Amaretti ricotta semolina bundt cake with fresh cherry compote – delicious served warm with a little crème fraîche on the side. Post sponsored by Waitrose.
Is there a more glorious summer fruit than cherries? They are so beautiful, so sweet and succulent and so fleeting. Since tasting that incredible fresh cherry pavlova at the recent Waitrose event at Leckford Estate, I have been planning to create a new cherry recipe. I say planning, because every time I bought fresh cherries I ate the lot of them before I got the flour out…
But I am glad to say I refrained from scoffing some of the cherries in order to create – YAY finally! – a new cake recipe. This incredibly moist Amaretti ricotta semolina bundt cake is soaked with cherry syrup and served with cherry compote. Best eaten slightly warm with a little crème fraîche on the side, it is so delicious that we nearly demolished it in one go.
British cherries are at their most delicious right now and, if you buy them from Waitrose, you can also be sure that they are LEAF Marque certified. LEAF stands for Linking Environment And Farming which is a guarantee that the producer operates in an environmentally responsible way. All Waitrose UK fresh fruit and vegetable growers are LEAF Marque certified – Waitrose are the only supermarket to guarantee this.
LEAF aims to combine the finest traditional and modern farming methods to ensure that they work together, in harmony with the environment. Some of the ways LEAF Marque farmers care for the environment are:
-
Carefully managing hedgerows to provide habitats and food for wildlife
-
Using pesticides and fertilisers only when absolutely necessary
-
Recycling on-farm waste (eg fruit that cannot be sold for eating is pressed to make juice and cider, other organic waste is used as fertiliser)
-
Conserving energy
-
Improving water efficiency and quality
Find out more about the The Waitrose Way by clicking on this link and follow the hashtag #TheWaitroseWay on Instagram and Twitter.
Eating delicious fresh fruit and vegetables and helping the environment has got to be one of the easiest win-win situation ever, right? Cherries are fantastic fresh of course, but who can resist the joys of cherry pie, cherry jam cake or a cherry-based cocktail for that matter… This bundt cake uses semolina, ricotta and crushed Amaretti biscuits in the batter and is then soaked with cherry syrup and topped with cherry compote.
As you can see I got a little snap happy when photographing this cake – I hope you can forgive me the multiple photos, I could not decide which ones to use so I ended up using them all… Cherries are ridiculously photogenic!
Looking for some more cherry inspo? Here some amazing recipes from around the blogosphere
- Homemade cherry pie from Marsha’s Baking Addiction.
- Rich flourless chocolate cherry cake from Kitchen Sanctuary.
- Cherry and apricot cake with Amaretto cream from Vikalinka.
- Little cherry almond cakes from Domestic Gothess.
- Pistachio cherry cakes from Patisserie Makes Perfect.
- Cinnamon bourbon cherries from Little Sugar Snaps.
- Cherry vanilla soda from Salt and Lavender
Made one of my recipes? Tag me on Instagram and make my day 🙂
Amaretti ricotta semolina bundt cake with cherry compote
Ingredients
- Cherry syrup & compote
- 200 g | 7oz sugar
- 100 ml | 3 1/2 fl oz cold water + 2 tsp cornflour cornstarch
- 2 tbsp Amaretto or brandy optional
- 300 g | 10 1/2 oz fresh cherries
- <br>
- 250 g | 8oz soft unsalted butter plus more for the cake tin
- 250 g | 8oz caster sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 250 g | 8oz ricotta
- 60 ml | 2 fl oz | 1/4 cup milk
- 150 g | 5 1/2 oz self-raising flour plus more for the cake tin
- 150 g | 5 1/2 oz fine semolina
- 10 Amaretti biscuits ground to a powder
- <br>
- To serve
- 5 Amaretti biscuits crumbled
- 300 g | 10 1/2 oz crème fraîche or lightly whipped cream optional
Instructions
- Pit half the cherries and keep the rest whole. Dilute the cornflour in the water.
- Put the sugar, water, Amaretto or brandy in a saucepan and heat until the sugar dissolves.
- Bring to the boil and add the cherries. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes.
- Transfer the cherries to a bowl and continue cooking the syrup for another 10 minutes until reduced.
- Preheat the oven to 180C (350F). Grease a deep 21cm (8 1/2 in) bundt tin with butter or shortening and dust with flour.
- Sift the flour, semolina and ground Amaretti biscuits into a bowl.
- Beat the butter and sugar in a stand mixer for several minutes until pale and fluffy. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl halfway through.
- Crack the eggs into a measuring jug and add the almond extract. Lightly beat together with a balloon whisk.
- Gradually add the beaten eggs to the butter mixture while whisking on maximum speed until thoroughly incorporated.
- Mix the ricotta and milk together.
- Alternate folding the flour and ricotta to the batter, starting and ending with the flour.
- Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl to make sure there are no dry pockets of flour.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared bundt tin and level.
- Bake for 45-50 minutes or until springy to the touch and coming away from the sides of the tin.Test that a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
- Cool in the tin for five minutes then carefully turn out onto a cooling rack.
- Carefully drizzle the still warm cake with some of the cherry syrup – it should absorb easily.
- Top with some of the cherry compote and sprinkle with crumbled Amaretti biscuits.
- Serve warm with extra cherry compote and crème fraîche on the side.
cookilicious says
I am officially in love with this cake! Drooling at every pic..loved it! Pinned it as well.
Kavey Favelle says
I’m eating so many british cherries just now, they are so good! Love the look of this moist beautiful cake!
Kate - Gluten Free Alchemist says
Such a pretty cake! Dressed perfectly as all your cakes are….. We can’t eat semolina, but the cherries are very tempting x
Choclette says
I’m amazed you didn’t demolish it all in one go, it looks superb. Love cherries and yet I haven’t had a single one this year – oops! It almost seems a shame to cook them, but then again …
Alida@mylittleitaliankitchen says
Simply stunning! And your photography will always be my inspiration! I am a cherry addict!
sara | belly rumbles says
This would be the absolute perfect dessert for an Australian Christmas (so bookmarking). Cherries are in season here in December and having a warm Christmas, oh wow, just perfect!!
Brandi Crawford says
My goodness! This bundt cake looks fabulous! The topping looks delish!
Dawn - Girl Heart Food says
I have cherries home in my fridge just waiting to be used and this looks like the perfect way to use them…cause cake 🙂 !! Looks so moist and pretty too! Perfect with a nice cup of coffee!
Lucy Parissi says
Cake should be the answer to so many questions…