Ricotta coconut & chocolate Galaxy cake

This weekend I'm going to a punk rock festival in Italy, Punk Rock Raduno!! It's the first big event I'm going to in a long time and this is pretty exciting. Plus, on Saturday they are going to send the first record of the Ramones into space 😱😱

I don't really know how this is going to work but it made me think about this cake that I baked a while ago: doesn't it look like a Galaxy? 🧐

In my opinion, it does! It is composed of 2 thin layers of sponge cake enclosing a creamy layer of ricotta, coconut and dark chocolate chips 🤩 Then I made a spiral on the surface with cocoa star cereal (Stelline di cereali al cacao) and coconut flour. It's a super fresh and creamy cake that will literally bring you to space! Try it, you can find the recipe in the section below this picture!!

INGREDIENTS:

• 65g all purpose flour

• 1 egg (room temperature)

• 75g granulated sugar

• 25g vegetable oil

• 30g milk

• 8g baking powder

• Stelline di cereali al cacao

--- FILLING ---

• 1 small egg

• 200g ricotta cheese*

• 20g coconut flour*

• 40g granulated sugar

• 50g dark chocolate chips*

--- TOPPING ---

• Agave syrup or honey

• Coconut flour

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C) and cover with parchment paper a springform pan with a diameter of 18cm.

2. In a small bowl mix together ricotta cheese (remove all the water from it!) and sugar and place in the fridge for later use.

3. In another bowl sift and mix together all purpose flour and baking powder. Set aside.

4. In a big bowl whisk sugar and egg with an electric beater until pale and fluffy (3-4 minutes).

5. Pour milk, vegetable oil and the sifted dry ingredients. Mix to combine on slow speed.

6. Transfer half of this mixture (about 125g of batter) into the prepared pan and bake for about 12-15 minutes (the bases should look golden and firm like in the second picture below).

7. Remove the ricotta cheese from the fridge, add the egg and coconut flour and whisk with the electric beater for 30 seconds just to combine all the ingredients.

8. Stir in chocolate chips and mix with a spoon.

9. Spread the filling on top of the half-baked sponge base, pour the rest of the batter on top and garnish with chocolate cereal (Stelline di cereali al cacao).

10. Bake for about 35-40 minutes or until the surface is gold and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean (if the surface starts to darken too much cover it with aluminum foil).

11. Let it cool completely before removing from the pan.

12. Brush the surface with a bit of honey or agave syrup and sprinkle with coconut flour.

13. Enjoy :)

RECIPE NOTES:

• Make sure your ricotta cheese is not watery otherwise the filling won't bake properly. You can strain it for a few hours before using it.

• If you don't like coconut you can just use cornstarch or potato starch instead of coconut flour in the filling and it will be super delicious anyway.

• You can use chopped dark chocolate instead of chocolate chips here. Just make sure not to make the chocolate pieces too big.

• The baking process here is the most difficult thing but check with a toothpick to make sure that the top layer is cooked through and everything is gonna be fine.

• Store in the fridge for 4-5 days.

• Bring to room temperature before serving.

• I adapted the recipe from Chiarapassion.

RECIPE CARD:

If you make it let me know! :)