Here’s another keeper cake recipe. I had some ricotta in the fridge. My friend Maria makes all kinds of delicious Italian treats (which I am sometimes the grateful beneficiary of – ahem, #shehasn’tmadesomethingformeinawhile) with ricotta. I wanted a recipe that was easy to come together and taste good. I ran across a recipe a while back and decided to try it out on the weekend.

The original called for frozen berries but I’m not a big fan of frozen berries – unless I’m making a smoothie or something with vodka in it :)! I had just finished making a fruit salad and thought a cake would be nice to serve with it. Since the fruit salad had a variety of berries I used nuts in the cake. My original thought was to have toasted nuts but in my cupboard I happened to have a packet of Presidents Choice Praline Pecans – perfect. I just chopped these up and added it to the cake batter.

There are a couple of things you need to watch for when making this cake. First make sure you whisk the ricotta and eggs well. The mixture should be smooth and not lumpy. I didn’t use a hand or stand mixer, just a hand whisk. It worked! I also added sour cream to the cake. I wanted a tang in the cake – citrus always brightens up flavors, and added lemon extract with the vanilla extract to the batter.

The final product is a moist cake that is sure to please everyone at the table. The pralines soften up just enough that they still have a crunch giving that wonderful mouth-feel to the cake. Bake this cake with less than 1 hour of effort (most of which is baking time). I experiment a lot and always ask for feedback on anything my family/guests try. The comments – like a coffee cake, berries would be nice, easy to make, tastes great! There you have it, be adventurous and vary the flavorings. As always – enjoy!

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3 large eggs
1 ½ cups ricotta
2 heaping tablespoons sour cream
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ tsp lemon extract
½ cup (112 grams) unsalted Churn 84 European style butter, melted
1 cup chopped PC Praline Pecans (or your favorite fresh or frozen berries or a combination of items totaling 1 cup)

Preheat oven to 350f
Spray or butter and line a 9” square or round, 2” high cake tin (I used a round one and it gave me nice height for a single layer cake)
Melt the butter in the microwave and set aside
Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl
In a medium sized bowl, whisk the eggs, ricotta, and vanilla until smooth
Fold into the flour mixture just until blended
Then fold in butter, followed by the chopped praline pecans
Make sure the pecans are evenly distributed in the batter
Scrape the batter into the cake tin
Bake the cake until golden brown and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 40 – 45 minutes
Let the cake cool before flipping out of the tin – past experience tells me to flip it onto a baking tray and then onto your cake plate – avoid using your hand as it does not provide enough support(mine doesn’t anyway) to prevent cracks in the cake – especially if it has flavorings in it like berries or pecans. If it cracks, cover it with fruit, icing sugar, cocoa powder etc. – you get the idea!