Lemon Ricotta Cake

1. Preheat your oven to 300F (150C). Grease a round 9 inch (22 cm) cake pan and add parchment paper to the bottom.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together ricotta, lemon juice and zest, vegetable oil and vanilla extract until a creamy consistency. You can whisk this by hand, but a hand mixer is less of a workout.
3. In another bowl, whisk together (hand or stand mixer) eggs and sugar, on medium high speed for about 7 minutes. Add the ricotta mixture into the eggs and whip until just incorporated.
4. Sift flour and baking powder into the batter. Be careful here as to not ruin the bubbles of the egg-sugar mixture. Using a rubber spatula, fold it in and take it in small portions, maybe around 40 grams, then fold, then 40 new grams.
5. Bake the cake for around 90 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. If the cake starts to brown too quickly, either reduce temperature or add aluminum foil on top. A little browning is fine! Cool the cake completely before you remove it from the pan. Peel off the parchment paper.
6. If your cake is slightly uneven, just cut it to even it out. If not, leave it as is and using a serrated knife, slice the cake horizontally into 3 layers.

Vanilla Pastry Cream

1. Pour the milk, half of the heavy cream and half of the sugar into a saucepan. Cut open and scrape out the seeds of the vanilla bean. Place everything into the saucepan. Heat up to the point of boiling, constantly stirring.
2. In another bowl, whisk together the rest of the heavy cream, egg yolks, cornstarch and the rest of the sugar. Cool the milk mixture a little bit (3-5 min) before slowly pouring it into the egg mixture while constantly whisking.
3. Pour this mixture back into the saucepan, make sure you bring with you the vanilla seeds. Heat the mixture back up, until it is thickening. Remember to stir. Place the saucepan into a tub of cold water to cool, remove the vanilla beans. Cool to lukewarm.

Layer the Cake

1. Take the bottom layer of the cake and pour half of the vanilla cream on top, even it out. Add the next cake layer on top and pour the rest of the vanilla cream on top. Take the last cake layer on top of this. Now it's ready for some frosting!
2. Mix powdered sugar, lemon juice, cream cheese and vanilla bean sugar (or vanilla extract), using a handheld mixer or even by hand. Add it to the top of the cake, leaving the sides naked.
3. Decorate if you wish. It keeps very well for 4-5 days in the refrigerator. Could also just store in a cold place if you don't have room in the fridge!