I wanted ricotta cheese for lasagna, but the only size available was a 30 oz. container. That left me with extra ricotta cheese, and a great excuse to try this cake recipe I happened across. The original recipe is here, and on FoodNetwork.com. I lightened it up a bit by using canola oil in place of the butter, and part skim ricotta cheese in place of whole milk ricotta. I always choose lower fat dairy when it’s available. I like to save my daily allowance of full fat diary for ice cream, but that’s a different story. The cake turned out great and the boys ate it up fast. With the lemon and lemon zest, it tasted very lemony and not too sweet. You could sift more powdered sugar on top if you prefer a sweeter cake. I was a little thrown by the 9 x 5 inch loaf pan size, since both of my loaf pans are the smaller 8.5 x 4.5 inch size. I didn’t even know a different size existed. Fortunately, Target had several of the larger pans in stock, so I picked up a new pan and promised myself that I’d have to find more “pound cake” recipes, or make this lemon ricotta cake a lot to justify the cost of the new pan.
Lemon Ricotta Cake
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
- 1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese part skim or whole
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- zest of 1 medium lemon
- juice of 1 medium lemon
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups flour
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, combine vegetable oil, ricotta cheese and sugar. I use the whisk attachment on my Kitchen Aid, but a hand mixer would work just as well.
- Add the eggs and keep the mixer running until the eggs are incorporated into the batter.
- Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, vanilla, baking power, and salt and mix until well combined.
- Add the flour and mix just until the flour has been incorporated.
- Pour batter into a greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. Check the size of your loaf pan, because a regular 8.5 x 4.5 inch loaf pan is too small for this amount of batter. The pan should be just a little over half full.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes, or when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cake will be moist.
- Sift powdered sugar on top
- To serve, you can remove the cake from the pan, or cut slices in the pan and remove one piece at a time.
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