My big apologies to readers and followers of my blog for not posting anything for long time. But things at my personal end took front seat and kept me overly occupied.I'm just back from my long India trip and coping with the jet lag.I planned to post this Ricotta Pound Cake before I left for vacation but Anyone who reads or follows my blog must have known by now that I have a sweet sweet tooth. So experimenting cakes and various types of sweets are definitely more frequent than any other experiments in my kitchen. the other day I was browsing around and came across this wonderful cake in Parita's Blog ,she is amazing baker and I love to visit her space. As she vouched for this ricotta pound cake I thought I should give it a try and the result was something to 'die for' for a cake lover.Me and Shaan relished on this cake first time I made and I have made couple of times after that with some modifications every time and this is my favorite so far. I always like to tweak the recipe after first attempt. The addition of lemon zest,fresh blueberries and honey to the recipe made its even better. I'm so glad I tried it. So here you go.
This makes a small 8" round cake
Ingredients:
1. Ricotta Cheese : 3/4 cup(Ricotta can be replaced by fresh home made cheese or paneer)
2. All purpose flour : 3/4 cup
3. Baking powder : 1 1/2 tsp
4. Cornflour/Cornstarch : 1 tbsp
5. Egg(at room temperature) : 1
6. Salted butter (melted/softened) :1/3 cup
7. Raw Sugar : 3/4 cup(I used raw sugar but white granulare sugar is just good)
8. Fresh lemon juice : 1 tbsp
9. Freshly crushed cardamon seeds :1 tsp
10. Rose water :2 tbsp
11. Handful of raisins, soaked in water/rum for minimum 2hours, drained
12.Vanilla essence : 1 tsp
Procedure:
1. Shift All purpose flour,corn starch and baking powder together and keep them aside.
2. Beat the ricotta cheese and rose water for 5 minutes with an electric beater.Now time to pour the
melted butter kept at room temperature to the mixture along with raw sugar and beat until the sugar
dissolves.
3. Add pure vanilla extract, egg and cardamom powder and beat the mixture for 2 more minutes.
4. Now to the above mixture incorporate the shifted flour with a spatula.
5. Once the flour is fully mixed add lemon zest, lemon juice,golden raisins, blue berries and honey.
6. Grease and flour the cake baking pan.Pour the cake batter then bake it in a 350 degree
Fahrenheit preheated oven. Bake for 30-40 minutes or do a poke test until the knife comes out clean .
Enjoy this cake when warm.This also stays fresh for 2-3 weeks in refrigerator.
I would love to hear from you n Happy Cooking.