Charlotte Ree’s vanilla cake with ricotta icing & roasted peaches

For this simple cake, use good ingredients to allow the flavours to shine.

Charlotte Ree’s vanilla cake. Picture: Luisa Brimble

For this simple cake, use good ingredients to allow the flavours to shine. Buy the best quality ricotta, eggs and peaches you can get your hands on. The peaches in particular are the hero of this dish. When roasted, their fragrance is all-consuming and wonderful. This cake is best eaten on the day it’s made.

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Vanilla cake with ricotta icing & roasted peaches

185g self-raising flour
170g caster sugar
125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 large eggs, at room temperature
80ml full-cream milk
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Edible flowers, optional, for decorating

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Roasted peaches

3 peaches, halved
1 tablespoon honey
1 vanilla pod, split

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Icing

250g full-fat ricotta, at room temperature
250ml thickened cream, at room temperature
100g icing sugar, sifted

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Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a 20cm springform tin and line the base with baking paper. Place flour, sugar, butter, eggs, milk and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat on low speed until combined (about 30 seconds). Increase speed to high and beat for 2-3 minutes, or until batter is thick and pale. Spoon batter into prepared tin. Bake for 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the roasted peaches, arrange peaches cut-side up on a baking tray sprayed with a little oil to prevent sticking. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon water, the honey and scraped vanilla seeds, and add the vanilla pod to the baking tray. Bake for 30 minutes, or until peaches are soft. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely.

Once cake and peaches have cooled, prepare the icing. Beat ricotta, cream and icing sugar together until thickened and combined. Spread icing over top of cake. Just before serving, arrange roasted peaches over icing and drizzle any additional syrup over the top. Finish with some edible flowers, if you like. Serves 8

Edited extract from Just Desserts by Charlotte Ree (Plum, $29.99), out Tuesday. Photography: Luisa Brimble