This chocolate and ricotta cake is a soft and exquisite dessert that I highly recommend to all chocolate lovers because after tasting it, they won’t be able to do without it, and every other chocolate cake won’t taste the same 😄. What makes this chocolate and ricotta cake so special is its soft, light batter that literally melts in your mouth and remains slightly moist, not to mention its intense dark chocolate flavor, truly surprising considering that it’s made with cocoa powder and not melted chocolate. The recipe for the melt-in-your-mouth chocolate and ricotta cake is easy and quick, and if you follow the quantities and procedure to the letter, success is guaranteed. Thanks to its unique texture, melting and moist at just the right point, the chocolate and ricotta cake is an ideal dessert to serve not only for breakfast but also as a dessert after a meal, perhaps accompanied by a dollop of whipped cream or simply dusted with powdered sugar.
(Original article: November 2013)
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- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Very cheap
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 8 servings
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients for a 20 cm (8-inch) diameter chocolate and ricotta cake
For the gluten-free version, I replaced the 80 g of all-purpose flour with the same weight of fine rice flour. If you are celiac, remember that the following ingredients must have the label “gluten-free”: rice flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, powdered sugar.
- 1 cup Ricotta
- 1 cup Sugar
- 3 Eggs (medium)
- 2/3 cup All-purpose flour (or fine rice flour)
- 3/4 cup Unsweetened cocoa powder
- 7 tbsp Butter
- 1 tbsp Baking powder (one sachet)
- as needed Powdered sugar (for garnishing)
Tools
- Electric mixers
- 1 Saucepan
- 1 Cake Pan 8 inches in diameter
- Parchment paper
- 1 Spatula
How to Prepare the Melt-in-Your-Mouth Chocolate and Ricotta Cake
For the English version of this recipe click here!
To prepare the melt-in-your-mouth chocolate and ricotta cake, start by melting the butter in the microwave or in a saucepan over very low heat. Let it cool. Place the ricotta with the sugar in a bowl (1); beat with electric mixers until you obtain a smooth and creamy mixture (2). Add the eggs (3) and continue to beat for a couple of minutes.
When the mixture is fluffy and frothy (4), add the cocoa powder (5) and beat again until well blended. At this point, also add the flour and baking powder and pour in the now-cool melted butter (6).
Beat again with the electric mixers for a couple of minutes: in the end, you’ll get a rather firm mixture (7). Line an 8-inch diameter cake pan with parchment paper and spread the batter evenly, smoothing it with the back of a spoon (8). If you have a cake pan of different dimensions, this article will help you adjust the doses correctly. Bake the chocolate and ricotta cake in a preheated oven at 356°F (static) for 30 minutes; then let it rest inside the turned-off oven with the door slightly open for 5 minutes. Take it out of the oven (9) and let it cool completely before removing it from the mold.
Serve the chocolate and ricotta cake as it is, or dusted with powdered sugar, or garnished with whipped cream.
Notes
Storage
The chocolate and ricotta cake stays beautifully soft for about 3 days under a glass dome at room temperature.
Baking Tips
As seen, getting the baking right is crucial for obtaining a dessert with the right consistency, cooked but still slightly moist inside. In this case, if at the end of baking, before turning off the oven, you prick the cake with a toothpick, the dough should be firm and cooked, but the toothpick should not be perfectly dry.
These doses and baking times are designed for a chocolate and ricotta cake with a diameter of 8 inches. If you use a slightly larger cake pan, of 8.5 inches in diameter, with the same doses you’ll get a lower cake but still excellent: remember, however, to decrease the baking time by 5 minutes. For pans of other dimensions, it’s advisable to adjust the doses as indicated here.
Variants
If you like the flavor of ricotta, you can make this chocolate cake with sheep’s ricotta, but if you think you might not like the aftertaste it gives to the dessert, use cow’s milk ricotta, which is milder.
Soft cakes with ricotta batter have a truly unique consistency and lend themselves to countless variations: I’ve made several types, but I particularly recommend the lemon one, the walnut one, and the strawberry one.
Here you will also find my best ricotta desserts!
Can I replace the butter with oil?
Yes, in this case, instead of 7 tbsp of butter, you will need to use 1/3 cup of sunflower oil.
What can I use instead of ricotta?
Ricotta is the best cheese for this type of dessert, and if you use cow’s milk ricotta, its flavor will be almost imperceptible because it is overpowered by the cocoa. However, if you don’t want to use it, you can replace it with the same weight of mascarpone.
