Orange Ricotta Cake
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
Serves: 10
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10g/0.3ozs melted butter and 10g/0.3ozs flour (for greasing tin)
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3/4 cup/185ml/6.3flozs orange juice
- Finely grated zest of 2 oranges
- 3/4 cup/190g/6.3ozs caster or superfine sugar
- 1.5 cups/225g/8ozs. cake flour*
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2 teaspoons baking powder
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1.5 cups/360g/12.7ozs ricotta cheese
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90ml/3flozs extra virgin olive oil (or a 50/50 mix of olive oil and canola oil)
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3 eggs, room temperature
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1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
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Pinch salt
For icing (optional)
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160g/5.6ozs. icing or powdered sugar
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2-3 tablespoons orange juice
To make 1.5 cups of cake flour for this recipe, replace 6 tablespoons of plain all purpose flour with 6 tablespoons cornflour/fine cornstarch
Step 1 - Brush a 6 cup baking tin with a slurry made from 10g/0.3ozs melted butter and 10g/0.3ozs flour. Preheat oven to 160C/320F.
Step 2 - Mix the juice, zest and sugar and allow the sugar to become syrupy (it doesn't have to dissolve completely). Sift the flour with baking powder twice and set aside. I hate sifting but you really need to do it for this cake to get that lovely, light texture.
Step 3 - In a large bowl whisk the ricotta, oil, eggs, vanilla and salt together and then add the juice and sugar mixture and mix to combine well. Sift in the flour baking powder mixture in a few lots stirring in between additions. Try not to overwork the batter by over mixing it in. Pour into the tin going 3/4 of the way up and bake for 1 hour or until the centre springs back when pressed. Allow to cool completely on a cake rack. You can either sift icing sugar over the top or make the icing below.
Step 4 - Place the icing sugar in a food processor and process well until all lumps disappear. Add the juice in one tablespoon at a time. Err on the side of caution and make it thick and not too runny. Spoon it over the cooled cake.