Pear & Walnut Ricotta Cake

I've been complaining for the last two weeks about the lack of homemade baked goods around the office. Actually there's been plenty, but just not enough to satisfy the over grown sweet tooth I've recently developed. Usually I am not such a sugar addict but I am experiencing some sort of holiday sugar habits. To satisfy my sweet tooth I baked a recipe from Chocolate & Zucchini one of my favorite cookbooks. I went for the Pear & Walnut Ricotta Cake because it looked like a pizza. Anything pizza cannot taste bad. Unfortunately, I didn't do my prep work and didn't have all the ingredients in the original recipe. Despite the improvisation, the cake turned out really delicious.

What to gather:

• 1 stick of unsalted butter (I ended up using salted because I didn't have unsalted)
• 1 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar ( I never figured out what the 1 extra tablespoon was for but its in the original recipe)
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup whole-milk ricotta
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (I ran out of vanilla (ooops!) so I used 1 tablespoon of honey instead)
• 2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt (since my butter was salted, I didn't add extra salt)
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon (loosely packed) finely grated organic orange zest (my orange wasn't organic and it tasted fine)
• 2/3 cups chopped walnuts (you can use pistachio or almonds too)
• 3 fresh pears, sliced thinly (if you're not a fan of pears, use figs, apples, apricots)

How to make it:

1. Preheat oven to 350F and grease a round pan with the butter.
2. In a food processor (or if you feel like mixing by hand just use a big bowl), combine the butter, 1 cup sugar and process til creamy. Then, add the eggs one by one while mixing. Add the ricotta, and vanilla extract (or honey if u forgot to go shopping)
3. In a medium bowl, sift the flour, salt (optional), and baking powder. Add the orange zest to it and then slowly mix it all into the egg mixture. Mix until just combined (batter should be thick). Fold in half your nuts.
4. Pour batter in the pan and spend some time smoothing the top.
5. Add the pears & the rest of the nuts evenly on top. The fruit shrink so arrange them like sardines.
6. Bake for 1 hour and then check with a knife. If the knife cut comes out clear then its cooked. Leave it out on your kitchen counter for 10 minutes before serving.

Add some vanilla ice cream for extra sugar and serve!