Moon Drop Grape Cake

Where have Moon Drop Grapes been all my life? Yes, I’m familiar with Globe grapes. They are just fine & all.
But Moon Drops? If you can get your grubby little hands on some, DO IT. DO IT NOW!
I’m not going to spend a half hour and two paragraphs trying to describe their flavor.
Super grapey-grape-grape-grape says enough.
And beautiful, right?

I found them at the farm stand down the street & knew immediately that I wanted to incorporate them into some sort of light cake.
And since I still venture to the grocery store as infrequently as possible, I wanted to work with some ingredients already on hand.
1. olive oil instead of butter
2. ricotta leftover from some incredible eggplant lasagna.

This cake is a Summer breeze. Low sugar. No mixer needed. A few humble & wholesome ingredients.
A citrus lovers breeze reminiscent of those pudding cakes your granny made.
Easily adapted to be made Vegan. (see recipe notes).
Swap ingredients & flavors to your heart’s content.
And by all means, let me know what you think.

Moon Drop Grape Cake

Small batch ricotta & olive oil cake with lime & moon drop grapes. The cake manages to be dense due to use of ricotta, while also lightened by citrus.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Course Dessert

Cuisine American, Italian

Servings 8

Equipment

• 9" cake or pie pan

Ingredients

  

• 3/4 C Ricotta Of choice, vegan, full fat, etc.
• 1/3 C Lime Infused Olive Oil
• 1/3 C Sugar
• 1 Egg
• 1 C Moon Grapes sliced
• 3/4 C AP Flour
• 1/2 C Almond Flour
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/4 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• lime juice or zest to taste if not using infused oil

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease & flour 9" cake or pie pan.

  In a large mixing bowl whisk the ricotta, olive oil, sugar, until completely combined.

  Add egg until completely incorporated

  In a separate large bowl whisk together the flour, almond meal baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

  Combine wet & dry ingredients.

  Pour the batter into a 9" greased & lightly floured pan.

  Add grape halves to top of cake, tap down gently into batter.

  Bake for 30+ minutes or until browned on top and firm in the center.

  Cool to room temperature. Garnish with powdered sugar.

Notes

This simple, rustic cake begs for substitutions. Moon grapes may be swapped with your grape of choice, or omit them completely.

Lemon or orange infused olive oil instead of lime is great.  And juice/zest works well in lieu of infused oil.

Vegan option includes simply swapping vegan ricotta (Kite Hill brand worked perfectly) one-to-one for traditional ricotta. Also egg may be successfully substituted with egg replacer like Bob's . I have not used flax egg or chia egg.

I have not swapped almond flour, and encourage using it to give a hearty texture to the cake. 

Keyword Small batch dessert, Vegan option