Every time I have been in Italy staying at hotels, I remember the yummy fluffy cakes being offered at the breakfast buffet. The breakfast cake is a classic at Italian breakfast tables. Usually plain, soft and delicious, perfect for breakfast for the whole family. There are many recipes for simple Italian breakfast cakes, which can be made with a handful of ingredients: flour, eggs, milk, sugar, butter or oil; ingredients that we already have at home, hence fairly quick to prepare the cake.
Ricotta Cake - Torta alla Ricotta
This Ricotta cake is a soft, simple and fluffy Italian cake; easy to make ricotta cake based on eggs, sugar, flour, with fresh ricotta. Which gives the dough, the soft and fluffy consistency! This is a classic Italian cake recipe and is a revisitation of the stracciatella cake. A quick recipe that can be prepared in just a few minutes by mixing all the ingredients in a bowl! For the preparation you can use the ricotta you prefer, made from cow's milk or sheep's milk, it is important that it is at room temperature and mixed with orange and lemon peel, this step will allow you to obtain a very fragrant ricotta cake! To this basic version you can also add flakes and or drops of fondant to have a soft ricotta and chocolate cake.
Ingredients:
200g of flour; 200 g of fresh ricotta at room temperature
2 large eggs at room temperature; 160 g of sugar; 50 g of melted butter (or 50 g of sunflower seed oil); 2 tablespoons milk at room temperature; peel of 1 large lemon; peel of 1 large orange; a sachet of vanillin or seeds of a berry (optional); 1 sachet of baking powder for desserts; 1 tablespoon icing sugar to finish
Preparation
1. First of all, about half an hour before preparing the cake, take the ricotta out of the fridge, weigh it, mix well with a wooden spoon until you obtain a cream and leave it at room temperature. This is a very important step for the perfect success of the ricotta cake. Grate the orange and lemon peel and insert them little by little into the bowl where you are going to whisk the eggs. Finally, add the citrus peel, eggs and sugar to the bowl and whip the mixture for 3 minutes until you obtain a very light and fluffy mixture. In the meantime, weigh all the ingredients and melt the butter. When the egg mixture has become very light, add the cold melted butter slowly, continuing to whisk for another minute. The mixture will be more liquid, but still full-bodied and dense. Then add 1 tablespoon of flour. Mix with the K whisk of the planetary mixer, or with the classic whisks at medium speed, in order to incorporate the flour well. Finally, add spoonfuls of room temperature ricotta, mixing at medium speed.
2. Mix for about 1 minute until it becomes creamy. At this point add the flour, previously mixed with the yeast, even in one go, continue to mix at low speed.
Finally add the spoons of milk and continue at low speed for about 1 minute. Butter a mold and flour it. Transfer the dough into the mold and level the surface well whether you have used a classic openable mold or if you have used a donut mould. Bake your Ricotta Cake in a hot oven at 180° for about 30 minutes if you used a classic circle mold; for about 35 – 40 minutes if you used a donut mold. In reality, the times are indicative and may vary depending on the oven and the mold used. After about 30 minutes check your ricotta cake and always do the toothpick test before taking it out of the oven.
3. The ricotta cake is ready when it swells on the surface creating a semi-crispy crust.Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the mold for 10 minutes. Then turn the cake out onto a cake rack. The Ricotta Cake is ready to be enjoyed. Wait for it to cool for at least 20 minutes before cutting the slice and enjoying how soft and delicious the ricotta cake is!
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