Little Raspberry Ricotta Cakes
There’s nothing more fun than throwing a dinner party with individually-sized desserts for everyone to enjoy. These little raspberry ricotta cakes with a lime glaze are the perfect treat for a summer soiree with a few of your best girlfriends!
Movie night! Book club! Birthday celebrations! Happy hour!
Whatever the excuse, there’s always a good reason to find time to gather with a great group of girlfriends. It’s important. And necessary.
For a few years I was part of a book club group that met just about every month at a girlfriend’s house. It was fabulous! We were all good about actually reading the month’s book (at least most of the time – unless we picked a real snoozer). Yes, really! Our book club wasn’t just a front for wine drinking, despite many side-eye glances and smirks from suspecting spouses.
We’d chat about the story, what we loved, what we hated, what surprised us…the non-reader(s) fully aware that spoilers were imminent – a risk knowingly accepted by not coming prepared.
And while it was nice to have grown-up conversations about plots, twists, themes, and character flaws with a wonderful group of women, the best part of book club was the food, and all the laughter that came from sharing dinner (and wine) around a table together.
Breaking bread, you know, figuratively. Well, sometimes literally – if lasagna was on the menu.
Dinners were simple, potluck style, with one of us offering to make the main dish, and then the rest filling in with sides, bread, and wine.
AND DESSERT. Oh, dessert.
We had cheesecakes! Brownies! Cookies! Cupcakes!
And, how about this: individual little raspberry ricotta cakes, drizzled with a sweet-tart lime glaze and a dusting of powdered sugar!
What’s better than that? Pretty much nothing. (Except maybe two little raspberry ricotta cakes.)
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 3 large eggs
- 1 1/4 cups ricotta
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup salted butter, melted
- 1 cup fresh raspberries
- FOR THE LIME GLAZE:
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 2 limes, zested and juiced
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Coat the insides of 6 mini loaf pans with non-stick cooking spray, and then set them aside on a large baking sheet.
- Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, and sea salt together in a medium mixing bowl.
- Whisk the eggs, ricotta and vanilla together in a large mixing bowl.
- Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until they are just incorporated, and you can no longer see the flour. Pour in the melted butter, and continue to gently stir until it’s mixed in.
- Reserve 12 raspberries, and fold the rest into the batter.
- Scrape the batter evenly into each of the 6 prepared mini loaf pans (I used an ice cream scoop for this), dot them with two reserved raspberries each, and then bake the cakes for 30-35 minutes, or until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Set the little raspberry ricotta cakes on a rack to begin cooling. Meanwhile, make the lime glaze.
- Whisk the powdered sugar and lime zest and juice together in a small bowl. Poke 4-5 small holes in the tops of each cake, and then pour the lime glaze over top.
- Let the cakes cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.
Nicole Johnson
This looks amazing!!!
Liza Hawkins
Thank you! It was delicious. 🙂