Easy Lemon Ricotta Cake for Afternoon Tea

A Cake Worth Slowing Down For

There is a particular kind of afternoon that Italians seem to have quietly perfected. The coffee has been drunk, the table has been wiped, and a plate of something soft and citrus-scented appears alongside a pot of tea. Nothing fussy, nothing decorated to within an inch of its life. Just a plain-looking cake that tastes far better than it has any right to.

Lemon ricotta cake is that cake. It sits somewhere between a sponge and a baked cheesecake, damp and tender in the middle, with a pale crumb that carries the scent of lemon zest rather than shouting about it. It slices cleanly, keeps for days, and is forgiving enough for a weekday evening when you cannot be bothered with anything technical.

It also happens to be the ideal companion to Earl Grey, whose bergamot edge picks up the citrus and softens the creamy ricotta. If you are planning a slow Sunday, a picnic, or a quiet afternoon with someone you like, this is the recipe to have up your sleeve.

What You Will Need

One 20cm round springform tin is ideal. Anything larger will give you a thinner, drier cake, so resist the urge to spread the batter out.

• 250g full-fat ricotta, drained
• 200g caster sugar
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• Zest of 2 unwaxed lemons, finely grated
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 100g unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 150g plain flour
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• A pinch of fine sea salt
• 1 tablespoon limoncello (optional, but lovely)
• Icing sugar, for dusting

Two notes on ingredients. First, buy ricotta in a tub you can drain — spoon it into a sieve over a bowl and leave it in the fridge for an hour or overnight. Wet ricotta is the single most common reason this cake turns out heavy. Second, use unwaxed lemons and zest them directly over the bowl so the oils go where you want them.

Making the Cake, Step by Step

Heat the oven to 170°C fan or 180°C conventional. Grease the tin, line the base with baking parchment, and give the sides a light dusting of flour.

In a large bowl, beat the drained ricotta with the caster sugar until it loosens and turns glossy — about two minutes with an electric hand whisk, or a bit more elbow grease by hand. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. The mixture will look loose, which is exactly right.

Now stir in the lemon zest, lemon juice, melted butter and the limoncello if you are using it. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together, then fold them in with a large metal spoon. Stop the moment the last streaks of flour disappear. Overworking the batter develops gluten and gives you a rubbery crumb, and there is no way back from that.

Pour into the tin, smooth the top, and bake for 45 to 50 minutes. The cake should be golden at the edges, set in the middle, and a skewer inserted near the centre should come out with a few moist crumbs rather than wet batter. If it is browning too quickly, lay a piece of foil loosely over the top for the last ten minutes.

Leave it in the tin for fifteen minutes — ricotta cakes are delicate while hot — then release the springform and slide it onto a rack. Dust with icing sugar only once it is completely cool, otherwise the sugar dissolves into the surface and disappears.

Getting It Right Every Time

• Do not skip the draining. An hour makes a noticeable difference; overnight makes a better cake still.
• Room temperature eggs incorporate more smoothly and give a finer crumb.
• A light touch with the flour matters more than any other step in the recipe.
• Underbake slightly rather than overbake. The residual heat in the tin finishes the job.
• Store it at room temperature under a dome or upturned bowl for up to three days. Refrigeration dulls the lemon.

It also freezes well, wrapped whole and defrosted overnight. Useful if you are cooking for two and cannot reasonably put away a whole cake before Thursday.

What to Drink With It

Earl Grey is the obvious and correct answer. Brew it properly — loose leaf if you have it, water just off the boil, three to four minutes — and serve it in a cup you actually enjoy holding. The bergamot does the same job as the lemon zest, which is why the pairing feels so natural rather than contrived.

If you would rather open a bottle, look for something light and gently sweet. A glass of Moscato d'Asti, served properly cold, is superb with this cake, its faint fizz and apricot notes lifting the richness of the ricotta. A Sicilian Passito or a small glass of Vin Santo works if you want something more honeyed. And if you have brought a bottle of limoncello home from a trip, a thimble of it poured straight from the freezer is a fine, slightly reckless finish.

Keep the quantities small. This is an afternoon cake, not a dessert to be weighed down with a heavy red.

An Italian Afternoon, Closer to Home

Part of the pleasure of cooking like this is that it borrows the atmosphere of somewhere else. Lemon groves above Amalfi, a terrace in Sorrento, a shaded table in a Sicilian piazza where nobody is in a hurry — the cake carries a little of that with it.

If you are planning a trip together, the lemon coast between Sorrento and Amalfi is worth building an itinerary around, ideally in late spring when the blossom is out and the crowds have not yet arrived. Further north, the lake towns around Garda and Como do a gentler version of the same thing. And if travel is not on the cards this year, make the cake anyway, set two chairs in the garden or by a window, and let an afternoon stretch out properly. That is the whole point of it.