I love it when I come home and there’s a fresh dessert waiting for me!

While I usually get (take?!?) all the credit for being the baker in the family, Victor ain’t no slouch – and his repertoire keeps growing!

His latest creation is a Lemon Pound Cake with Ricotta and Blackberries. It’s a spin on a BH&G orange pound cake recipe from many moons ago. Some of the best recipes in the world come out of those old cookbooks and they’re really easy to play with and tweak.

Lemon Blackberry Pound Cake

cake

  • 1 3/4 cups flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3/4 cup ricotta cheese
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 4 eggs
  • juice and zest of 1 lemon
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 pint blackberries

lemon glaze

  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • 1/8 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 325º F and butter and flour a 9×5 loaf pan.

Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together ricotta, lemon juice, vanilla, and zest.

Cream butter and sugar until very light and fluffy – about 5 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time – about 20 seconds per egg.

Add the dry ingredients in three additions and the ricotta in two beginning and ending with the dry. Do not over-mix.

Pour half the batter into the prepared pan. Dot with half the blackberries, pushing them in a bit. Pour the rest of the batter in the pan and poke the remaining blackberries into the batter, making sure they are covered.

Bake for 55-65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool.

Make glaze.

Mix lemon juice and sugar in a small saucepan and cook until slightly thickened. Cool.

Poke cake with skewer and then brush glaze over cake until it’s completely absorbed. Top with powdered sugar, slice, and enjoy!

It came out really lemony and the blackberries were a perfect fit.

It’s so nice to have a man around the house…