A lemon flavored cake has been on the ‘to try’ list for a long time. So when two occasions came up together a big tub of ricotta cheese in the fridge and a birthday to celebrate, I combined the two and went in for a ricotta lemon cake. Now, since it was a kid’s birthday, I went a little light with the lemon flavor. I liked the little hint of lemon but the addition of ricotta made this a very soft cake.

I have been trying to get a good hold of the chocolate collar for cake decoration. One thing I noticed is I am better off with two smaller parchments, each half the circumference of the cake, than with a single long one. This way I can lift the parchment up and refrigerate/freeze without dropping the whole thing. It takes up less space also in the fridge.

Read on for the recipe.

Recipe adapted from Food.com

Makes: one 9″ round cake or a 9″ loaf

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup softened butter
• 1.5 cups ricotta cheese
• 1.5 cups sugar
• zest of one lemon
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract/ lemon extract
• 2.5 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1.5 cups all purpose flour

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 180C/ 350F. Grease and dust a 9″ pan with flour.
2. In a big mixing bowl, cream butter, sugar and ricotta cheese using a hand or a stand mixer. If the cheese is lumpy, then grind it in a blender for making it smooth.
3. Add eggs one at a time and blend it in. Add the vanilla or lemon extract and the lemon zest as well.
4. In a smaller bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and one teaspoon of salt.
5. Add the dry flour ingredients to the wet ingredients 1/2 cup at a time and fold in carefully.
6. Once the dry ingredients are incorporated into the wet ingredients, pour the batter into the prepared pan.
7. Bake for 40-50 minutes until a skewer comes free of crumbs when inserted in the middle.
8. Fill and frost with lemon whipped cream. Fruits would have been ideal for decorating the cake, but since all I had was chocolate, I went in with a chocolate collar and some chocolate pieces on top.

Frosting: Lemon whipped cream

• Beat 2 cups whipped cream with 1/2 cup icing sugar until soft peaks form. Add 2 teaspoons lemon juice and mix with a spatula taking care not to over whip. Fill and frost the cake