Monday, April 28, 2008

figs and honey

This weeks TWD recipe is Polenta and Ricotta cake, a mediterranean style cake with figs and honey, chosen by Caitlin of Engineer Baker . I love polenta, so was interested to try a cake recipe using it. I used Rata honey, a NZ bush honey which has quite a strong flavour. I halved the recipe and still filled (to the brim) a medium sized tart tin, so the whole recipe must make an enormous tart.

I did find the cake was a little sweet, I wish I had read other TWD comments earlier about cutting down the sugar. However served with greek yoghurt it was better.

The recipe specifies putting little dots of butter on top of the cake mix before baking. I was skeptical about this but did it anyway, and it resulted in funny little square patches on top of the cake which looked really odd - so I dusted it with icing sugar to try and improve things!


The inside of the cake is lovely and moist with quite a dense crumb (although is is not heavy to eat). Dried figs of the fat, moist kind are essential for this cake. This is a nice, if plain cake, it would be good served as a lighter dessert, maybe with some poached figs or stonefruit.

12 comments:

Tammy said...

your cake looks great. I enjoyed it as well

Anonymous said...

Rata honey? Now I have something new to look for. Cool!

Anonymous said...

Looks absolutely beautiful! My husband LOVED this!

Anonymous said...

Your cake looks wonderful, and I love your photos and presentation. Great job!

Marie Rayner said...

FAbulous looking cake! I especially love the top picture. Well done! I used New Zealand thyme honey. I hadn't realized there were so many types of honey!

April said...

Great looking cake!

Jayne said...

That first photo is so enticing. Wonderful job!

Jayne said...

That first photo is so enticing. Wonderful job!

CB said...

Greek yogurt! Interesting. Love that first picture with the little sprig. So cute!
Clara @ I♥food4thought

Gretchen Noelle said...

Great photos! Did you use the rosemary in the cake? I think I am glad I forgot about the butter on top.

LyB said...

How elegant with the dollop of yogurt, great idea!

Mari said...

Yum, love the idea of serving it greek yoghurt!