Gluten-free Strawberry and Vanilla Ricotta Cakes

It’s been a super-duper bumper strawberry season here in South Australia so a couple of weeks ago I took the kids strawberry picking at Beerenberg Farm in the Adelaide Hills. We had a ball – the kids really loved picking the food that they would be able to enjoy later. We don’t have a vegetable garden at home so this experience was a novelty for them.

We ended up with a whopping 3 kilograms of strawberries. I make lots of preserves, so making some strawberry jam was a no-brainer for me. We ate the rest – they were amazing. I even let the kids melt some chocolate for a fondue as a special treat.

So with all these amazing strawberries in season, it was only fitting that I post a strawberry recipe of some description.

Here it is. These little ricotta cakes are great for entertaining and handy for a recess-time snack.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

250 g fresh strawberries, rinsed, drained, hulled and quartered

350 g ricotta cheese

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

50 g butter, melted

200 g gluten-free icing mixture

100 g gluten-free plain flour

Method

Preheat oven to 180° Celsius (conventional oven) or 160° Celsius (fan-forced oven). Grease and line 9 cavities in a 125 ml capacity muffin tray.

Put strawberries in a small saucepan with 125 ml water. Bring to the boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 10 minutes. Set aside to cool a little. Purée.

In the meantime, beat ricotta cheese and egg in large bowl of an electric mixer for 2 minutes on medium speed. Add vanilla bean paste and butter. Sift in icing mixture and flour and mix until ingredients are combined and batter is smooth.

Spoon ricotta mixture into muffin cases until approximately three-quarters full. Over the top of the mixture, spoon 2 tsp of strawberry purée into each cavity. Using a teaspoon or skewer, gently stir each cake to combine the strawberry mixture with the top of the cake batter.

Bake for 45 minutes.

Makes 9