Blueberry Ricotta Cake

I love ricotta in baked goods. From the day I tried making the Ricotta Thumbprint Cookies with Fig Jam, Honey & Pistachios from Very Small Anna (which I made the month after she posted them) to the time I had a ricotta filled doughnut from an Italian bakery in The Hill in St. Louis, I have been a huge fan. Ricotta doesn't have much flavor but it makes up for it in texture!

I'm not good at keeping up with blogs these days, in fact I don't think I've even glanced at my thousands of items in Feedly since November, which must have been my last day of actual down time.  But I do follow some great people in Instagram, including Food Librarian, a blogger I've followed forever because of her month-long celebrations of bundt cake that first caught my eye.

A few weeks ago she posted a raspberry ricotta cake and commanded her followers to make it immediately. It sounded good, and I wanted something simple to bring to work. The blueberries looked better than the raspberries so I whipped it up one morning before work. Super easy, super moist, highly recommended with any fruit combination! If I had been feeling incredibly patriotic I would have gone with red and blue. Also I believe the recipe says frozen berries but I used fresh and they were fine.

Raspberry-Ricotta Cake
from Bon Appetit March 2015

Ingredients

Servings: 8

• Nonstick vegetable oil spray
• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
• 3 large eggs
• 1½ cups ricotta
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract (I used amaretto because I am always out of vanilla)
• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup frozen raspberries or blackberries, divided

Preparation

active: 15 min total: 1 hour 35 min

• Preheat oven to 350°. Line a 9”-diameter cake pan* with parchment paper and lightly coat with nonstick spray. Whisk 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 fold in butter, followed by ¾ cup raspberries, taking care not to crush berries. Scrape batter into prepared pan and scatter remaining ¼ cup raspberries 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 unmolding.
• Do Ahead: Cake can be made 2 days ahead. Store tightly wrapped at room temperature.

I used a 9x2 cake pan which actually wasn't quite big enough for all the batter. I think they are going for a 9x3 pan, maybe a 9" square, but I removed about a cup of batter and baked it in a separate ramekin for a shorter amount of time, and that was about right.