Today we are making a vegan lemony ricotta cake topped with fresh figs and a super easy cashew vanilla frosting. What I love about this cake is that it’s super moist and has a slight almond flavor from our almond ricotta. This paired with fresh figs is absolute fall perfection! I hope you love this cake as much as I and my family did because this cake was finished in less than a day.

This cake requires a little prep before hand. Preferably you make the almond ricotta the day before so you are all set and ready to make and bake the cake. You can find the recipe for my almond ricotta here.

Since this cake is free from any eggs, butter or milk there are a few key ingredients that you have to use to get this cake to rise to perfection. Baking soda is very important here, this helps to give the volume it needs, you will see how much the cake inflates once it’s int he oven due to the baking soda, it’s insane! Use a dessert flour that already has baking powder in it. Don’t overmix the cake batter. And vegan cakes need a very long time in the oven. This one on the picture needed 60 minutes! Because of the long baking time make sure you cover the batter with tin foil or a heat resistant pan lid, otherwise the top will be burnt.

What screams fall more than figs, right? And I think they make the perfect companion to this ricotta cake. One they look absolutely baeutiful, two they pair so well with the sweetness of the cake, I used not too ripe figs so they weren’t overly sweet. the cake is already very sweet so keep that in mind when buying your figs. And three they are just all around amazing haha! But ofcourse if you don’t like figs feel free to use another fruit of choice as this ricotta cake literally goes with everything.

Recipe

This cake serves 8 people

Ingredients

300 gr of almond milk ricotta, recipe here (the recipe should make enough)
250 gr of self raising flour for cakes
250 gr of sugar
7 gr of baking soda
125 gr of melted vegan butter
1 organic lemon, zest of
100 ml of vegan milk, unsweetened
1 tsp of vanilla extract
5 figs, sliced
pistachio, optional

Frosting

200 gr of cashews
100 ml of milk
4 tbs of powdered sugar
1 tsp vanille extract

How to

Preheat your oven to 180°C.
Whisk the ricotta until creamy.
Add the melted butter, lemonzest, vanille extract, milk en sugar in a seprate bowl and whisk.
Add the ricotta to the butter mix and whisk well.
Add the flour and baking soda and with a spatula carefully incorporate the flour into the ricotta mixture. Don’t over mix to keep as much air in the batter as possible.
Transfer the batter to a cake mold (I used one with 20cm dia.) that you pre-buttered and dusted with flour to prevent sticking.
Cover with foil, make sure there is enough room on top for the cake to rise without touching the foil.
Bake the cake for 50 to 60 minutes. Check once it’s 50 minutes in the oven with a skewer, if it comes out clean the cake is ready.
Leave to cool almost completely.
Before serving make the frosting by placing all of the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.
Cover the top of the cake with the frosting and finish with the fresh figs. Finish of with a sprinkle of chopped pistachios if you like.
Buon appetito!