Yes, You Can Make A Classic Ricotta Cake With Boxed Mix
Ricotta cake is made using exactly what the name suggests. It's a sweet, baked dessert that gets a little extra flavor and texture from the addition of some ricotta cheese. While cheese may seem like a slightly strange addition to your baked goods, adding ricotta to your brownies and cakes can actually provide some extra moisture and richness. The flavor of the cheese is pretty mild, with minor notes of sweetness and tanginess. As for the texture, it's smooth and creamy.
While you can always make your cakes homemade, using a box of cake mix from the store could make things a little easier. Adding some ricotta to the mix can make a quick and easy cake. If you add some extra moisture into the mix with the ricotta, though, your instincts might tell you to add some extra flour to account for the added moisture. To counteract the moisture, you'll want to add a few other ingredients. In fact, you won't want to follow the box's instructions exactly.
How to make a boxed mix work for the cake
While the box of cake mix will serve as the base for the recipe, there are a few other additions required to make the ricotta work. An 18.25-ounce box of cake mix will blend well with about 2 pounds of ricotta, with the help of some sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract for added flavor. This ratio will allow the ricotta to play a starring role in the flavor of the cake without being overwhelming.
However, box cake mixes you buy at the store now are currently made a few ounces less than 18.25 ounces. To account for the difference, you can opt to upsize the mix and add in the right ratio of some more dry ingredients, like flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Alternatively, you can omit a little bit of the ricotta to account for the smaller quantities of dry ingredients. You'll want to add your cake mix in last. After the ricotta, eggs, sugar, and vanilla have been mixed together until smooth, the cake mix can be poured into the bowl, mixed together with the other ingredients, and the batter can be baked.
Upgrade your ricotta cake's flavors even more
There are a few ways you can upgrade the flavor of your ricotta cake even more. While a vanilla, yellow, or white cake mix can provide a neutral sweet flavor for the dessert, ricotta cheese also pairs well with fruity flavors. The simplest way to do this is to top off the cake with some sliced fruit. But you can also add some fruity flavor to the dessert by swapping what kind of cake mix you use.
If you're looking for an easy way to add a zing of citrus to the cake, try grabbing a box of orange or lemon cake mix to swap in. You could always squeeze out a little bit of juice or zest into the batter as well, but a box of cake mix could eliminate that extra step. Once your ricotta cake has baked up, you can top it off with some powdered sugar to add a little extra sweetness. Or, if you opt to add some frosting on top, you can also whip ricotta until it's silky smooth, then add in a little honey or lemon juice for extra flavor.