This heavenly ricotta fruit cake was my obsession this summer. It’s light, airy, moist with a strong raspberry flavor.
Inspired by Anna Olsen’s recipe.
Ingredients:
Cake
250 g (1 cup) full-fat ricotta cheese
150g (¾ cup) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
55g (¼ cup) unsalted butter, melted
2 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
2 Tbsp lemon juice
240g (2 cups) all-purpose flour
1½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
3 cups fresh or thawed, frozen raspberries
A handful of sliced almonds
Streudel
120g (½ cup) all-purpose flour
50g (⅓ cup) granulated sugar
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
3 Tbsp (¼ cup) unsalted butter, melted
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350F (180C) and grease a 9-x-13 inch (23x33cm) rectangular pan.
2. Whisk the ricotta, sugar, eggs, melted butter, vanilla, lemon zest, and juice together really well.
3. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Sift over ricotta mixture and stir with a spatula just until blended. Spread this in the prepared pan.
4. Sprinkle the raspberries over the ricotta cake (if using thawed frozen berries, drain excess juices and toss the berries with 2 Tbsp of flour) and top the cake.
5. For the streusel, stir the flour, sugar, baking powder and cinnamon together and then stir in the butter until the mixture is evenly combined. Sprinkle over the fruit. Then top it off with sliced almonds. Bake the cake for 45 to 55 minutes, until a tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan, and sift powdered sugar before serving.
6. The cake will keep, wrapped and unrefrigerated, for 3 days.