As soon as I woke up this morning, I remembered I had to set the clocks forward due to the damned Daylight Savings Time. A brief look through the window revealed anything but a promising day: rain, rain, rain.

Rainy days are perfect for baking. I had some ricotta in the fridge that was desperately calling for being used in a cake. I’ve never made a ricotta cake before, so I wanted to get an idea about it before putting my hands on pricey but wonderful fresh ricotta, purchased a few days ago. After “googling” a bit, I found a recipe over at BBC Good Food that served me as an inspiration. I reduced the amount of fat by replacing half of it by plain yogurt – a trick that always works great with cakes. Furthermore, I replaced some flour with ground almonds, I added some orange zest to pair with the lemon, and completed the taste with my favorite liquor, Cointreau. The result was a heavenly light cake, a kind you want to spoil your dearest with.

Ingredients:
3 eggs, separated
75g butter, melted
80g blond cane sugar
250g ricotta, drained
40g ground almonds
85g flour (I used white farro flour, you can substitute it with all-purpose flour)
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of baking soda
peel of 2 oranges and 1 lemon (non-treated fruit)
80g plain yogurt
50ml Cointreau
butter for the mold
confectioner’s sugar for decoration

1. You will need an 18cm spring-form pan. Butter it and line with baking paper. Set aside.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until forming soft peaks and keep them in the fridge until using.
3. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar and butter, add yogurt and ricotta, lightly mashed with a fork, grated orange and lemon peel, then ground almonds and flour, previously mixed with baking powder and soda.
4. Now pour in the Cointreau and finally, fold the egg whites into the batter very gently.
5. Spoon the ricotta batter into the prepared pan and bake in the oven (180C) for about 40′, the latter depending fairly on your oven. If you notice the surface of the cake starts browning to quickly, simply cover the pan with some aluminum foil (like I did).
6. Once the cake is baked (check with the toothpick), take it out of the oven and let cool completely in the pan. And once cooled, turn it over on a kitchen rack. Using a paper with a nice pattern, sprinkle the cake with confectioner’s sugar, and serve. It makes a perfect cake to go along with a cup of coffee or tea.

This must be one of the best cakes I’ve ever made. Its best quality is the moist and light texture, I also like that it’s not overly sweet (so, if you’re the one with a sweet tooth, you might want to add more sugar to the batter). If you’re making this cake for children, replace the orange liquor with the same amount of orange juice.