Labor Day is still summer!!

Since today is the officially start of September, I thought it was high time I posted for the August recipe (especially considering I'm the one who posted the darn thing in the first place!). In reading over everyone else's posts, it seems that my experience was similar to most - I had to let the cake cook a bit longer than the hour called for by the recipe, and found that the solo cake was somewhat lacking in sweetness and flavor (and mind you, I am not a fan of uber-sweet desserts so this is saying something).

So here's how it all happened...

Ingredients pre-cake batter

Mixing the ricotta...

Pouring the batter into the springform...

Baking! My oven is on the smaller side and becomes hot very quickly, so I always need to set it about 25 degrees F lower than what is called for

Out of the oven and cooling

After allowing the cake to cool in form for awhile, I chilled it in the fridge overnight. The following evening, this is what it looked like when I took it out of the tin.

Voila! All done

Not sure when I plan to make this again, but a couple of thoughts for when I do...

• The flavor of the ricotta is so light, it really needs something more to heighten the taste. Maybe more lemon and cinnamon, and perhaps I'd add more in the way of spices - like cloves or nutmeg.
• Another way to compensate for the light "blank canvas" nature of the cake is to go for more flavor and interest in the topping (which many have already touched upon). My mom also made the cake, and having had vast quantities of blueberries she recently picked at a berry farm, she decided to go with a sort of blueberry compote as a topping. As for me, I am huge fan of honey - and so I simply drizzled a good bit over the piece I'd eat.
  
• My little sister is a pastry chef at a resort in Wisconsin and mentioned to me that they recently made a ricotta cheesecake that actually uses a blend of cream cheese and ricotta (granted, I think they also import fancy buffalo's milk ricotta... which I have no intentions of doing). Could be a fun experiment though. And who doesn't love more cheese.
  

So there you have it. Happy Labor Day, everyone!