This Blood Orange Ricotta Cake is a gluten free dessert that looks like a showstopper, but requires little effort to make. Featuring seasonal blood and cara cara oranges, each bite of this delicious cake is bursting with bright citrus flavor. It’s a perfect cake to celebrate the start of a new year!
Happy Sunday all! I didn’t plan on sharing this recipe today, but I woke up feeling like I needed to post a dessert recipe on the blog.
So here we are 🙂
As you may be able to tell, I don’t post a lot of dessert on the blog. Don’t get me wrong, I love chocolate and sweets as much as the next person, but most decadent desserts require baking, and I am the world’s laziest baker. But this year I’m challenging myself to bake more and to add more desserts to the blog.
I figure this Blood Orange Ricotta Cake is a great start.
Let’s make this ricotta cake…
But first, a bit more about this cake. This ricotta cake a very seasonal dessert that is so light and bright, you almost forget we are in the middle of winter. But then I look at the snowstorm outside and remember, yup, winter isn’t coming… it’s already here. See the cheesy GoT reference there?!
I know the idea of putting ricotta in a cake sounds really odd, but it really works!
I’ve seen a few people make this ricotta cake before on Instagram, including Deb from Smitten Kitchen and Elisabeth Prueitt of Tartine Bakery. All of their creations looked amazing, so I knew I had to try!
What’s Caribbean about a ricotta cake?
At first I wondered whether I even wanted to post this ricotta cake recipe on the blog, because it doesn’t really seem to have much Caribbean influence. This cake is inspired by an Italian recipe, but there are actually many similarities to Jamaican desserts.
In essence, this ricotta cake is a moist cornmeal cake or cheesecake. The texture is very similar to cornmeal pudding, a very popular Jamaican desert. I’ve made a variation, a sweet potato pudding, for the blog in the past. Beyond just the texture of the cake, the use of oranges also makes me think of the Caribbean.
But even if this cake didn’t have anything in common with Caribbean cuisine, I would still post it on the blog because it’s that good!
The recipe…
The ingredients for this cake are simply oranges, almond flour, ricotta, cornmeal, sugar, butter, and eggs.
I made a few modifications to the ricotta cake recipes I tried, which I think produced a delicious cake that can be enjoyed year round.
Most notably, I used orange juice and zest instead of lemon to infuse the citrus flavor throughout. I also used more ricotta and less cornmeal than some other recipes, to make the cake less dense. Finally, I had a much longer cook time, as this cake is extremely moist and is cooked at a relatively low temperature.
A tip when making this cake – the batter will look nothing like normal cake batter. It will look a little clumpy and thick because of the ricotta and cornmeal. Try to get the batter as smooth as possible, but know that it won’t be perfect. But once cooked, the cake’s texture is soft and light.
Looking for more dessert recipes? Try:
Gluten Free Mega Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Share this recipe…
If you make this recipe, be sure to let me know by rating it and leaving a comment below. I would love to hear from you. And don’t forget to tag @sweetandsorrel on Instagram!
Blood Orange Ricotta Cake
Ingredients
- 3 oranges, thinly sliced (I used a mix of cara cara and blood oranges)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 3 tbsp water
- 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 3 eggs whites and yolks separated
- 2/3 cup ricotta
- juice and zest of 2 blood/cara cara oranges
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1/3 cup cornmeal
- salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch round cake pan and line with parchment paper. Grease the parchment paper and coat with flour. This will prevent the orange slices from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
- Stir water and sugar together to form a slurry. Pour into the bottom of the cake pan. Arrange orange slices in a single layer in the bottom of the pan. Set aside.
- In a stand mixer with beater attachment, cream together butter and sugar. Add egg yolks, one at a time, and beat until combined. Beat in ricotta and orange juice and zest for about 5 minutes, or until ricotta becomes smooth.
- Mix in almond flour, cornmeal, and salt until just combined. Batter will be very clumpy.
- Clean stand mixer and using whisk attachment, whip egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gently fold egg whites into batter.
- Scoop batter over the orange slices. Gently drop cake pan on countertop a few times to even out the batter, but be careful not to disturb the orange slices. Bake for 55-60 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Remove cake from the oven. Allow the cake to cool in the cake pan for 20 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen. Carefully invert the cake unto a serving plate. If any slices stick to the pan, just gently rearrange them. Serve at room temperature or refrigerated. Enjoy!
Did You Make This Recipe?
Tag @sweetandsorrel on Instagram and hashtag it #sweetandsorrel so we can see all the deliciousness!
