My parents used to love this cake and would always have a slice with their coffee when out shopping. I adapted this at first purely for nostalgic reasons, bringing back memories, but then I started thinking about doing a menu for a traditional British afternoon high tea, something my parents loved, and this seemed to be an ideal cake to include.

In recent years it has become popular again to go for afternoon tea, thanks in the main to The Great British Bake-Off, and I began to think “Why should us Low Carbers miss out on this”. Delicate finger sandwiches would be out so going to have to find alternatives. Many of my friends/family don’t believe that I could make a high tea that would be as tasty as a regular one so the challenge is on. So watch this space for the Great British High Tea Menu with recipes is coming soon.

This recipe is adapted from an Italian recipe.

 

 

Low Carb Italian Ricotta Cake

Recipe PDF

12 servings

 

Ingredients

•240 g ground almonds (2 cups)

•250 g ricotta cheese (1 cup) at room temperature

•85g powdered or finely granulated sweetener of your choice. (1/2 cup + 1 tbsp)

•4 eggs, separated

•Zest from 1 lemon

 

•1 tbsp lemon juice

•1 teaspoon vanilla extract or almond extract or both

 

•1/4 tsp salt

•60g almond flakes (1/2 – 3/4 cup)

 

Instructions

•Preheat oven to 160c/320f

•Line the 20 cm loose bottom cake tin with baking paper

•Using electric mixer beat egg yolks with sweetener, add ricotta, vanilla extract, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt and ground almond and briefly mix to combine the mixture.

•Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks. Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into ricotta mixture to loosen  and then fold in the rest.

•Spread the mixture in the tin, sprinkle the almond flakes on the top and bake for about 50 minutes.

•Cool it down and enjoy. Dust with a little extra powdered sweetener before serving if desired

 

 

Nutrition

1 slice (1/12 of the cake)

Calories 317

Carbohydrates 5.6g (not net)