Adapted from a recipe by Deborah Mele of ItalianFoodForever
This is a very straightforward recipe with more ricotta and less flour than other recipes. I used King Arthur gluten-free flour and zest of two oranges, but it would be even better with zest of three oranges. I used Galbani whole milk ricotta, which is very firm and can be sliced. If you have a very wet ricotta, let it drain in a sieve for 20 minutes. The cake is good on its own, but I also served it with an orange maple butter sauce as well as sliced cara cara oranges in simple syrup with orange liqueur. My husband thought the texture was similar to a dense cheesecake, while I thought it was a cross between dense cheesecake and a pound cake.
Ricotta Cake
Ingredients
Makes 8 portions
- 1½ sticks (6 oz., 168 g.) soft butter
- ¾ cup (6 oz., 168 g.) sugar
- Zest from 3 large oranges. If using lemons, 2 lemons gave nice lemon background, but 3 lemons might be too tangy.
- 2 tsp. almond extract
- 3 large eggs, separated
- 1 cup (8 oz., 224 g.) full-fat or whole milk ricotta
- Pinch of salt
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- ½ cup (2½ oz.) 1-to-1 gluten-free flour. I used King Arthur gluten-free flour, which is a standard rice flour, potato starch and tapioca starch blend.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F.
- Lightly grease a 9” springform pan.
- In a medium bowl, beat egg whites until stiff.
- In separate bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light, fluffy and creamy.
- To the butter mix, add zest, almond extract, egg yolks, salt and ricotta cheese to butter mix and beat until smooth.
- Mix baking powder into flour, then beat into butter mix just until combined.
- Gently fold egg whites into butter mix, trying not to deflate mix.
- Spoon batter into prepared pan and bake for about 35-45 minutes or until a cake tester stuck into center of cake comes out clean. It should have a nice light golden color on top. My cake was ¾ inch deep when cooked.
- Allow to cool. Use a sharp knife to cut.
- Serve with berries, sliced almonds, powdered sugar, orange curd, lemon curd, or the the sauces below.