This lemon ricotta fig cake is ultra moist, super tangy, and chock full of my most favorite early fall staple: figs.
It’s finally September, the official (to me, anyway), beginning of fall! Fall brings with it about a million things I love, and at the top of that list is the abundance of fresh figs on my backyard fig tree. I’ve talked about my fig tree before, in my fig bars recipe, and the joy that it brings me. Not only because I love figs, but because it always reminds me of my grandfather, who took so much joy in having one in the backyard. I live in my grandparents house, and I love picking fruit off the same tree that they did over twenty years ago. Of course while it’s the same tree, it’s a lot bigger than it was back then, meaning a lot more figs. So I’m coming up with tons of recipes to use figs, and today I’m sharing this one for lemon ricotta fig cake.
This lemon ricotta fig cake is the epitome of everything that I love in a cake. It’s sweet, but not too sweet. That sweetness is rounded out by tons of lemon juice, zest, and a few thinly sliced lemons on top for good measure. It’s buttery and rich, but the fresh figs cut through that richness with that unmistakable fresh-fruit-brightness. And it’s just about the moistest cake I’ve ever made, thanks in part to the ricotta, which also lends a little bit of tang. And it’s actually a pretty easy recipe to make, and the batter comes together in just about ten minutes.
BUMPING UP THE LEMON
This lemon ricotta fig cake recipe is actually modeled off of one of my favorite food network chefs, Ina Garten’s, recipes. And apparently, it’s one of her favorite recipes from her cookbooks. As soon as I came across it I knew I had to make it. I’m always looking for ways to use my abundance of backyard figs, and the combination of figs and ricotta sounded absolutely too good to resist.
But of course, I had to put my own spin on this recipe. So while I followed Ina’s measurements almost exactly, I just about quadrupled the amount of lemon in this recipe, to give the cake the perfect sour zing to offset all the sweetness from the figs. As delicious as a simple ricotta and fig cake would be, it’s undoubtedly better when its super lemony. I also put way more figs in this recipe than it called for, both because I really love figs and because I have so many of them. And that makes this cake the perfect way to celebrate the humble fig, my most favorite part of early fall.
Lemon Ricotta Fig Cake
Equipment
- 9 inch cake pan
Ingredients
- 10 tbsp butter (at room temperature)
- 1 cup white sugar
- 3 large eggs (at room temperature)
- 1 cup whole milk ricotta (at room temperature)
- 2 tbsp sour cream
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/4 cup flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp grated lemon zest
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 4-6 slices thinly sliced lemon
- 12-16 figs, stems removed and quartered
- 2 tbsp honey
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375. Butter and flour the cake pan.
- Using an electric mixer or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar until fluffy, 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until combined. Then add the ricotta, sour cream, vanilla, lemon juice and lemon zest. Beat until combined (it's ok if the batter looks lumpy, this is from the ricotta)
- In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt. With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth out the top. Then arrange the lemon slices and fig quarters on the top (it's ok if they overlap or sink into the batter a bit). Drizzle the lemons and figs with the honey.
- Bake 45-55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean.
- Allow the cake to cool in the pan on a baking rack 15-20 minutes. Use a butter knife around the edges of the cake to loosen it from the pan, then carefully flip it out onto a cutting board, and then flip it back right-side up onto a serving plate.
Can you freeze this cake? Can I substitute orange juice instead of lemon?
Yes, you can definitely do both of those things! The orange juice will be much sweeter than lemon, so the cake won’t be quite as tangy, but still delicious!