Recipes: May 2007 Archives

Regina Doman has an entry up about cake stands. I love cakes. I love baking them, I love eating them, and I love displaying them on the cake stand I inherited from my grandmother. And just reading that short entry about cake stands makes me want to drop what I'm doing and make a white cake with lemon filling and coconut seven-minute frosting. And when it was done, I would put it on my cake stand, take a picture, brew some coffee, get out the china, and yummmm.

Regina also mentions that Victoria magazine is coming back this fall. Sweet articles about gracious living, recipes, and lots and lots and lots of pretty pictures. It helped me keep my sanity while I was in school, and I still have my clip file of some of my favorite articles (including the one that introduced me to commonplace books) and pictures. It ceased publication in 2003 and I've missed it, so I'm really happy to see that it's coming back again.

This recipe is from my Aunt Gertie via my Aunt Tina. Aunt Gertie is my grandfather's sister. His family hails from the Bari region of Italy where this recipe originated.

This recipe can be halved, and frankly, I cannot see anyone reason why anyone would make the original version. I halved it and used a 9 inch springform pan.

Ingredients:

1 dozen eggs (room temperature)
1 cup of sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 pounds ricotta cheese
1 pint heavy cream

Preheat oven to 325 degrees and grease pan.

Beat eggs really well (use an electric mixer), add sugar and vanilla. Gently add ricotta; do not beat in two hard or else cake will come out liquidy. Fold in heavy cream.

Pour batter into the pan and put the pan on a baking sheet (it tends to leak out the bottom some). Bake for 1 1/2 hours and turn the oven off. Leave in the oven for two hours.

The consistency will be pretty soft, although it holds it shape to come out of the pan nicely. You can serve as it is or sprinkle a bit of cinnamon on top or even some fruit.