This week’s bake came about more out of necessity than anything else. I had a surplus of ricotta and limes, so had to find something delicious & tasty to do with all of it!

Since quarantine life started a few months ago, we’ve relied on Instacart for grocery deliveries. I do miss wandering up and down the aisles, browsing through all of the products in the store wondering what I can do with various ingredients, but I am also loving not having to lug heavy bags of groceries home. City life has never made grocery shopping very easy, and over the years, I’ve learned to limit my grocery list to what I can carry with my own two hands. That’s usually meant only buying small sizes of products and not being able to get more than a couple liquid items.

Enter Instacart. Now I’m piling my grocery list up with five 1L tetra-packs of coconut water, five-pound bags of flour, cartons of 18 eggs, OJ, canned goods… my list can quite literally go on and on and on now because I don’t actually have to carry any of this stuff home! Oh what a time to be alive!

Anyway, as much as I’ve been enjoying this delivery life, I have also come to realize it is not fool proof. For one, I’ve got to do a better job at reading the sizing labels on things. Sure, there are some times that I want the large size (I did mention the five pound bags of flour and cartons of 18 eggs that are often on my list), but there are also other times when even I know the big size isn’t necessary. This is especially true for items that don’t have an extended shelf life and considering there’s only myself and my husband in this household. Example: I didn’t need a 907g tub of ricotta cheese. Admittedly, I also may not have realized how big a 907g tub of ricotta cheese was, and was very surprised at the large tub I pulled out of the grocery bag last week.

I was also very surprised to find a produce bag of 10 limes in my shopping bag. This time I was positive I only ordered ONE lime, and I even went back to check my original order to make sure I didn’t mistakenly order 10 limes. With my pregnancy brain these days, I wouldn’t have been surprised if that had happened! Turns out I did only order the one lime, but we think there may have been a “10 for $3” sale. And for that, I can appreciate my shopper looking out for a good deal!

So with all these limes and all this ricotta cheese, I set out to make a citrus ricotta cake. Citrus of choice here: lime. Probably wouldn’t have been my go-to citrus-cheese pairing in another situation, but it’s what I had and it turned out pretty well! Think key lime pie mixed with a light & fluffy cheesecake.

Found this recipe for an orange ricotta cheesecake from Vintage Kitchen, and just did a straight swap of 3 limes for the 2 oranges that the recipe called for. I also took a few liberties with the proportions based on the remaining ricotta I had left, which yielded a cake about an inch and a half thick in my 9-inch spring form pan. I didn’t mind this thickness — made me feel like I could have bigger pieces and not feel as guilty!

Aside from the limes & ricotta, all other ingredients in this recipe were household staples. Just mix with sugar, some eggs, all-purpose flour, and salt, and you’re on your way to a lovely, summery cake.

You might notice from the picture above that my egg yolks & whites are separated. This recipe also called for a bit of technique, so I was eager to practice the art of separating eggs. I’m not very good at doing this very cleanly as I think it typically requires more patience and concentration than I’m usually willing to use. But, I am happy to report back that I only wasted one egg!

You’ll need the eggs separated so that you can beat the egg whites into medium peaks, then fold that into the ricotta batter mixture. I’ve included a photos below of the egg whites once I got them to medium peaks. One other tip I was able to put to good use: before putting your egg whites into your mixing bowl, wipe the bowl down with lemon juice. This helps to ensure that no remaining oils or residue are in your bowl as that may inhibit the egg whites foaming and forming peaks.

Once you’ve got your medium peaks, fold the egg whites into the ricotta mixture. Then transfer the final mixture to your prepared spring form pan.

Last, pop it into the pre-heated oven, and 40-50 minutes later, you’ve got yourself a lime ricotta cake!

PS: I’ve still got a ton of limes that I don’t know what to do it, so taking suggestions! Comment below with suggestions or if you try this recipe out yourself!