Limoncello Ricotta Cake Recipe
I made this cake for my husband’s birthday a couple of days ago, we wanted something with Italian flavour, and I’ve had some requests to share the recipe. Since I actually merged a few recipes that I found online (disclaimer: I had no idea if doing that was going to work and had a backup cake-in-a-bag mix in the cupboard) I jotted down what I did, the method and ingredients list is below. You’ll need some Limoncello (we always have a bottle in the freezer), and some ricotta for the sponge, although given the lockdown situation I think this could be omitted, but it did make the cake super soft and savoury. If you can’t get the ingredients to make the cake at the moment, bookmark the recipe and make a sweet celebration cake this summer when a hint of normal life will hopefully resume.
I’m not really a ‘bake a cake’ kind of person, I don’t have enough time usually and I have a problem following precise recipes. But here we are in very strange, disconcerting times, and I find myself making cake. Birthdays are still happening after all! Have fun if you make it, and please let me know how it turns out. x
Heat the oven to 175C.
Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl, beat in the eggs, then add the rest of the the cake ingredients (butter must be softened at room temp)
Mix them all with something more substantial than a fork (it was all I had).
Have a little glug of Limoncello if you fancy.
Try to get the batter as smooth as possible, if you have a mixer or whisk this will be simple, if you only have a fork it will take a bit more work.
Grease and flour a round cake tin (mine was 20cm), and put a circle of parchment paper on the bottom.
Pour half of the cake batter into the tin and bake in oven for 30-35 mins. It should brown gently on the top and smell amazing.
Start making the topping. Mix together the soft butter and sugar (this would ideally be fine/caster sugar), add in the cream cheese and limoncello until it’s smooth and thick. This tastes good. Stick it in the fridge.
When the first cake is ready, try and wait until it’s had a chance to cool, but if like me you’re impatient you can carefully prise the hot cake off the tin, and get it on a cooling rack. Scoop the remaining cake mixture into the tin and get it in the oven for another 30-35 mins. Resist eating the cake.
Nb: Obviously if you have two tins the same size you can bake them both at the same time.
Once both cakes have completely cooled (this is actually important), you can slather one in the Limoncello sauce frosting and stack the other cake on top.
Pour on the rest of the frosting mixture, let it drip down the sides, I went for a rustic messy cake. You can decorate with anything you have lying around, from dried flowers, foliage, lemon slices, or just leave plain.