Ricotta Cake

The cake is a traditional Argentine Ricotta dessert incredibly easy, soft, light and delicious.

There are many countries where desserts are called cake instead of tart or cake as they say in Spain. This recipe, the ricotta cake, is a cake in two layers of coca, with a very easy to make fluffy ricotta cheese in the middle, so the result is an incredible mixture of flavors.

The ricotta cheese is traditional in Italy  and you can buy it at the supermarket and elaborate home or you can prepare well because it’s simple to do and the end result of the dessert will be much better.

So, let’s first show you how to make ricotta  (also called cottage cheese in some places):

Ricotta

Ingredients

• 3 liters of semi-skimmed milk.
• 3 lemons (medium and slightly soft, since, being a little more ripe, they will have more juice).
• For each liter of milk, you have to put a lemon, therefore you can make more or less quantity following this proportion.

Preparation

• Pour the milk into a pot and heat over medium heat. Stir with a wooden spoon.
• When it starts to bubble, pour in the lemon juice. You must stir constantly until a curd is formed underneath and a whey above.  This takes about 10 minutes to fire.
• Then strain everything into a bowl. When the strainer fills with rennet, squish with a spoon to remove excess whey.
• Discard the serum.
• The resulting rennet will be the final ricotta.

Once our ricotta is made, on this occasion, we will make the ricotta cake: 

Ricotta Cake

Ingredients

• Lemon zest.
• 100 g of lard or butter, softened at room temperature.

• 2 cups of flour (220 g).
• 1 egg and a half (2 yolks and 1 white).
• Half a cup of sugar (100 g).
• 1 pinch of salt.
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla essence (13 g).
• 2 tablespoons of baking powder (24 g).
• Butter to grease the pan or cake tin.

Ingredients for the stuffing

• The ricotta prepared in the recipe above.
• Lemon zest.
• Half a cup of sugar (100 g).
• 1 egg and a half (2 whites and 1 yolk).
• Icing sugar to decorate.

Preparation

We start to make the dough

• In a large bowl, add the butter softened at room temperature ( not hot, because the dough will not work ) along with the sugar. Mix well with the help of a fork.
• We add the egg and a half to the previous set. We mix well.
• We will add the tablespoon of vanilla essence. We continue mixing.
• Next, the zest of a medium lemon, continuing to mix.
• We add a small pinch of salt. We continue mixing.
• Mix the flour with the yeast. Add them to the liquid mixture, sifting  little by little with the help of a large strainer and stirring constantly with a fork.

• When you can no longer mix with the fork, knead with your hands to form a ball. Put the container with the dough ball in the fridge while you make the ricotta cake filling.

We prepare the filling

• Put the homemade ricotta in a large bowl.
• Add the lemon zest, the egg and a half and a half cup of sugar. Mix everything well.
• Put the filling in the fridge while we shape the ricotta cake batter.

Mounting

• Split or divide the dough ball in two with your hands, one slightly larger than the other. The large one will serve as the base in the cake pan, and the smaller one as a topping.
• Take the largest dough. Shape it with your hands, as if you were making a pizza.

• Put it on the cake mold, previously greased with butter, and crush well. First the bottom and then spread to cover the sides. Make sure it is not thick at the base, as it could be raw.
• Once the base dough is well distributed, add the ricotta mixture on top. Spread well with the help of a spoon or spatula.
• Now take the small dough. Flour the bench or work table a lot. With the help of a rolling pin, knead and flatten in a round shape until it reaches the size of the cake pan or mold.
• Now comes a delicate step: it is important that you flour the table well, since now you will have to roll the dough around the rolling pin, so that you can take it and place it lightly on the pan as a top layer.
• If it breaks on the sides, which is what usually happens, don’t worry. This part, once the ricotta cake is baked, will remain at the bottom, since we will turn the cake like an omelette.
• With the help of the rolling pin, flatten the sides of the pan and remove the excess batter from the sides.

• Now, with the help of your fingers, pinch the upper part so that the two masses come together, the one at the base and the one you are making.
• Finally, bake the ricotta cake for approximately 25 minutes at 180ºC, until golden brown.

Decor

• Let cool for an hour.
• Put a plate on top of the ricotta cake and turn it over, as if it were an omelette.
• Sprinkle icing sugar on top.

Finally, your ricotta cake is ready.