Cherry Ricotta Cake for Brunch or Dessert, with Sheet Pan Scaling

The last of the sweet cherries arrive at the end of summer, and there is always a moment when I have bought more than anyone can eat out of hand. This cake is where they go. It is a plain, moist snack cake made with ricotta and sour cream, which give it a soft, close crumb and a gentle tang, with halved cherries folded through the batter and scattered over the top. A dusting of sugar before baking leaves a thin, crackly crust.

It sits comfortably in two places. Cut in squares with coffee, it is a brunch cake. Served warm with a spoon of whipped cream, it is dessert. It keeps for two days, freezes well and doubles or quadruples without fuss, which makes it one of the most useful cakes I know for a gathering.

The batter: ricotta, sour cream and melted butter

The dairy here is a cup and a half altogether: a cup of whole-milk ricotta and half a cup of sour cream. You can shift the ratio, more ricotta for a denser, more cheesecake-like crumb, more sour cream for a lighter, tangier one, as long as the total stays the same. Use whole-milk ricotta; part-skim is grainier and makes a drier cake. If the ricotta looks wet, drain it in a sieve for 15 minutes first.

Melted butter goes in last, folded in after the wet and dry are combined. It keeps the crumb tender and makes this a one-bowl, no-mixer cake. Fold with a spatula only until you can no longer see streaks of butter. Overmixing a batter with this much moisture gives a gummy cake.

Pitting cherries

There is no glamour in pitting cherries, but there are faster and slower ways. A cherry pitter is the quickest if you have one. Without one, push the stem end of each cherry onto the narrow tip of a sturdy pastry tip or the open end of a clean drinking straw set over a bottle; the pit pops into the bottle. Or simply halve the cherries around the pit with a paring knife, twist the halves apart and flick out the stone with the tip.

For this cake, halving is the right shape anyway, since halves sink less than whole cherries and the cut faces look lovely on top. Do it over a bowl, and wear an apron. A pound of cherries yields roughly 2 1/2 cups of halves after pitting; you need about 1 1/2 cups.

Pat the halves dry on a towel before folding them in. Excess juice streaks the batter pink and can leave a wet layer under the fruit.

Substitutes when cherries are gone

Fresh raspberries are the classic alternative and need no prep at all. Blackberries, halved, work too. Thin slices of ripe plum or peach are good in late summer and early fall.

Frozen fruit works well, with two adjustments. Do not thaw it; fold it in frozen, straight from the bag, to keep it from bleeding. And add 5 to 10 minutes to the baking time, because the cold fruit slows the center. Tossing frozen fruit in a tablespoon of the measured flour helps it stay suspended.

From the recipe box

Cherry ricotta coffee and dessert cake

One 9-inch round cake, 8 to 10 slices

Prep

25 min

Cook

50 min

Rest

20 min

Total

1 hr 35 min

Show amounts in

US cups & spoons metric

Dry ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups190 g all-purpose flour
• 1 cup200 g granulated sugar, plus 1 tbsp for the top
• 2 tsp8 g baking powder
• 3/4 tsp4.5 g fine salt

Wet ingredients

• 3 large3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup245 g whole-milk ricotta
• 1/2 cup120 ml sour cream
• 1/2 tsp2.5 ml vanilla extract
• 1 stick113 g unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled

Fruit

• 1 1/2 cups225 g fresh sweet cherries, pitted, halved and patted dry

Method

1. Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C) with a rack in the middle; butter a 9-inch round cake pan, line the bottom with parchment and butter the paper.
2. Whisk the flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, ricotta, sour cream and vanilla until smooth, about 1 minute.
4. Fold the wet mixture into the dry ingredients with a spatula just until no dry flour shows.
5. Fold in the melted butter until the batter is glossy and no streaks remain; do not overmix.
6. Gently fold in 1 cup of the cherries, scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top.
7. Scatter the remaining 1/2 cup cherries over the top, cut sides up, and sprinkle evenly with 1 tablespoon sugar.
8. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until golden brown, springy in the center and a tester comes out clean apart from fruit juice.
9. Cool in the pan on a rack for 20 minutes, then run a knife around the edge, turn out, peel off the paper and set it right side up to finish cooling.

Notes from the kitchen

• Wrapped well, the cake keeps 2 days at room temperature or a month in the freezer.
• Frozen fruit goes in still frozen; add 5 to 10 minutes to the baking time.

Making it ahead and freezing

The cake is better on the second day than straight from the oven: the crumb settles and the cherry flavor spreads into the cake around each piece of fruit. Wrap the cooled cake in plastic and keep it at room temperature for up to two days. In very warm, humid weather, keep it in the refrigerator and let it come back to room temperature for an hour before serving.

To freeze, wrap the whole cooled cake (or squares) in plastic, then in foil, and freeze for up to a month. Thaw in the wrapping at room temperature for 3 to 4 hours, so the condensation forms on the wrap and not on the cake. Warm it at 300°F (150°C) for 10 minutes if you want it to taste just baked.

Baking in a sheet pan for a crowd

For a brunch or a dessert table, a rectangular pan is far easier to cut and serve than rounds. The worked numbers: a 9-inch round has about 64 square inches; a 9 by 13 pan has about 117, close to double; a half sheet pan (18 by 13 inches) has about 234, close to four times.

A half sheet pan holds a lot of heavy batter, so mix it in two double batches in two bowls rather than one enormous one; folding is easier and the crumb stays tender. Rotate the pan front to back halfway through baking. Cut squares only once the cake is completely cool, using a long knife wiped clean between cuts.

For a large event, a sheet cake like this fits beautifully on the dessert table of a menu like the fall wedding dinner for 85, where two half sheets give close to a hundred small squares. At a brunch, put it beside a stack of hotcakes with blueberry compote for guests who want something sweet to carry around with coffee. More make-ahead cakes are under cakes and baking.

A finished square should hold its edges cleanly, with a moist, pale crumb and a thin sugared crust that crackles under the knife.