"Now that I can finally understand you, I am less impressed with what you have to say."

I should start off every Friday with a Don Draper quote.

Why Don Draper?

Last night I made a lasagna.  I had a lot of leftover ricotta cheese.  And so why not then launch into a complicated labor-intensive recipe all to use 1/2 cup of a leftover tub of ricotta?

It's been a long time since I made a cake from scratch, and for the dessert I had in mind, I knew I wanted to avoid a box mix.  I picked up this box of cake flour from Target and it totally reminds me of something from the 60's. 

Cake flour is lighter and fluffier since it has less gluten (a protein found in wheat).  Unless you want a heavy dense cake, use cake flour.

Betty, I like your methods.  I need both a cook book stand and a glass of wine.

I used the recipe on the back of the cake flour box, but cut it in half 'cause I only wanted one 9" round cake.

While the cake was baking, I whipped up the lemon-ricotta filling.  I let that chill while I made blueberry sauce, using frozen blueberries I had on hand.

I chose to assemble the dessert in small glasses for the pretty factor.

Why Don!  You look intrigued.

Homemade Vanilla Cake (makes 1 9" round cake)
1 stick butter, room temperature
1 cup white sugar
1.5 cups sifted cake flour
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Beat butter until fluffy.  Add sugar. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour with baking powder.  Add eggs, one at a time, to butter-sugar mix.  Beat until well-combined.  Alternate adding flour with milk into the batter.  Add vanilla.  Careful not to overbeat, as it will make the cake tough. 

Pour into a greased pan and bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes, or until a knife inserted comes out clean.  After cooling a few minutes, invert onto a plate.

Lemon Ricotta Cream
1/2 cup skim ricotta cheese
1/2 cup Neufchatel (reduced fat cream) cheese
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 cup light Cool Whip

Beat ricotta and cream cheese together until fluffy-ish.  Add powdered sugar and lemon juice.  Beat until smooth.  Gently fold in Cool Whip and chill for at least 20 minutes.

Blueberry Sauce
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup orange juice
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup cold water
2 Tbsp cornstarch

In a small saucepan over medium heat, stir together 1/2 cup water, OJ, and sugar.  Add blueberries.  Carefully stir, trying not to smoosh the berries, until is starts to boil.  Whisk together cold water and cornstarch and add to berry mix.  Sauce will thicken up quickly.  Chill until ready to serve.

Makes 8 servings of dessert.