Posted by kathryn in Recipes, Fruit and Desserts

Coming from the UK most of my family Christmas traditions revolve around turkey, roast potatoes, gravy, Christmas pudding, fruit cake, mince pies – heavy, heavy foods that we only eat once per year. A more recent tradition for me though, is panettone.Since moving out of home I’ve always lived in the inner west of Sydney, surrounded by a large proportion of Sydney’s Italian community, as well as Italian delis, cafes, foods, restaurants and so on. At this time of year my local shops start filling up with dozens and dozens of different, brightly coloured panettone boxes – plain ones, those with filling, others covered in chocolate, some soaked in liquer. To me, it’s become a sign that Christmas is on it’s way.

While the rest of my family might be eating ham and eggs, my Christmas morning breakfast is now orange juice, panettone and a cup of coffee and I look forward to it almost as much as the present opening (only almost though).

This year I’ve also developed a really simple and easy berry and panettone cake, as an alternative Christmas day dessert. It’s lighter and simpler to make than Christmas pudding, plus it only takes ten minutes to put together . You can use a mixture of berries, or make it all strawberry. I also think a mango filling might go really well. This cake is absolutely delicious.

The mixture of panettone (instead of sponge), ricotta (instead of cream) means that the cake is lower in fat and kilojoules than most other desserts, plus all those berries are PACKED full of antioxidants.

I first developed this recipe for the Life etc Christmas edition and the full Christmas menu can be downloaded from their website. Based on the theme of fake it, don’t make it , all the recipes are simple and easy and designed to keep the cook out of the kitchen.

Mixed berry & ricotta panettone cake

This cake doesn’t keep very well – it tends to go a bit soggy. You can prep the ingredients in advance, but I’d advise you to put it together just before serving, which is quite practical, given this takes less than 10 minutes. Serves 6.

• 1 punnet blueberries, washed and gently dried
• 1 punnet raspberries, washed and gently dried
• 2 tablespoon icing sugar
• 1 panettone (about 15cm in diameter)
• 2 tablespoon sherry
• 300g fresh ricotta
• 2 punnets strawberries, washed and green stalks removed
• extra icing sugar for dusting

Put the blueberries, raspberries and icing sugar into a bowl, mix together and put to one side.

Just before serving cut a thin slice off the bottom of the panettone and discard this. Cut two more slices, about 2cm thick, from the base of the panettone. Put one slice on a serving plate and drizzle over the sherry. Spread over half the ricotta and then cover with the blueberries and raspberries. Put the other slice of panettone on top and cover with the rest of the ricotta. Decorate with the strawberries and dust with icing sugar. Serve immediately.

This is also my contribution to Anna’s Festive Food Fair event.

30 November, 2006