Lemon ricotta cake with raspberry ripple cream

Lemon ricotta cake with raspberry ripple cream

Method

For the cake:
1 Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (160 fan). Grease and line the base of a 20cm round cake tin with parchment paper, loose-bottomed if you have it.

2 Using a stand mixer, electric beater or by hand, cream together the soft butter and two-thirds of the sugar in a large bowl, until pale and fluffy.

3 Add the egg yolks to the creamed butter and sugar one by one, beating well between each addition. Beat in the lemon zest and juice, ricotta, the ground almonds and the flour, until just combined, and set aside.

4 In a separate, clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until frothy, and slowly add the reserved third of sugar, whisking all the time until the egg whites have reached a soft peak.

5 Beat a spoonful of the egg whites into the cake mix, then slowly fold in the remaining whites, until just combined. Pour the mix into the prepared cake tin and bake in the oven for 25 minutes until golden and cooked through, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

6 Remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out on to a wire rack and leaving to cool completely.

For the raspberry ripple cream:
1 Put half of the raspberries into a small bowl and crush with a fork. Set aside.

2 Whisk the cream in a large bowl with the icing sugar to soft peaks. Fold the crushed raspberries through the cream to make a ripple effect, taking care not to overmix the raspberries.

To serve:
1 Dust the cooled cake with icing sugar and cut into slices to serve with the raspberry ripple cream and the rest of the fresh raspberries.