Berry Ricotta Cake

Blackberry Ricotta Cake with homemade raspberry ice cream. The dessert is sometimes called Berry Ricotta Cake or Raspberry Ricotta Cake, depending on the berries used.

The Gladness of Having All the Ingredients

Once when I decided to make this Berry Ricotta Cake, I was happy to see that I had all the ingredients. I even had the suggested raspberries—though I’ve since used blackberries more frequently. Then I suddenly realized my eggs had been lingering in the refrig too long. I checked the carton and found the “use by date” had passed.

The Egg Test

So I performed the egg check test. I plopped an egg into a bowl of water. (Maybe “plop” isn’t the right word; I gently submerged it.) According to the water test, if the egg sinks, it’s good; if it floats you’d better replace it. Hmm . . . or is it the other way around? Nope, sink is good; float is bad. (Just the opposite of people in water.)

I felt like the old, ship’s captain, who always had to check his notes to make sure which side of the vessel was port and which starboard. (FYI, port is left.)

Whew!

My eggs passed the water trial and I quickly cracked them into my mixing bowl before they aged any further.

Happily, Martha and Paul recently made the cake, (shown here) using blackberries, that I got from the fields of Eckert’s Orchard in Belleville. Topping it with their homemade ice cream made the cake the pièce de résistance. It was a dessert as fresh and welcoming as a summer breeze.