A recipe for Raspberry Ricotta Cake caught my eye in Gail Blakely’s column in the Falmouth Enterprise last week. The ingredients list showed so much promise that making it became a priority.

Gail’s column was actually focused on making homemade ricotta, and the cake was one of the uses for the ricotta. I skipped that step and used a good brand of whole milk ricotta from the grocery store. I do plan to make the homemade version at some point, but time wasn’t on my side this week.

This cake has the advantage of being extremely versatile. It works as a dessert and is equally good for breakfast with a cup of coffee.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. kosher salt
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups whole milk ricotta
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 cups raspberries and/or blackberries, divided

Method:

1. Grease a 9 inch cake pan with butter (or cooking spray) and line the bottom with a circle of parchment paper. Grease the parchment paper as well. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
3. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, ricotta, and vanilla together until smooth.
4. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients just until combined.
5. Fold in the melted butter, followed by 3/4 of the berries. Fold gently so as not to crush the berries. I used 1 1/2 cups raspberries and 1/2 cup blackberries for the total amount.
6. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the remaining berries on top.
7. Bake for 55-60 minutes until a tester comes out clean.
8. Let cool in the pan for at least 20 minutes before removing to a wire rack to finish cooling.
9. Dust with powdered sugar just before serving, if desired.