With the pandemic of Covid-19 in full force, we all need to stay at home and cook great meals, even dessert, with this delicious Lemon Ricotta Cake recipe! This is super simple to make and results in a lovely lemony, super moist, delectable cake.

I first made this Lemon Ricotta Cake when I had bought a bunch of ricotta to make a requested lasagna for one of my kids and then, he was not going to be able to stay for dinner so no lasagna (I wasn’t going to make it just for me) and a large container of ricotta sitting in my refrigerator. What to do? Make a cake for my dear friends, Margaret and Wayne, coming over for dinner two nights later!

You may remember, Margaret is a terrific baker – excellent cook too – but a great baker! She makes these amazing yeast sticky buns around the holidays that I absolutely adore. I get a little frightened of yeast-y things, unless it’s my mom’s homemade Polish bread recipe, which I’ve made a million times. Margaret is unfazed by any dessert or sweet recipe and just does it with aplomb.

For toppings…

Because of this, I supremely value Margaret’s approval on sweets, as she is the expert, and this cake passed with flying colors. I originally served it with ice cream, but I found that to be too cold and masked the natural moistness that is inherent in the cake. The whipped cream, which I used last night to celebrate my son’s birthday (notice the candle holes on top of the cake), along with blueberries and these odd yellow berries called, Cape Gooseberries, was better than ice cream and just delicious!

Easy peasy…

In making this Lemon Ricotta Cake, you don’t even need to pull out the mixer, just make sure the butter is completely softened and you can mix by hand with a spatula.

And it is not only the ricotta that makes it so moist but also the grated apple – an added surprise!!

Make this nice little sweet to end your meal or enjoy with a cup of coffee or tea in the morning.

Happy Sunday everyone – stay safe and stay at home – we can do this!!

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LEMON RICOTTA CAKE – serves 8

9 tbsp unsalted butter, softened, plus more for greasing the cake pan
1 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 cup + 2 Tbs. all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 Tbs. baking powder
Pinch of salt – preferably French grey
1 cup ricotta cheese
Zest of 1.5 lemons
1 medium apple, peeled and grated
Powdered sugar, to dust the top
Blueberries and/or Cape Gooseberries (Optional)
Heavy Whipping Cream – whipped (Optional)

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Grease an 8″ cake pan with some softened butter. Cover the bottom of the pan with parchment paper and butter that as well. Dust all over with flour.

In a large bowl, mix the butter and sugar together using a rubber spatula. When the two are combined and creamy, add in the eggs and mix to combine. You may want to use a whisk at this point.

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir everything together until all of the flour mixture is incorporated.

Then add in the ricotta, lemon zest, and grated apple. Again, stir everything to combine – there should be no visible clumps of dry ingredients, but do not overstir.

Scrape the batter into the prepared cake pan and smooth out the batter. Bake the cake for 30 – 35 minutes, until the cake is beginning to get golden on top and the edges start to pull away from the sides of the pan.

Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes before flipping out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Remove the parchment paper. Once the cake has cooled, dust the top with powdered sugar.

Serve with love, whipped heavy cream, fresh blueberries and/or Cape Gooseberries and and enjoy!!