Google to the rescue! Turns out you can! Though none of them seemed to tickle my fancy, so I spent way too long searching for recipes. Ina Garten's Lemon Yogurt Cake looked just the thing! Only I decided to use Ricotta instead of yogurt and Olive Oil instead of vegetable oil. I got into using Olive Oil in cakes rather than vegetable oil after spending the summer with Mr. Grad's parents in Italy, yes Mr. Grad is Italian! So the whole Lemon, Ricotta, Olive Oil is also a delightfully Italian combination. They aren't big on butter or vegetable oil in Italy so I had to get creative! Carrot cake made with olive oil? delicious! Lemon Olive Oil cake? Awesome! And not just olive oil but Extra Virgin Olive Oil, which I know many baker's balk at for its strong flavour, but done right it really adds another depth to the cake.
So Ina's recipe, I took a look at it and changed it. 200g of sugar is way too much, so I reduced it down to 150g for the first try. Ricotta instead of Yogurt and EVOO instead of Vegetable oil. I also added in a tsp of Lemon Extract to boost the flavour a bit, after all the Ricotta and EVOO don't need to overpower the Lemon. The result was such a moist and tangy cake, really really delicious! Mr Grad called it 'a taste of home' good praise indeed me thinks!
For the second cake (hey I did have TWO tubs!) I chucked in a handful of blueberries too because blueberries and lemon are just a divine combination. I also reduced the sugar further to 100g as the blueberries add their own sweetness. Too much sweetness can really kill a cake.
