Education Implementation!

First there were the berries...

And now for the recipe!  I found this sublime cake at Italian Food Forever. I didn't have everything the recipe called for so I made some modifications.  Yummy, yummy modifications.  I was looking for a recipe to use up some left-over ricotta cheese.  A lot of these recipes call for tons of butter and eggs, but this one was just right in that department.  I didn't have any lemon or lemon extract so I made some substitutions.  Here is my version.

Ricotta Cake
3/4 Cup Butter, softened
3/4 Cup Sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 Large Eggs, separated
1 Cup Ricotta Cheese
1/2 Cup Plus 2 Tablespoons All-purpose Flour
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
Dash of salt
1 pint mixture of blackberries and black raspberries

Preheat oven to 325°. Grease and flour an 8 inch spring-form pan.  Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the extracts, egg yolks and ricotta cheese and beat until smooth.  Add the flour, baking powder and salt to the butter mixture and beat until just combined.  Wash your beaters well (if there is any fat from the butter left on them, the whites won't form properly), then beat the egg whites in a separate bowl until stiff (you'll know it's stiff when you can hold the bowl upside down without it pouring out).  Gently fold the egg whites into the batter.   Pour the batter into your prepared pan.  Float the berries on top of the batter (they may sink to the bottom during baking depending on the type).

Bake 30-45 minutes, or until a cake tester stuck into the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool as long as you can stand it before removing form.  Room temp is best, but it's great warm, too!

Variations:

• If you can't get your hands on wild berries, regular raspberries from the market are fabulous, too.
• If you have it, 1 Tbs of lemon zest (about 1 lemon worth) is great in this.

Review:
This is my kind of recipe.  It's a snap to throw together, bakes quickly, everybody loves it.  It's fancy enough to make for a nice occasion yet simple enough to bring to a pot luck.  It's the least fussy cake I've ever made.  It's relatively low in calories, too!  And oh yeah, you're gunna love it!