Recipe: Lemon Ricotta Cake
This is especially for
moonishlips &
sakisugar...anyone else who is interested is of course welcome to it too :o)
This recipe is my favourite cake recipe these days because it is quite simple and easy to do, and doesn't have a huge list of awkward ingredients. The only thing that might be a little unusual for some is the Ricotta cheese but it's available just about anywhere these days.
On to the recipe:
Lemon Ricotta Cake (Torta di limone e ricotta)
Ingredients list:
75g/3oz/third-cup butter
170g/6oz/three-quarters-cup granulated sugar
75g/3oz/generous third-cup ricotta cheese
3 eggs, separated
175g/6oz/one&half-cups flour
7ml/one&half-tsp baking powder
grated zest of 1 lemon
45ml/3tbsp fresh lemon juice
Icing sugar, for dusting
Method:
1. Grease a 22cm/9inch round cake or springform pan. Line the bottom with baking parchment or waxed paper. Grease the paper. Preheat the oven to 180degreesC / 350degreesF / gas4
2. Cream the butter and sugar together until smooth. Beat in the ricotta
3. Beat in the egg yolks, one at a time. Add 30ml/2sbsp of the flour and the lemon zest and juice. Sift the baking powder into the remaining flour and beat into the batter until well blended only.
4. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Fold them carefully into the batter.
5. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake for 45 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool for 10 minutes before turning it onto a rack to cool. Dust the cake generously with icing sugar before serving.
My notes:
When I make this cake I don't measure to the last gram exactly, since I usually end up making it in a rush, but even with only rough measuring it always turns out nice. So I expect this is the kind of cake that is very hard to mess up with.
As for the lemon juice, I usually just add the juice of the whole lemon (if it's an average sorta size one...acutally, even if it's a little big too!!) I measured it once and there was a tiny bit from the lemon left over so I started just adding the lot!!
The only thing that's difficult in this cake is how much strength it takes to beat it well. If you're feeling weak you can always use an electric mixer but I only use that for the egg whites (did that by hand a few times but it's VERY tiring). But I figure that beating a cake is a form of exercise since it can work up a sweat so I beat that cake well and tick it off my mental list as my exercise for the day teehee!!
Oh and the icing sugar dusting is just one option for decorating/finishing the cake. It would work with other things too, but certainly I find the icing sugar is definitely enough if you're happy with it. It looks pretty and it doesn't interfere with the flavour.
Picture:
At the moment the best picture I have is this one:
This is one of the slices I had left from the cake I made for my friend's party. It appeared in my previous post but I thought I'd add it here too since it's relevant ;o) I simply added a little cream cheese icing to this piece which was quite nice.
I hope you enjoy making this cake, and enjoy eating it even more!!!