Lemon Ricotta Cake

O my goodness, this is so lovely, even if I do say so myself. Over at 'The Pantry' I've been hearing loads about ricotta cakes and reading about clever members who have even been making their own ricotta! Well, I do have to say that ricotta has rather passed me by until this weekend but will now be on the list. Why did I wait for so long?

This months BBC Australian Good Food magazine (Christmas subscription gift from Mum, Thanks Mum!) has a very simple Lemon Ricotta Cake recipe which inspired me to try it. It is so easy to make and I have to say that we didn't wait for it to completely cool before slicing it up and serving with a lovely dollop of sour cream. This is a keeper!

Lemon Ricotta Cake

1 cup (150g) self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

175g room temp butter

3/4 cup(165g) caster sugar plus 2 tbsp extra

grated rind and juice of 2 lemons

3 eggs, separated

11/4 cups(250g) ricotta

Preheat the oven to 180C or 160C fan. Grease and line a 19cm springform cake pan. Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl and set aside. Cream butter and gradually beat in sugar until light and fluffy. beat in lemon rind,egg yolks and ricotta. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggwhites until firm peaks form and then fold into the ricotta mixture. Fold in the sifted flour and half the lemon juice. Spoon the mixture into the cake pan and bake for an hour until risen and golden and a skewer comes out clean. Combine the remaining lemon juice with the extra sugar and heat to make a syrup, then drizzle over the hot cake. leave to cool in the pan for 1 hour and then transfer to a wire rack to completely cool.

This is so lovely and I'm looking forward to trying it with other citrussy combinations.