This recipe comes courtesy of Alison Roman, of New York Times and the cookie of winter 2018 fame. It is top billed on Bon Appetite’s website as a Raspberry Ricotta Cake, but it is so much more. It is the perfect company cake…unless your company is comprised of 8-year-olds in which case you should definitely make a different layer cake or cupcakes with miles of frosting and preferably sprinkles. But if your company skews more toward the adult range, then this cake needs to be on the menu. It is the effortless chic type of cake where the only thing you really need to ponder is what flavor you want it to lean, and what add-ins you may want to add. I have made it as simple as blackberry, or mixed berry (trader joe’s very cherry berry blend is excellent!), or as pictured above with my take on the flavors of tiramisu (coffee, rum, and chocolate). Next up I plan to try a peach and bourbon version. Mmmmmmmmm.
Choose Your Own Adventure Ricotta Cake
The texture of this cake is important to discuss. It is so moist it is almost creamy, which makes sense, given the amount of ricotta. It is almost like if a cheesecake and a traditional yellow cake had a baby. It definitely has a crumb, but it is custardy in its moisture level. Also, please note this is not an overly sweet cake by any stretch of the imagination. Just sweet is probably more appropriate. Keep this in mind if you think about adding mixins that are too tart. I wouldn't do rhubarb plain in this for instance, but I think it would be lovely with dollops of stewed or sugar poached rhubarb in it.
For your mixins, you can really be as adventurous as you like. I think you want to be careful not to overwhelm the cake so it doesn't hold together, but with just a cup of mixins in the regular recipe, you could definitely add more. I would be careful going beyond 2 cups but have only tested it up to 1.5 cups for total mixins/sprinkled on top.
Ingredients
- Nonstick spray
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt Morton's or 3/4 teaspoon Diamond kosher
- 3 large eggs
- 1½ cups ricotta (16 oz container) I vastly prefer whole milk ricotta!
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup butter, melted (1 stick)
- 1 cup fruit frozen is okay!
- And or optional mixins/for sprinkling on top chocolate, nuts, spice, a tablespoon or 3 of booze, extracts or flavorings, zest, etc
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350°. Line an 8-9 inch cake pan with parchment paper and lightly coat with nonstick spray. I like to live dangerously and used a pretty fluted two-piece deep tart pan that is rather snug fitting. The batter is super thick so I figured it would not seep out, but for insurance baked it on a half sheet pan. You could also easily bake this in a springform pan. In both those cases, since you plan to leave the cake on the base piece, the parchmant is uneccesary, but spraying the side of the pans is important. Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
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Whisk eggs, ricotta, and vanilla or any liquid flavorings in a medium bowl until smooth; fold into dry ingredients just until blended. Then fold in melted butter, followed by ¾ cup of the fruit or main mix in, taking care not to crush any delicate fruit. Scrape batter into prepared pan and scatter remaining ¼ cup of fruit or mixins on top.
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Bake cake until golden brown and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 45–55 minutes. Let cool at least 20 minutes before unmolding.
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Do Ahead: Cake can be made 2 days ahead. Store tightly wrapped at room temperature.
Recipe Notes
To make the Tiramisu flavored version pictured above, you will need to add 3 tablespoons of good dark rum to your egg-ricotta mixture, as well as 2 tablespoons of strong espresso/coffee and 1-2 teaspoons of dried/dehydrated coffee or espresso powder (think like the Starbucks Via instant packets if you don't keep some other instant coffee on hand to add to your chocolate cakes and brownies--but you really should keep some for that!). Fold in 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips into the batter just like you would the fruit. Sprinkle 1/4 cup more of the mini chocolate chips on top of the cake before baking.