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Italian Lemon Ricotta Cake

Welcome back! 
Today, we have an nice Italian dessert, featuring a very classic Italian cheese - ricotta! Ricotta is interesting in the way that it's made - it's derived from the leftovers of making other cheeses; in fact, that's where the name "ricotta" comes from, it means "recooked". We tend to use it a lot more for savory foods, like Stuffed Shells, but it's also very commonly used in desserts like this among others.

Italian Lemon Ricotta Cake

Ingredients:

  • 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
  • 1/2 - 3/4 cup sugar (depending on how sweet you want it - 1/2 cup is pretty light)
  • 15-16 ounces (about 1 tub) of ricotta cheese
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon lemon zest (this plus the juice should take about 1 lemon)
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 cup flour

Directions:

  1. In a bowl, put in the butter and sugar. With a hand mixer or stand mixer, cream this mixture so that it becomes smooth.
  2. Add in the ricotta and mix. You want to eventually get this to be very smooth, so it will take about 4-5 minutes. This will make the final product lighter and airy-er.
  3. After that, add in the eggs (one at a time!), vanilla extract, lemon juice, and lemon zest, slowly so that you can mix each one in thoroughly.
  4. Sift in the flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Mix this evenly but don't overmix!
  5. Pour into the cake pan and bake in the oven at 350°F for 40 minutes.
  6. Take it out, cool, and you can sprinkle some powdered sugar on top!
We really like this cake - both the flavor and the texture are really fitting. Because of all the ricotta cheese, it almost feels like a cheesecake, though it isn't. The lemon flavor is also quite present but not overly sour either. Something else that stands out about this cake is that it's quite light and fluffy because of how much the ricotta was beaten before - cakes that don't do this are generally pretty dense and don't have the same texture. Overall, it's great!

-Chefpo
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