Forest fruit and peach cake

What could be more appealing than enjoying seasonal fruits with a delicious cake? Today Eva, author of Bake-Street , brings us a suggestion that will encourage you to go out and look for wild fruits and peaches to prepare it. Why yes, this cake is as delicious as it looks!

At this time of year we can start enjoying seasonal fruits such as blackberries and blueberries. Those of you who live near the mountains are lucky enough to pick them directly from the bush.
Those of us who live surrounded by asphalt and buildings will have to settle for buying them in the markets at a more reasonable price than the rest of the year.

Personally, they are my favourite fruits, which is why we eat them at home more when they are in season than in other months. They are very versatile and we can eat them with yoghurt, in salads, cakes... or even as a filling for a pie.

I've always been in love with moulds with scalloped edges, like this ceramic one from Emile Henry , which allows you to adjust the dough to them and give it that elegant look, knowing that it won't lose its shape due to heat during baking. Another thing I love is being able to make a filling with a lot of height in accordance with the design of the mould, so we could say that it was love at first sight.

Nothing fascinates me more than a cake with a big fruit filling, and if it's blackberries and blueberries... even better. At home, they love peaches, so I decided to add one and a bit of ricotta cheese, the contrast and combination was great. Don't expect to find a sweet cake, its flavour is dominated by fruits, slightly sweet and sour. So if you have a sweet tooth, I recommend adding a bit more sugar.

The result will be a perfect cake to start first thing in the morning or to end the day on these summer evenings.

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE DOUGH:

315 g of wheat flour
227 g cold butter
90 g cream cheese
45 g cold water
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt

FOR THE FILLING:

375 g of blackberries
375 g blueberries
1 large peach
3-4 tablespoons granulated sugar
100 g of ricotta cheese

TO DECORATE:

1 egg beaten with a pinch of salt
flowers

ELABORATION

We prepare the dough

- If we do it in a mixer:

In the bowl of the mixer, add the flour together with the sugar, salt and butter cut into small squares. Mix with the help of the paddle until obtaining a sandy mixture.

Add the cream cheese and water and mix again until you obtain a homogeneous mixture.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface and divide into two parts, one slightly larger than the other. Form two discs, wrap them individually in cling film and store in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

We can prepare it the day before and let it rest in the refrigerator overnight.

- If we do it by hand:

Using a grater, using the largest holes, grate the butter. Set aside.

In a large bowl, add the flour together with the sugar, salt and grated butter. Mix with the palms of your hands, rubbing the dough between them, until you obtain a sandy mixture.

Add the cream cheese and water and mix with your hands until you obtain a homogeneous dough.

We form the discs and store them in the cold in the same way as in the previous description.

We prepare the cake

If we have left the dough to rest overnight in the refrigerator, we should warm it up for 30-40 minutes beforehand so that we can roll it out easily. The dough must still be cold to handle, otherwise it will be very difficult to work with.

To stretch the dough and avoid problems when moving it or having it stick to the work surface, we will do it between two sheets of baking paper.

We will start with the disk with the largest amount of dough, which will be the one we use for the base of the cake.
We place it between two sheets of paper and stretch it with the help of a rolling pin. We should exceed the diameter of the mould by 3 cm, not the base but the top.
To know if we have reached the correct size, we only have to place the mould, overlapping, on the dough.

We remove the top sheet of paper and use the other sheet to move the dough and place it on the mould, adjusting it to its shape. Before placing the dough, we sprinkle the mould lightly with a little flour.

If you have taken a long time to handle the dough, it is likely that when it reaches room temperature you will not be able to remove the paper without tearing the dough, and it will stick to it. In this case, place the mould in the fridge, with the dough and the sheet of paper, and leave it to cool for a few minutes. Once the dough has cooled, you can remove the paper without any problems.

We fill:
We wash and dry the blackberries and blueberries well, then pour them into a bowl.

Peel and chop the peach, mix with the other fruits, add the sugar and mix.

We pour the fruit mixture onto the mould lined with the dough and add small amounts of ricotta cheese.

We decorate the surface:

We put the cake in the refrigerator while we stretch the dough.

We proceed to do it in the same way as before. We place the disc between two sheets of paper, we can reuse the previous ones, and we stretch it with the help of a rolling pin. On this occasion we will do it until it has a thickness of about 2-3 mm.

Once it is stretched, we remove the top sheet of paper and we are ready to cut it. We can do it with the help of leaf or flower shaped cutters, or we can do it with the help of a sharp knife simulating its shape. In my case I did it with the latter.

Once we have cut the leaves from all over the surface, we take the cake out of the fridge and proceed to decorate the entire surface.
Form the remaining dough into a ball and roll it out again. If the dough becomes difficult to work with, place it in the refrigerator or freezer so that it can be easily cut again.

Once it is decorated, place it in the refrigerator for about 2 hours before baking. This way, the dough will harden and will keep its shape better after baking.

We bake:

Preheat the oven to 190ºC with heat from above and below.

We take the cake out of the fridge, paint the surface with the beaten egg and put it in the oven for about 60 minutes or until the top takes on a nice golden colour.

If it starts to brown too quickly, we can cover it halfway through cooking with a sheet of aluminum foil and finish baking this way.

We take it out and let it cool completely before consuming.

When serving, we can decorate it with small flowers and accompany it with a scoop of ice cream.

STORAGE: Once cold, we can store it in the refrigerator in the mold itself, covered with film, or remove it from the mold and place it in an airtight container. It will keep in perfect condition for 5-6 days.