Mix Berries Almond Ricotta Cake

By SweetnSpicyLiving on July 11, 2021 • ( 2 Comments )

This soft, moist cake is loaded with Summer fresh Berries. Simple and yet elegant looking, but most of all, so easy to make. A great quick cake you can bring with you in gathering or even for serving at home. Make room for the Mix Berries Almond Ricotta Cake on your table, you won’t regret it.

This Mix Berries Almond Ricotta Cake was inspired by my Ricotta Cake. I fell in love with it, the texture, the taste and the simplicity of the process. For me, a recipe like this is not only worth keeping, but worth repeating over and over again. This is one of my go to cake for Summer where I can use fresh fruits in season. Although I used this quite a lot with Berries, you can also use other fruits like Peach, Apricot, Mango, Cherry and even Apple. It is a very simple cake batter that you can turn into so many variations by just changing the fruits.

This cake is so soft and moist, thanks to ricotta cheese, yogurt and oil. A very powerful mix of ingredients that will surely give you a moist and soft cake.

Ingredients for Almond Ricotta Loaf Cake

Butter – Provides creamy taste
Sugar – Provides sweetness
Egg – Binds the ingredients together and give structure to the cake
Ricotta Cheese – Provides a creamy taste and adds moisture to the cake
Yogurt – Yogurt is known for adding moisture to the bake products
Oil – Makes the cake soft and moist even when stored in the refrigerator
All-Purpose Flour – This is the base dry ingredient that will give structure to the cake. I wouldn’t recommend using cake flour as the it could get too crumbly.
Almond Flour – Adds a nice almond flavor and nice texture to the cake. Makes the crumb slightly loose as crumbly, like a cake.
Baking Soda & Baking Powder – Acts as leavening agent to make the cake rise
Milk – Gives a lighter crumb to the cake
Lemon Zest – For flavoring, this adds freshness to the cake
Salt – Adds taste, balances sweetness
Mix fresh or frozen Berries

How to Mix Berries Almond Ricotta Cake

Here’s a quick summary of how to make this loaf cake, the details are just below.

Cream butter, Sugar and Egg: All ingredients must be in room temperature so that it creams better. Take egg and butter out of the refrigerator at least 30 minutes before using it. The butter should be soft but not oily.
Wet ingredients: Add ricotta cheese and yogurt – room temperature as well
Dry Ingredients: Mix all dry ingredients plus lemon zest (if using)
Wet ingredients + Dry Ingredients: Add dry ingredients with wet ingredients alternately with milk and oil.
Pour, Bake and let cool completely
Serve

Tips for Soft and Moist Mix Berries Almond Ricotta Cake

Room Temperature Ingredients: this rule is basic when making cake, cookies, cupcakes, bars and other baked products that requires creaming or intense mixing to make the consistency light and fluffy. Room temperature ingredients Mix easily together. Leave the ingredients at the counter top at least 30 minutes to 1 hour before using it. Time could vary depending on the temperature and humidity in you kitchen. For butter, when you press it with you thumb it should create an indention without any extra push effort.
Creaming Butter, Sugar and Egg: this process creates air into the mixture thus making the loaf lighter and less dense.
Combination of Butter + Oil: Although using pure butter is more delicious, using both provides a balance of nice taste and good moisture in the cake. The oil specially makes the cake moist and the butter provides creamy taste. Using all butter could dry out the cake easily specially when store in the refrigerator because butter hardens. Using all oil coil make the loaf to wet and greasy, so a combination of both is the way to go.
Sifted Flour: In step 4, I mentioned to sift the flour while alternating the addition of milk into the batter. Sifting the flour avoids lumps, helps produce a lighter cake and lessen the time to mix the batter. The longer the batter is mixed, the tougher the cake will be.

Ok, it’s now time to put all what we’ve learned into action. Let’s get started!

Ingredients:

1/4 cup Unsalted Butter – room temperature (soft but not melted)
1/4 cup plain Greek Yogurt or Sour Cream
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp Granulated Sugar
1/2 cup Ricotta Cheese – completely drained, excess water removed (– room temperature)
1 Egg – room temperature
3/4 cup All Purpose Flour
1/4 cup Almond Flour
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
Lemon Zest of 1 Lemon
1/4 cup Milk – room temperature (Warm in microwave for 15 seconds if coming form refrigerator)
3 tablespoon Flavorless Oil
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 cup fresh or frozen Mix Berries

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350F and position a rack in the center. Grease a 8-inch loaf pan with nonstick and line with parchment paper. Make 1-inch allowance overhang for the parchment paper so that it is easier to out the cake. You can also use round pan but you need to adjust the baking time depending on the pan size.
Mix Dry Ingredients: In a medium bowl, sift all purpose flour, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, lemon zest and salt. Set aside.
Mix Wet Ingredients: In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar on medium speed until smooth and light, about 5 minutes. The texture should look somewhat like a thick white whipped cream. Reduce speed to low and add ricotta cheese and yogurt. Continue mixing for another 1 minute or until just combined. Beat in egg, it may curdle a little bit at this point, don’t worry about it, it will adjust once you add the dry ingredients. Add vanilla extract and mix until just distributed.
Add dry ingredients and milk+oil mixture alternately: On low speed, sift 1/2 of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients mixture. Mix for about 15 seconds then add 1/2 of the milk and oil mixture, continue mixing for another 15 seconds. Scrape down sides of the bowl, sift the remaining half of the dry ingredients, mix for another 15 seconds then add remaining milk and oil mixture and mix for another 15 seconds or just until everything is combined. Do not over mix as it could toughen the cake.
- Sifting the flour while adding it to the butter mixture will help the cake have a lighter texture and will also make the mixing easier thus avoiding over mixing. So don’t just dump the dry ingredients all at once.
Add Berries: Manually mix in the berries into the cake batter
- If using frozen Berries, do NOT thaw. Use as is in frozen state
Transfer Cake Batter into prepared pan and use a spatula to smooth the top. Move the pan back and fort and side ways. Top more berries on top (optional).
Bake cake for 35-40 minutes or until the cake springs back lightly when touched, the sides have begun to pull away from the pan, and a cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean
Cool: Allow the cake to cool completely in pan
Dust with confectioners sugar on top or drizzle/cover with sugar glaze, or a a doll-up of whipped cream