Lemon Ricotta Cake With Blueberries

What I like about this cake is that it sounds sort of decadent (to me, anyway), but it was solely inspired by the extremely tight budget we're on simply by using what we had in the house.   Had some leftover ricotta from making lasagna, blueberries in the freezer that I'd picked last summer, and we almost always have lemons in the house.  Just had a sweet craving and decided to do something about it!

While baking, we had some Pandora station on that played this song about forty times, and though I tried to think of something cakey or lemony to go with the recipe, I just kept coming up with this song, so I might as well just get it out of my freaking head!!  Dramarama's "Anything Anything".  -jen

 LEMON RICOTTA CAKE WITH BLUEBERRIES

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup Ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup milk
• zest of 1 large lemon
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• juice of 1 large lemon
• 1 cup blueberries**

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Generously coat a bunt pan with non-stick cooking spray.

Cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until smooth.  Add the egg, 1 at a time.  Then add the Ricotta, milk, lemon zest, and vanilla until combined.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda and salt.  Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture until completely blended.  Then add the lemon juice.  Stir in the blueberries by hand.

Spoon batter into prepared pan and bake for 60 minutes, or until tester comes out clean.  Remove cake and allow to cool completely.

**Note: I found my blueberries all sunk to the bottom of the pan (top of the cake) and think next time I would spoon 2/3 of the batter into the pan, sprinkle the blueberries on top, and spoon the remainder of the batter over it.  I imagine you'd just get a layer of blueberry still, but they'd sink to the middle rather than all the way down.  Just an idea!


LEMON ICING

• 2 cups confectioner's sugar
• zest and juice of 1 large lemon
• 2-3 tablespoons Limoncello (optional)

Whisk to combine sugar and lemon juice.  Use Limoncello liqueur or water in tablespoon increments to thin icing just until it's a consistency that can be drizzled over the cake.  You don't want it too thin, or the cake will just absorb it!