Feral Cooks

Good food shouldn't be tame

You are here: Home / Baked goods / Ricotta Pound Cake: Looked awful, tasted great

Ricotta Pound Cake: Looked awful, tasted great

January 31, 2020 By Karl 2 Comments

I’m a huge fan of pound cake, though I haven’t eaten it in years. In fact, I really like the ubiquitous Sara Lee pound cake, though I’m not sure how it rates with pound-cake cooks and connoisseurs. I just remember liking it the last time I had it—about 15 years ago.

Anyway, I ran across this recipe and thought I’d give it a go.

I followed directions well enough, but I had to have done something wrong. By the way the cake erupted out of the pan when cooking, I suspect that I should have split the recipe into two pans.

But even though it spilled all over the bottom of the oven (thankfully, I had put a sheet pan on the bottom to catch spills), and it looked awful, it tasted great. The top was somewhat firm and crisp, but the inside was really dense, moist and flavorful—but a little brick-like in it’s density. Actually, now that I think about it, you could spread the batter fairly thin across a sheet pan and just cook it until crispy. Then cut it as you would bars.

Though this was good, next time I’ll try an alternative recipe, perhaps one without the ricotta.

What you’ll need:

  • 12T unsalted butter at room-temperature
  • 1.5 cups (372 grams) ricotta cheese
  • 1.5 cups (288 grams) sugar 
  • 3 eggs
  • 2t vanilla extract
  • 1.5 cups (180 grams) all-purpose flour—you can use cake flour, instead
  • 2.5t baking powder
  • 0.5t salt

What to do:

Begin heating your oven to 350F. Grease and flour a 9×5-inch loaf pan, and set it aside.

Cream the butter, ricotta and sugar in a large bowl with an electric beater on medium-speed for a couple of minutes—until relatively smooth. Now add the eggs and vanilla, continuing to mix until everything is thoroughly combined.

Add the flour, baking powder and salt. Stir them in on low speed, then beat at medium speed for about 30 seconds.

Scrape the batter into the greased and floured pan and level it out. Tap the bottom of the pan down on a hard surface to get the air bubbles out.

Bake in the center rack of your 350-degree oven for 45-75 minutes. Yeah, that’s a hell of a time-range, but my cake actually took beyond the 75 minutes. More evidence that I had too much batter in the pan. It’s best to begin checking for doneness at about 45 minutes by inserting a clean toothpick into the center. The cake is done when it comes back out clean. Cover the top with foil if you feel it’s browning too much, but that was actually the highlight of my cake—cooks choice, I guess.

Now for the hardest part: let it cool in the pan while sitting on a cooling rack. When it has cooled for an hour or so, take it out of the pan and slice it to your liking.

Yeah, whoops. Tasted far better than it looked.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print

Related

Filed Under: Baked goods, Dessert, Vegetarian

« Catalonian Pan-Fried Pork Belly
Peanut Rice Noodles with Pork and Collard Greens »

Comments

  1. Leona Konkel says

    February 3, 2020 at 1:53 pm

    Thanks for trying the cake! The crust was my favorite part, too.

    It sucks that it overflowed on you, though. I’ll be sure to note that on my recipe too. I know from our pictures that we used different pans, so I’ll see if there’s a difference between the two that caused the problem.

    My other thought is that I weighed my ingredients, and it may have made a difference if you measured your with measuring scoops instead. Shouldn’t have made that big of a difference in the batter volume, though.

  2. Karl says

    February 9, 2020 at 4:30 pm

    Thanks for commenting! Yeah, it’s hard to say what went wrong. I weighed my ingredients, as well. I agree with you that pan size must have been the problem.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Feral Cooks was developed by Karl and Philip, two expats who were introduced to each other by their wives while living in Japan.  Learn more →

Recent Posts

  • Mustard chicken
  • Thenga Konju Curry (Coconut Prawn Curry)
  • Fried Bacon-wrapped Avocado
  • Tandoori Murgh (grilled chicken skewers)
  • Egg Salad and Bacon Wrap

Categories

  • Appetizers & cheese (189)
  • Baked goods (87)
  • Beef (51)
  • Beverages (10)
  • Chicken (87)
  • Cooking tools (14)
  • Dessert (83)
  • Eggs (31)
  • Gluten Free (271)
  • Indian (34)
  • Indonesian (27)
  • Ingredients (24)
  • Italian (41)
  • Japanese (53)
  • Lamb (6)
  • Low carb/Low GI/Low GL (239)
  • Mexican (7)
  • Misc. (31)
  • Pasta (34)
  • Pizza (19)
  • Pork (128)
  • Pressure cooker (6)
  • Restaurants & Delis (3)
  • Seafood (30)
  • Soup (16)
  • Thai (57)
  • Tofu (13)
  • Uncategorized (11)
  • Vegan (103)
  • Vegetarian (250)
  • Vietnamese (20)

Archives

  • June 2025
  • May 2025
  • April 2025
  • March 2025
  • February 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016

© 2025 - Feral Cooks - All Rights Reserved