I love a good cake, and I also love when they look pretty too! I’ve been wanting to make this Chocolate Italian Love Cake for quite awhile so I figured Valentine’s Day would be the perfect time. This cake is really simple to make, but the presentation looks like it took a lot of time and effort. When you start out, you put the cake batter on the bottom of the pan with the cheese layer on top; while it’s baking the layers magically switch! Then you top it off with a rich mousse like frosting and it’s pure heaven…simple, delicious and pretty!
1 chocolate fudge cake mix (do not use one with pudding in it) plus the ingredients on the box
32 ounces whole milk ricotta cheese
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 C sugar
1 pint heavy whipping cream
1 (5.9 ounce) box chocolate instant pudding
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees; grease a 9 x 13 inch baking dish.
Make the cake mix according to the package directions.
Pour into prepared baking dish; set aside.
Mix together the ricotta cheese, eggs, vanilla and sugar.
Slowly pour this over top of the cake batter.
You can see the chocolate layer is on the bottom and the white is on top.
Bake for 55-60 minutes. Now the chocolate layer is on top & the white layer is on the bottom. Cover & place in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.
Whip together the heavy whipping cream and pudding mix. It will be thick!
Evenly spread the frosting onto the cake.
Slice, serve and enjoy!
I made cake like the recipe and cooked it @350 for 1 hour and right in the center the cheese was still mushy like. What did I do wrong. Can I still eat it that way. The rest if cake was ok.
You can cook it a bit more; another 5-10 minutes and it’ll be good.
Thank you!
I made no changes to the recipe– my layers did not flip flop, my ricotta layer is still on top. I know it will be delicious though so no worries! I've tried many of your recipes and have enjoyed them all.
Oh goodness, I do not know what happened. However, you are correct, it will indeed be delicious…enjoy!
Can I frost it a day prior o serving?
I don't see a problem with that, however you'd need to keep it in the fridge 🙂
Yes, allow it to cool for awhile and then put it in the fridge.
do I need to let it cool before I put it in the refrigerator?
My cheese wasn't thick enough to spread. What did I do wrong?
You have to make sure you use 32 ounces of ricotta which is two of the 16 ounce containers. I haven't found one container that had 32 ounces in it.
Will the middle still be mushy? Mine has been in the oven for an hour and the middle is still jiggly
If you stick a toothpick in the center of the cake, only half-ways down, and it comes out clean then you're good to go 🙂
For non-white sugar eaters, how to approach substitutions??? Thank you.
You could always use a sugar substitute like Splenda 🙂
I may have missed it, but does it need to be refrigerated ? Ty
Yes it does 🙂
What can be use in place of the pudding for the frosting?
You may be able to add some cocoa powder and powdered sugar, or just use a can of frosting, or your own favorite frosting recipe.
Can I use cream cheese instead of ricotta. I hate ricotta but i would love to try this.
I think it would work, but I'm not positive!
Followed the directions exactly and the layers did not switch. Can anyone tell us what we did wrong or why this happened? We are going to try again so any suggestions would be appreciated.
Please make sure you're using whole milk Ricotta, and a cake mix without added pudding in the mix 🙂
Yes, we used whole milk ricotta and no pudding in the cake mix. It tastes great but looks weird!!
Lol, I'm honestly not quite sure why it didn't switch, but I'm glad it tastes good!
Part-skim ricotta has a higher water content so it may not set up properly.
Can I use part-skim ricotta?
I made this cake over the weekend, following the directions to the letter. The cake never came up and covered the Ricotto cheese layer, but I took it to work anyway and everyone loved it. But I did add about 1/2 cup more cream to the pudding mix, it was just way to thick to spread. But that worked out great. The cake is very rick, heavy and dense so I suggest smaller
pieces for serving
I'm not quite sure what happened, but I'm glad you and your co-workers enjoyed it…thanks 🙂
I WILL be making this, as soon as I can get out to the store to get a couple of ingredients that I need! (Snowed in at the moment)
what if i have one less egg than the ricotta layer calls for? will it still work or should i run to the store?
Yes Keely three eggs will work, but only use 28 ounces of the ricotta this way the ratio is correct 🙂
thanks! i ended up getting more eggs but i only had 30 oz of ricotta for four eggs so hopefully it's right! we will know soon! lol
I hope it came out well and you enjoyed it 🙂
I don't see why not; sounds like a delicious addition to me!
Could you use orange zest in the ricotta layer?
I make a frosting almost identical to this and use Dream Whip and instant pudding, whipped together.. I think recipe is on the Dream Whip box.
I have a similar recipe, but without frosting and with a vanilla cake mix. It's delicious, and I'm going to give this one a try. Sounds fantastic.
does anyone know what would happen if the wrong cake mix is used? I used a cake mix with pudding in it, did not read the recipe through until after I had already put it in the oven. I guess if no one else knows I'm going to find out shortly…
I'm thinking it may not set up properly or either take a long time to bake!
No!
It came out absolutely beautiful and exactly as the picture. It was my big surprise.
Julie
That's wonderful to hear Julie, I'm so happy it was a success and you enjoyed it 🙂
OMG…such a cool recipe! I love that the chocolate layer switches with the cheese layer as it bakes! It should be called 'Chocolate Italian Magic Cake'. Thank you for sharing…I'll be trying this one for sure! Pinning =D