Short on protein and even shorter on cakes? Check out this Cottage cheese cake recipe that’s bagging to be baked!
For some obscure reason cottage cheese is not baked itself into our everyday life as it deserves, given the time it has spent together with the human race in the past 5000 years since Mesopotamia.
Its popularity is somewhat waned nowadays that people exiled butter churning from their homes into more efficient and tireless factories. Back then the cottage cheese was made out of milk left over from butter making process.
The origin of the name comes from the “cottages” where people lived and still do in some parts of England. But as it is with modern age not many of them are making their own cottage cheese anymore, even if they live in a cottage.
It still can be made at home fairly easily with a bit of heat and a coagulating agent. The milk needs to be heated to just under boiling temperature then vinegar or optionally lemon juice can be added. After a couple of minutes stirring, the curds can be strained from the whey and the cottage cheese is ready.
As being a mildly sour tasting ingredient cottage cheese can be used in a variety of dishes, be sweet or sour. A simple but excellent example of this is cottage cheese with pasta that depending on taste can be served with sweetener or smoked bacon and cheese on top.
It is a top food source for athletes because of a long list of benefits such as casein, protein, electrolytes and versatility. Casein is a slow-digesting protein, its’ fixed release of amino acids help to repair muscle fibers and prevent muscle breakdown. It can help athletes to minimize muscle loss that could normally occur whilst sleeping. Protein fuels exercise and workouts. Electrolytes can contribute to optimal athletic performance by helping to reduce muscle cramps plus enhances fluid absorption.
The cake could be served with nuts, fresh fruit or in our case with jam such as Sugar Free Strawberry Jam or Ultimate Low Sugar Apricot Jam Recipe.
Surely, the jam can be substituted with any kind of jam but we are trying to use natural ingredients to bake as naturally as possible.
The amount of honey might seem fairly low but the cake isn’t supposed to be sweet at all. It might be entirely left out too. It’s only there to balance the sourness of the cottage cheese and the jam is there to add some fireworks to our taste buds.
Try not to add more sweetener to the cakes that absolutely necessary as that will ruin our perception of taste on the long run. Coming back from the sweet highs once is hard work so better keep low on sweeteners and not to get there ever.
Ingredients
- 6 medium / 300g Eggs (separated)
- 3 tablespoons / 60g Honey or sweetener of choice to taste
- 2½ cups / 300g Flour
- 2 teaspoons / 7g Baking powder (follow instruction on packaging)
- 8 oz / 200g Cottage cheese
- 4 oz / 100g Season fruit or sugar free jam of preference
- 1 teaspoon / 5g Vanilla extract (optional)
Kitchen utensils
- 9¾” x 8″ / 25cm x 20cm Baking tray
How to make Cottage cheese cake
- Beat eggs and honey until foamy and light yellow.
- Mix flour and baking powder in.
- Add the cottage cheese and the optional vanilla extract too. If the process is done by hand alternate the ingredients for even distribution.
- Keep mixing until getting an even mixture but be quick about it as the acid in the cottage cheese can diminish the baking powders raising power. Pour batter into a parchment paper lined baking tray.
- Add lumps of jam on top.
- Place tray into the middle rack of a 350°F / 180°C preheated oven until the inner temperature of the cake reaches 185°F / 85°C, which should happen when golden brown spots start to appear on top of the cake in about 30 – 40 minutes. Let it cool down and cut it into squares to serve it.
Enjoy!
Cottage cheese is as strange as ingredient as good. It’s like a wild horse that needs taming to be our best companion:
- Cottage Cheese Pie
- Cottage Cheese Cheesecake Recipe
- Cottage Cheese Pastry Recipe
- Cottage Cheese Chocolate Cake
Cottage Cheese Cake with Jam
Ingredients
- 6 medium Eggs separated
- 2½ cup Flour
- 2 teaspoons Baking powder follow instruction on packaging
- 3 tablespoons Honey or sweetener of choice to taste
- 8 oz Cottage cheese
- 4 oz Season fruit or sugar free jam of your preference
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract optional
Instructions
- Beat eggs and honey until foamy and light yellow.
- Mix flour and baking powder in.
- Add the cottage cheese and the optional vanilla extract too. If the process is done by hand alternate the ingredients for even distribution.
- Keep mixing until getting an even mixture but be quick about it as the acid in the cottage cheese can diminish the baking powders raising power. Pour batter into a parchment paper lined baking tray.
- Add lumps of jam on top.
- Place tray into the middle rack of a 350°F / 180°C preheated oven until the inner temperature of the cake reaches 185°F / 85°C, which should happen when golden brown spots start to appear on top of the cake in about 30 – 40 minutes. Let it cool down and cut it into squares to serve it.
Notes
Pin now, Enjoy later!
Wow! This seemed very out of place at first but it’s really nice! Thanks!
Hello Suncake Mom,
I would love to try your recipe. Before I do so, I have 4 questions.
{1} What is the size of your tray? From your lovely pictures, it looks to be 9×9 inches.
{2} Do I have to drain cottage cheese? I am using lactose free cottage cheese that has quite a lot of liquid.
{3} Can I use 3 tablespoons of granulated sugar? If yes, maybe then I would not have to drain cottage cheese.
{4} You say that 300 grams of flour equals 3 cups. Is this a misprint? Are you using US cups (8 ounces)? Other sources say 300 grams equals about 2 cups.
I would really appreciate your prompt response to these questions so I can try making your lovely recipe. Thank you.
Hi Marta!
Thanks for being here and trying out this cottage cheese cake! This recipe was one of the first ones on the site and unfortunately a big neglected. It’s been updated with new measurements, instructions and images.
1. 9¾” x 8″ / 25cm x 20cm Baking tray but it doesn’t really matter. Smaller ones will produce taller cakes while bigger ones shorter ones.
2.It shouldn’t matter much. If you check the images about the cottage cheese (img 6,7,8) you can see the cottage cheese is quite soggy too.
3. You can use sugar or any sweetener. We sometimes use no added sweetener at all because the jam at the end. If you aren’t on a sugar free diet it’s not recommended though especially if someone is new to cottage cheese.
4. 300g Flour is the amount that was used. That could be anything between 2 – 3 cups flour depending how it’s measured. Our recipe plugin says it’s about 2 1/2 so…. 😀
Hope the answer will reach you quickly and you’ll find success and pleasure not just at the end but along the way too!
Thank you so much for responding recently to my questions. I am very enthusiastic about trying your recipe. My last question is this: instead of jam, could I top the batter with 8 ounces of lightly sugared berries?
I love your idea of encouraging others to stay away from too much sugar. People would be so much healthier for it.
Thank you.
Since quitting sugar entirely it sounds so weird sweetening fruits with anything (been there, done that too ;D ) but you can do it of course. Mind that the batter is soft so if you put anything on top it will sink to the bottom in the matter of minutes. You can do two thing:
1. Add more flour (or less liquid by squeezing the cottage cheese) so the batter will denser.
2. Coat the berries in flour like here: https://www.suncakemom.com/treats/blueberry-muffin-recipe and only then add it to the batter. (You can coat them in sugar first, then in flour) Flour will help keeping the pieces in place. Mind not to move them much once added to the batter.
I was almost ready to bake your cake, but I noticed that you have two entries for this recipe. In one it says it takes 2 teaspoons of baking powder. In the other, it says it takes 1 tablespoon which is 3 US teaspoons. That is a big discrepancy. Which one is correct? I really hope I can bake this cake very soon because I love your pictures and explanations.
HI!
Thanks for being here with us! There may be a glitch somewhere because we haven’t yet found the mentioned entries. We’ll keep looking for it. You can always go by the metric values as those are more accurate given that measurements are made in weight. However, baking powder can be a bit tricky because different manufacturers use different chemicals and may require different quantities for the same amount of flour. Your best bet would be to check the instructions on the packaging and see what is the required amount of baking powder for 2 1/2 cup / 300g flour. This recipe used 2 teaspoons / 7g of Baking powder but if in doubt just use a bit more 😀 extra fluffyness never hurts 😀
made it looks good waiting for it to cool must it go i n the frig?
depends on how long do you want to keep it. Cottage cheese is fresh cheese after all but depending on the temperature it can be kept on the countertop for a day or two for sure.