Raspberry Ricotta Cake (recipe)
I am totally off my produce game this summer. You see those raspberries? I bought them. At the store. In a white plastic bag in the freezer section. I’m pretty sure a little piece of my heart broke off and died right there in aisle 5. What is happening here?!
My normal MO is Crazy U-Pick Person from June-September. 200 pounds of peaches? No problem. 65 pounds of blueberries? Sign me up. My hands are stained, my car is constantly loaded with boxes, and my counters are full of ripening fruit (and pesky fruit flies).
But this summer has been quieter in the fruit department, and I am okay with that (I think? I am suddenly having second thoughts. Ack! Breaking up is hard to do.). I think part of it has to do with the fact that my family didn’t eat everything I canned and froze last summer, which was a first. We seem to be eating more fresh stuff in the winter/spring. I guess that’s good. It’s certainly less work!
So I’m just going to see this as a furlough year, a little break from the norm, while we finish the rest of our jars and bags from 2018. Breaks are good, right? Right?? If I buy another bag of frozen fruit…
I first ripped out this recipe from a Bon Appetit magazine. It uses frozen raspberries, but you could definitely use fresh if you fold them in gently. It’ll give you fewer whole berries and a pink cake, but there are worse problems in life.
This recipe also uses ricotta, which isn’t my favorite, but in this recipe it gives a nice, airy texture. I tried another version with sour cream, which is cheaper and in my refrigerator more often. It worked just fine, but produced a more dense cake. I added lemon zest and almonds to add a little interest.
Whether you picked your own raspberries this year or just picked them up at the grocery store, add this simple cake to your summertime. Add a cup of coffee and call it breakfast. Serve it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and you have dessert!
Raspberry Ricotta Cake
adapted from a Bon Appetit recipe
1½ c. flour
3/4 c. sugar
2 t. baking powder
¾ t. salt
3 eggs
1½ c. ricotta
½ t. vanilla extract
½ c. (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted & cooled
1 c. frozen raspberries or blackberries, divided
zest of 1 lemon
1/4 c. sliced almonds (optional)
- Preheat oven to 350°. Line a 9”-diameter cake pan with parchment paper and lightly coat with nonstick spray.
- Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
- Whisk eggs, ricotta, and vanilla in a medium bowl until smooth; fold into dry ingredients just until blended. Then stir in butter and lemon zest and gently fold in ¾ cup raspberries, taking care not to crush berries.
- Scrape batter into prepared pan and scatter remaining ¼ cup raspberries and sliced almonds over top.
- Bake cake until golden brown and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 50–60 minutes. Let cool at least 20 minutes before removing from pan.
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Not only is “zester” fun to say, but it’s great for finely grating food like citrus peel, chocolate, cheese, garlic cloves, or ginger root. Amazon carries this Microplane Zester/Grater for a reasonable price. Mine doesn’t have a handle, and I think that’d be a nice feature. I could zest all day with this baby!
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Nice recipe, I picked a bunch of blackberries from my backyard and replaced the raspberries with them. I left out the almonds and lemon zest but added a half t of lemon extract instead. I also used sour cream instead of the ricotta. It had a nice smooth texture, almost like a pound cake only a little lighter. The berries gave it a little zing against the sweet profile giving it a nice overall flavor. Super easy with ingredients commonly used in most kitchens.