The recipe is strawberry, ricotta, lemon and cream tart.
So. Let’s discuss.
Firstly this was a bit of a mother daughter baking day, because my mum was also making a cake to take to the party (a flourless chocolate cake) and the dog was also in attendance (although she wasn’t doing any baking, just hanging around supervising).
I made the pastry, baked it, smashed it. As well as making enough pastry for the tart there was actually enough for two mini tarts too!
So that was all fine. Look at that base… I’m happy with that.
Then you combine the ingredients for the filling which is double cream, ricotta, the zest of a lemon, 1-2 tablespoons of cinnamon and strawberries.
Why would you put two tablespoons of cinnamon in anything? It’s not a subtle flavour, is it? So I only put one in, but still… this filling was odd. It wasn’t sweet, it was really cinnamon-y and it was just… weird. I can’t even explain it because I don’t really understand what was going on here, but I do know that all of those ingredients in the quantities specified should not be in a tart together.
Onto the comments. According to my mum, who reported back to me:
One person said it was very nice.
One said it was tasteless.
One said there was too much cinnamon.
One said the filling tasted like grout. (This is my favourite comment)
One said the ricotta made it grainy.
One said it was alright but they didn’t want anymore.
That last comment was how I felt – it was fine but I wouldn’t make it again, or go back for a second slice. Thank goodness it wasn’t my own recipe – I made my mum tell everyone it wasn’t mine because there’s no way I’m having this disaster slur my good baking record.
Things I’ve learnt from this experience:
- Ricotta = no
- There’s always one fail of a recipe in a book (or calendar) but it’s important to make sure that everyone knows IT’S NOT YOUR RECIPE
- This recipe is not to be repeated
In case you’re wondering, this is my mum’s cake which by all accounts was received much better than mine (deservedly so):
And the dog was left exhausted after watching everyone else cook:
