Raspberry Ricotta Bundt Cake

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This cake tested me a wee bit. The funny thing about recipe testing is that you never quite know which way it is going to go - sometimes I set out to make something I assume will need tweaking and nail it first try, other times I think I can quickly bring something together, like this cake, only to have it totally fail on me a whole bunch of times (6 to be exact). I love the process so much, but it is always good to remember that sometimes the things that seem the easiest are the ones which are going to trip you up the most!

I’m always so interested in the recipe testing process, so I thought I would share a little bit of it today! I started off knowing I wanted to make a raspberry bundt cake in this party pan, and that’s all I knew. My process was:

1. Start with a bundt version of a vanilla cake recipe of mine that used the reverse creaming method. Giant, giant fail. Cake looked fine, then collapsed in on itself. Giant mess. Abort mission.

2. Change direction completely. Go for a pound cake style bundt. Learn that pound cakes don’t have any leavening agent in them (we don’t have them in Nz!). Possibly densest cake I’ve ever made.
3. Figure If I add leavening agent into it, it will help lighten it up. Still super dense. Abort mission.
4. Go in another direction - adapting a loaf cake recipe of mine. Total flop. weird cooked parts and raw parts and a strange texture on the outside (super yum as a cake, clearly not meant to be a bundt).
5. Not quite abort mission, but change almost all the components of the loaf cake recipe, tweaking and tweaking. Comes out ok texture, but super bland and big holes on the outside.
6. Up the moisture, switch the milk to buttermilk, bang the shit out of the pan on the counter before it bakes. Ok, but kind of bland, texture is amazing.
7. Switch out some of the oil for butter and add in some lemon zest. Waaaay better - switching out the butter was just what I needed to do. Super happy with the outcome. Done!

And that’s how it went down! The resulting cake is, to me, perfect - it is a dense bundt cake (not pound cake dense but just the right texture), with a tender crumb from ricotta and oil, but some richness of flavour from vanilla bean and butter. I added in some almond meal to help elevate the flavour, and folded some raspberries through the batter, which I managed to get to stay very nicely distributed! I was initially going to give this a glaze, but after the final test came out as well as it did, all it really needs is a light dusting of powdered sugar.

After all those tests, the cake itself is actually super simple. It is a stir together situation - all you have to do is combine your wet ingredients (plus sugar), then whisk together your dry ingredients, add the two together, then fold in raspberries which have been dusted in a little flour to stop them sinking. It all then goes into a well sprayed bundt pan, and is baked off, before having a wee cool in the pan, then turned out and allowed to finish cooling. Bundt cakes are my favourite in that they are generally super easy to make, with the fancy details coming from the shape of the pan. This one will most definitely be on heavy rotation from now on.

A few wee tips:

• The recipe here is by weight - if you bake by weight you won’t have to use a single measuring cup, as everything can be weighed directly into the bowl. The best.
• I tossed the raspberries lightly with flour before incorporating them into the batter, to help prevent them from sinking.
• I used fresh berries, but frozen would also definitely work - make sure that if they are frozen they get a good coating of the flour!
• The trick to getting a bundt cake out cleanly comes down to a few factors. The first is a well greased pan - you can either grease and flour your pan (make sure you get in all the crevices), or you can use a baking spray with flour in it, which is my preferred method for a bundt. The second is the cooling time - 10 minutes is the sweet spot to allow the cake to pull away from the sides enough to release cleanly. Too soon and it may not hold its structure if it is too warm, and too long in the pan and you run the risk of it sticking. Set your timer for 10 as soon as the cake comes out of the oven!
• The cake needs to be baked enough that it will not stick to the sides - make sure that a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean - I like to stick it in a few different spots just to check
• Make sure your ingredients are nice and room temp before you bake the cake - I like to take mine out an hour or so before.

Made this recipe and love it?

If you made this recipe then I would LOVE for you to leave me a review below to let me know how you liked it! Also, please make sure to tag me on Instagram if you make it!

A note on salt and oven temperature

It is important to note the type of salt that is called for in a recipe. I use Diamond Crystal salt throughout my recipes - if you use a different sort of kosher salt or regular table salt you will need to adjust accordingly as some salt is 'saltier' than others. Morton's salt is twice as salty, so you will need half the quantity. Same goes for a regular table salt. I am working to get gram measurements throughout my recipes for salt but still getting there.

All oven temperatures are conventional unless otherwise stated. If you are baking on fan / convection, you will need to adjust the temperature. An oven thermometer is a great investment to ensure that your oven is the correct temperature.

Using the double / triple function in the recipe card

You will notice that there is a '1X' '2X' '3X' button in my recipe card. This can be used for doubling or tripling a recipe. However, please note that this only doubles the ingredient quantities in the ingredients list and NOT in the method. If there are quantities or pan sizes in the method of the recipe (for example weigh out 150g brown butter), you will need to scale this number manually. It will also not change the baking time in the recipe so you will need to adjust this yourself too. It is always a good idea to read through a recipe fully before doubling it just to check this. If you would like to scale this recipe or convert for another pan size, use my calculator!

Tools and equipment

For a list of my go-to tools and equipment, I have a post you can refer to here.

Why is this recipe in grams?

I post my recipes in grams as it is the most accurate way to bake. Cups are not only inaccurate but they vary in volume worldwide. There is no way for me to provide one cup measure that works for everyone. However, posting in weight fixes this issue. If you would like the recipe in cups you are welcome to convert it yourself via google, but please do not ask me to do it for you as I am not comfortable providing a recipe using a method that I have not tested. Baking with a scale is easy, accurate, and also makes cleanup super simple. Here is the scale that I use if you would like a recommendation! Here's to accurate baking!

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