You know what? Since I started getting to know gluten free baking more than a year ago, I realised how great cakes and cookies and other baked goodies you can get without the use of regular flour. It is much more challenging, but it pays off always with each cake’s unique texture and taste.

 

 

Take this chocolate ricotta cake for instance. It doesn’t have regular flour but it has almond flour. The cake feels quite heavy at first, but if you let it sit for a few hours the flavours start working together better and it gets lighter and much more delicious. The next day, it is even better!

 

 

 

When I made this cake the first time (adapted from Jamie Oliver and Pease Pudding blog), I immediately took it to the tiny picnic with my friends (hence the picnic-y photo). It was the first time that we spent so much (or any) time on a picnic mat. As I said above, it felt a bit heavy that day (almost) right out of the oven. But the next day, it was absolutely yum.

 

Alright. No more mumbo jumbo. Enjoy your recipe!
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Ingredients:

 

Difficulty:  ★☆☆ (Easy)
(makes 1 cake with a springform pan which is 24cm in diameter)

 

Printable PDF-recipe (no photos)

 

250 gr. dark chocolate (about 60-70%), coarsely chopped
500 gr. ricotta
1 lime’s zest
300 gr. granulated white sugar
250 gr. almond flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon
4 egg yolks
4 egg whites

 

To serve:
powdered sugar
roasted pistachios, coarsely chopped

 

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1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a cake pan that is 24cm in diameter and cover the base with baking paper (I also cover the sides).

 

2. In a medium size heatproof bowl, melt chocolate in bain-marie style: put some water in a pot, boil it and lower to a gentle simmer; then put the heatproof bowl with chocolate on top of that pot and melt the chocolate.

 

 

3. When chocolate melts, add ricotta and start whisking.

 

 

4. Add lime zest and sugar and continue whisking. Once they mix smoothly, take away from heat and transfer the mixture to a bigger bowl.

 

 

 

 

5. Add almond flour and whisk.

 

 

 

6. Add vanilla extract and cinnamon and whisk again.

 

 

 

 

7. Add egg yolks and whisk until all ingredients are incorporated. Set aside.

 

 

8. In another mixing bowl, put egg whites and whisk until you get stiff peaks. Fold this into the chocolate mixture gently.

 

 

 

 

 

9. Transfer the cake batter to prepared cake pan and smoothen the surface. Bake in medium rack for 45-50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Once baked, take it out of the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes before taking it out of the pan. Then cool for another 10 minutes and apply powdered sugar and pistachio topping. Let it cool completely before eating. Enjoy!