My son’s Cuban grandma gave me this delicious and simple recipe for picadillo, which includes beef, olives, and sweet peppers. It’s delicious when served over rice and black beans with fried plantains on the side.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 45 mins |
| Additional Time: | 20 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 25 mins |
| Servings: | 10 |
| Yield: | 1 9-inch loaf cake |
Ingredients
- nonstick cooking spray
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups whole-milk ricotta cheese
- 1 cup white sugar
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 ½ teaspoons almond extract
- 4 fresh figs, chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 4 fresh fig slices
- 1 teaspoon confectioners’ sugar, or as needed (Optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray a 9-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Beat ricotta cheese, sugar, and butter together in a bowl using an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time, followed by almond extract. Beat in flour mixture on low speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl until combined; beat batter for about 30 seconds more.
- Place chopped figs into a bowl, sprinkle 1 tablespoon flour over, and stir to coat. Fold figs into the batter. Pour into the prepared loaf pan. Place fig slices on top of the batter, down the center.
- Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, 45 to 60 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Remove from the pan once the cake has cooled, 20 to 30 minutes. Dust with confectioners’ sugar.
- Four chopped fresh figs should equal 1 cup.
- The baking time will depend on how wet the ricotta cheese is.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 373 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 45 g |
| Cholesterol | 103 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 2 g |
| Protein | 8 g |
| Saturated Fat | 11 g |
| Sodium | 421 mg |
| Sugars | 27 g |
| Fat | 18 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This was outstanding! Rich, moist, perfection. Took 60 minutes in convection oven at 350 degrees, but just one part of the loaf was not cooked on top in the middle at the highest point just about equal to a tablespoon. Didn’t want to bake it any longer because the ends would be too dry. Next time I may add 5 more minutes. Only substitutes I made were I used butter to coat pan versus nonstick cooking spray and when it cooled it was a just a bit tough to remove, but I slid a flat serving utensil on all sides and then lifted it a bit with two utensils. It was still warm after a half hour of cooling, sooooo good! The other thing I used was a very good vanilla extract versus almond extract. Not a big fan of almond flavor as it is in so many Italian cookie recipes. I added a photo and you will see where it cracked a bit when I took it out of pan because I didn’t coat the pan enough. I definitely waited the 20 to 30 minutes to remove it from pan!! Oh I added a few extra figs, as we have a fig tree in our back yard for years and years that my husband tends to and covers it every winter!
I have made this recipe twice and both times I got rave reviews! I will be making it again for Christmas. It reminds me of a similar cake my mom made when I was a kid. I added more figs than what the recipe calls for and omitted the powder sugar. Very delicious cake!
Very good! Much like pound cake with fruit. I did not use powdered sugar. Sweet enough. I did add a few more figs.
So moist! I used part of the batter to make muffins also. I skipped the powdered sugar.