Layered Ricotta Cake

Name: Layered Ricotta Cake
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 55 min
Ingredients: For cake:; 2 1/2 cups flour; 1 1/2 cups sugar; 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder; 1/2 teaspoon baking soda; 1/4 teaspoon salt; 1/4 cup butter (cubed); 1 cup milk; 3 large eggs; 1/2 cup vegetable oil; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 1 teaspoon almond extract; For Ricotta Mixture:; 1 pound ricotta cheese; 3 large eggs; 1/2 cup sugar; 1 teaspoon vanilla; optional - powdered sugar or cocoa powder - dust when serving

April 10, 2016 by Amanda 23 Comments

Pour this ricotta cheese mixture over a basic yellow cake before baking and the magic happens. This cake is rich, delicious and moist with a beautiful bottom layer of ricotta. Go ahead and add this to your “To Bake List” 🙂

I love baking. I love talking about baking, I love writing about baking. I even love chatting it up with total strangers about baking. Usually it will be while looking at flours or new cake tins or something of the sort. It seems other bakers like taking about baking too.

The other day I had a discussion with a sweet lady easily twice my age. She commented that the days of a simple cake baked in a 13×9 dish were gone – almost primitive. I reassured her that these cakes were not at all a thing of the past. Really, they’re baked all the time – people just don’t serve them from the dish anymore. It’s far more “très chic” to cut and plate the cake instead of serving it out of the old anchor or pyrex dish.

So in honor of the always loved and celebrated 13×9 cake, I thought I’d try a new one.

I’ve had something similar to this cake before. There was chocolate involved and a whipped topping pudding frosting. Perhaps I’ll make it again sometime.

This cake, though. I appreciated the simplicity of this ricotta cake. I don’t always want a fluffy cake frosted to high heaven. I appreciate a cake that can stand alone and be served with just a dusting of powdered sugar.

The original recipe calls for a boxed cake mix which I usually don’t have on hand. I threw together a simple yellow cake and topped it with the ricotta mixture.

This is a moist, dense cake – reminiscent of a pound cake with almost a custard bottom from the ricotta. I appreciate all the flavors are there but none are too overwhelming.

I served this cake various ways. Dusted with powdered sugar, dusted with cocoa powder, drizzled with dark chocolate syrup, drizzled with raspberry syrup, topped with strawberries & whipped cream – the possibilities are endless here.

This is a delicious, simple and easy cake to bake in your good ol’ 13X9 dish. You could easily switch this cake up by adding different extracts or lemon juice to the batter – it’s one of those fabulous recipes that’s perfect as is or that can be built upon.

Thanks for reading! Happy baking!

-Amanda-

Recipe is adapted from Jill’s Most Requested Ricotta Cake @ Just Rolling With It. Check out her blog – she’s got tons of fab recipes!