Ricotta and Olive Oil Orange Cake

I have a confession to make. I have a guilty pleasure. It’s not something I’d readily admit just like that. I sometimes watch what they call the most popular soap on daytime TV. And I’m not even a TV person. I can safely and honestly say that I barely watch any TV. (I’m getting all defensive already!) But it is something about this soap that I can just blank out to. It is so relaxing, watching people behave in the most ludicrous fashion. 🙂 And then there are the days when I cannot bring myself to watch it or can’t watch it for whatever reason, but when I eventually come back to it, I usually haven’t missed a thing! I love that. It’s like graphic design. I love designing books that are text heavy or only text. Any graphic designer will tell you that they love doing those sort of projects between the heavy design work. It is hugely cathartic. To just give your brain a rest. And God knows mine needs a rest. So this soap is my go to place for a breather…

And when you watch TV however silly the show may be you also do sometimes learn a few things. It is the ‘after the soap’ show that really tickled my brain. It is a very funny cooking show called “Bitchin Kitchen”. It’s this irreverent, funny, tattoo sporting girl, tying in all sorts of improbable things to her cooking. I like that. I usually never really get to watch the whole show but I did a few weeks ago. This is her recipe and its delicious. It’s a simple recipe and the cake is sooo light. The molten pieces of chocolate that sit in the middle of this cake are the best!

Ricotta and Olive Oil Orange Cake

 

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Author: boxofspice

Ingredients

• ¼ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• 2½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1½ cups ricotta cheese, room temperature
• 1¼ cups cane sugar
• ⅓ cup Italian extra-virgin olive oil
• zest of 1 orange
• 1 vanilla bean, scraped
• 3 eggs
• 100 grams orange flavored chocolate bar, chopped

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F/175°C. Butter a cake tin and sprinkle with flour.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Whip together the butter, the ricotta, sugar, olive oil, orange zest and vanilla bean seeds in a separate bowl, with an electric mixer on low speed. Add the dry ingredients and continue to beat until light and airy, about 3 minutes. Drop the eggs into the mix, one at a time. Drop in the chocolate bits and stir with a spatula until they are evenly spread throughout the batter.
3. Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for 45 to 50 minutes or till a toothpick comes out clean.
4. Allow the cake to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes, and then transfer to a wire rack to cool fully.

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