Lemon and Ricotta Cake Recipe

The tang of fresh lemon flavours combined with the richness of ricotta cheese,  produces an Italian style cake that finishes off a special dinner perfectly, or is just lovely with a cup of coffee or tea. It's light and luscious, what more could you want in a cake? Thanks to Marcellina in Cucina for this perfect cake recipe.

 I baked this cake only two days ago, in my daughter's kitchen in Cairns. It's the first time I'd used this recipe. I needed to use some ricotta cheese that I brought up from home, and lemons from our tree, and even though I am still getting to know Shannon's newly renovated and beautiful kitchen, the cake still turned out perfectly. I was thrilled with it. 

Marcellina (Marcella) actually lives in North Queensland in Ingham, north of Townsville, so we are both North Queenslanders, we drive though the thriving Italian township of Ingham on our journey to Cairns, and Marcellina's Italian heritage shines through all of her amazing recipes, especially this cake. She has also just published her first recipe book, which looks very good. It's called "Marcellina."

With the lemon season well and truly here, it's time to start cooking with lemons. There are plenty of other lemon recipes on Happy Retirees Kitchen, and you are very welcome to use them. I hope to share some with you again shortly.

Ingredients:

Zest of one lemon

1 1/2 cups (300grams) caster sugar

170 grams (6 ounces) unsalted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 eggs (room temperature)

340 grams (1 1/2 cups) whole milk ricotta cheese (full fat please)

1 3/4 cups (210 grams) all purpose plain flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

30 ml (2 tablespoons) lemon juice

Method:

Marcellina says to tear off a large sheet of baking paper so that it will overhang the base of a 22 cm or 9 inch spring form cake pan. I think my cake pan was larger, around 24 cm and that worked perfectly. It's a large cake mix.

Clip on the springform pan ring to the base, and catch the paper between the ring and the base. Then, jsust butter the sides of the tin and dust them with flour.

Preheat your oven to 180 deg C (350 deg F.)

Zest the lemon, just the yellow skin, and squeeze the juice. (I used a lemon off our tree and had plenty of juice, however for smaller supermarket lemons you might need two.)

Combine the zest and sugar in a bowl. Rub the lemon zest into the sugar with your clean and precious fingertips until the fragrance of the lemon reaches you. Then tip it into the bowl of your stand mixer.

Add the butter and vanilla extract. Turn on your mixer and beat on a medium speed until the mixture is light  and creamy. This will take all of 5 minutes. Keep your mixer turned on.

Crack your eggs one at a time into the bowl until mixed into the sugar and butter mixture.

Lower your stand mixture speed to low and add the ricotta. Beat on low until well combined.

Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl, and then add to the mixing bowl by the tablespoonful. Of course, you can sieve the flour, baking powder and salt directly onto the sugar/butter/ricotta mixture if you wish. 

Stop and scrape the sides and the base of your bowl to ensure all the mixture is combined.

Continuing at a low speed with your mixer, add the lemon juice and mix until just combined. It's important not to overmix at this stage.

Almost there!

Using your spatula, scrape the cake batter into the prepared pan and bake for 40-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean, there may be a few crumbs, there wasn't for me.

Check your cake at 40 minutes, this is so dependant on your over. 

If it seems to browning unevenly, just adjust the position of your pan.

Remove your baked cake to a cooling rack, and allow the cake to cool in the pan for 15 minutes before removing the outer ring. Now using the sheet of baking paper at the base of your cake, very carefully lift the cake off the base back onto the wire rack to cool.

This cake will settle beautifully as it cools.

Cook's notes:

• You can use salted butter if you wish, but there's no need for the extra pinch of salt.
• I would only use fresh lemon juice for superior flavour.
• Butter should only be soft at room temperature, not melted.
• Your ricotta may need straining if it contains liquid, mine didn't.
• You might think the batter is quite thick, but it bakes up light and a bit dense.
• This cake can be frozen in slices wrapped in plastic wrap.
• Please don't be tempted to use mascarpone for ricotta, it won't end well.

I'm aware that the photos of this delicious cake are simply presented, it literally disappeared before my eyes when it cooled down, and I have to say this cake is delicious in it's simplicity, with a just dusting of icing sugar. However, served with whipped cream and berries it would be spectacular.

Just a little heads up about what's happening in our lives, we are packing. Destination France. More cake and pastries, what's not to love.

Au revoir mes amis,

Warm wishes,

Pauline