Ricotta Plum Cake

 

Ricotta Plum Cake, simple Italian ricotta coffee cake with plums, baked in spring form pan is an Italian Plumcake with a twist.

 

 

With so much said and written about this late summer plum dessert, I decided to write about the difference between two types of cakes. The reason is that people are confused usually when talking about plum cake made with plums and Plumcake, Italian pound cake.

It all comes down to cultural misunderstanding.

Italian plumcake is moist, soft, pancake bread alike loaf of sweet or savoury snack. The roots are to be found in 17^th century. There was not a lot of people that would know how to read and write, so the easiest way to put it all together was the same amount of butter, eggs, sugar and flour ( 1 pound of each ) to make it, if all the ingredients were available at all. Today, we know it is a pound cake.

Todays’ plumcake sweet version also includes thick yogurt, ricotta cheese, lemon zest, chocolate chips or dried fruits .

Savoury plumcakes are made without sugar. You may add chopped sausages, ham, prosciutto, cheese, bell peppers or roast leftovers. The shape is the same: bread alike and sliced, served with lettuce for brunch, snack or light dinner.

It seems, as I have found Franco  concluding, the misunderstanding is related to pure pronunciation : Italian Plumcake is actually Pound Cake !

Throughout the history, English cakes made with plums became fruit cakes since all sorts of dried fruits are included. Fruit cakes are still made for holidays ( Christmas, especially ) and are served with tea.

 

This Ricotta Plum Cake has dense texture but fruits laid on the top give additional moisture.

After you pour it into 7 inch spring form, you will want to tap the surface using your fingertips. Then you lay quartered plums on the top before baking.

Whipped cream and ice cream served with a slice of this freshly baked ricotta cake makes this simple plum cake an excellent dessert with your afternoon coffee or tea. You may also serve it with some fresh plums aside.

 

If you like this kind of easy recipes with ricotta, you may also use any kind of fruit to garnish the top before baking : apples, apricots, forest fruits, strawberries, figs, cherries or any other you have at hand or prefer. What is important is that you choose fruit that releases extra moisture to this dessert.

If you use non stick pan, you don’t need parchment paper. I used a bit of lard to cover the bottom and the sides of rounded baking dish and our version of Ricotta Plum Cake is easy to take out and slice.

 

You may ask your self if any kind of cheese is all right to add instead of ricotta to this recipe. I’m afraid cream cheese is too heavy to use. Ricotta makes it light. It is not overpowered with granulated sugar and you may feel free to sprinkle the slice with icing sugar to add some shade of extra sweetness if you are willing to do so.

This is really simple, moist, delicate, easy to make, frugal beauty everybody enjoys.