Ricotta Raspberry Pound Cake

This just-sweet-enough pound cake is what I like to a call a walk-by cake. Meaning that if it’s sitting on the counter and you happen to walk by, there is approximately a zero percent chance that you won’t slice off a piece.

It’s the perfect mix of tangy raspberries, creamy ricotta, and sweetness. It’s not quite as easy as a quick bread, because you do want to cream together the butter, sugar, and ricotta, but it’s not exactly difficult.

It would be a great addition to any brunch menu as something you could make well in advance and while you could use other berries, I think raspberries are particularly perfect. They give the pound cake these little rubies of color and pops of flavor. Plus as the pound cake bakes, they sink a bit, but not all the way to the bottom so they end up being evenly distributed throughout the slice.

Whether you’re making it for a party or just to have around for walk-by purposes, this is a keeper.

Ricotta Raspberry Pound Cake

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4 from 2 votes

Author: Nick Evans

Servings: 8 Servings

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour 15 minutes minutes

A casual pound cake that’s jam-packed with fresh raspberries. Using ricotta makes it dense, rich, and slightly tangy. It’s the kind of simple quick bread that’s dangerous to have around, but don’t worry. It won’t last long!

Equipment

• 1 9×5 loaf pan

Ingredients 

• 1 ½ cups cake flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• ¾ cups unsalted butter
• 1 ½ cups whole milk ricotta cheese
• 1 ¼ cups sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons bourbon, optional
• 6 ounces fresh raspberries

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Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly butter a 9×5 loaf pan. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together cake flour, baking powder, and salt.
• With an electric hand mixer or a stand mixer (paddle attachment) cream together butter, ricotta, and sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. Then add eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla and bourbon last. Add dry ingredients and mix until the batter is just combined. Try not to over mix it.
• Pour batter into prepared pan and dot with washed raspberries.
• Bake pound cake for 50-60 minutes until the edges are crackling brown and a tester comes out clean from the very center of the cake. Let the cake cool for 10 minutes once you take it out of the oven. Then turn it out of the pan and let it cool further before slicing and serving.
• Pound cake keeps fine at room temperature in an airtight container for a day or two or store it in the fridge for longer storage.

Notes

Adapted from a Food Network recipe.

Nutrition

Serving: 1slice | Calories: 505kcal | Carbohydrates: 58g | Protein: 11g | Fat: 25g | Saturated Fat: 15g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 7g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 131mg | Sodium: 462mg | Potassium: 134mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 38g | Vitamin A: 834IU | Vitamin C: 6mg | Calcium: 178mg | Iron: 1mg

Course: Breads, Desserts

Cuisine: American

Ricotta Raspberry Pound Cake

This recipe really does benefit from using cake flour. It makes the actual cake really light and airy. You could use all-purpose flour, but you’ll end up with a more brickish cake.

The hardest part of the recipe is creaming together the sugar, ricotta, and butter. It’s not that hard if you have any kind of mixer (hand or stand).

Once the stuff is creamed together, add in the eggs, then the vanilla and the bourbon (optional). If you don’t add the bourbon, check the pound cake a few minutes early as there won’t be as much liquid in the batter, but it should otherwise bake about the same.

Once the dry ingredients are in your batter will be done!

Pour the batter into a lightly buttered or greased 9×5 loaf pan and then add the raspberries. They will sink a bit as the pound cake bakes, but you can just pile them on for now.

Now for the waiting! This pound cake will need anywhere from 50-60 minutes at 350 degrees F. to finish baking. It’s done when the edges are pulling away a bit, it’s cracking on top, and a cake tester comes out clean from the center.

Let the cake cool for 10 minutes or so in the pan and then turn it out. Let it cool more before slicing and serving so it can set up nicely.

This ricotta raspberry pound cake isn’t a particularly fancy thing, but it’s a very snackable and easy-to-serve pound cake that would work for almost any occasion!