 5 minutes or until it softens.

Meanwhile, in a bowl, crumble the ricotta into small pieces. Add the sugar, lemon and honey and gently mix. Add the gelatine and stir until well combined. Gently fold in the whipped cream.

Step 3.

To assemble the ricotta cake, keep the cake disk without the pistachio in its springform cake tin. Pour over the ricotta mixture and smooth. Arrange thinly sliced pears onto and carefully place the disk with the pistachio on top pistachio side up. Refrigerate for at least 3-4 hours. Once set, remove the cake from the tin and slice using a warm knife.