Affection comes easy for Valerie Bertinelli's Love Cake

Photo: Greg Morago

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Strawberry Love Cake from Food Network star and cookbook author Valerie Bertinelli.

Photo: Greg Morago

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Sicilian Love Cake is made with a boxed cake mix. The recipe is a favorite of Food Network star Valerie Bertinelli.

Photo: Greg Morago

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Love Cake from Food Network star and cookbook author Valerie Bertinelli is simple to make and can be tailored to many flavors, including strawberry.

Photo: Melissa Aguilar

It's said that home cooks should have a dozen trusted go-to recipes in their repertoire - easy crowd-pleasers including a great chicken dish, a couple of casseroles, a quick stir-fry, a perfect pasta, a few warming stews or soups. And a good cake.

My new no-fail cake comes from actress-turned-Food Network star Valerie Bertinelli.

Though I'm not a big fan of Food Network's cooking-competition shows, I never miss an episode of "Valerie's Home Cooking." The flavorful, uncomplicated comfort food Bertinelli makes reminds me of the home cooking I grew up with - and her recipes tend to be ridiculously easy.

So after admiring her chocolatey Sicilian Love Cake on the show, I decided to try it myself. It turned out to be not just a solid, go-to recipe but a perfect last-minute dessert for Valentine's Day.

The recipe's base is a boxed-cake-mix batter laid out in a 9-by-13-inch pan, over which you pour a filling made with ricotta cheese, mascarpone cheese and sugar. While it bakes, the two layers flip: The batter rises to the top, the ricotta goes to the bottom. Well, it mostly does; mine looked more marbled, but the effect is pretty when you cut into it. After it cools, the cake is slathered with a frosting made from instant pudding and more mascarpone.

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It's a versatile recipe, too. By following the simple formula, you can basically employ any flavors where a cake-mix flavor matches an instant-pudding one: chocolate cake gets a chocolate pudding frosting, strawberry cake gets strawberry pudding frosting, lemon cake gets a lemon pudding frosting and so on. I could easily see an orange Love Cake, or pistachio, or even coconut.

Love Cake is incredibly moist and rich. It is a tad expensive to make because it requires 32 ounces of ricotta (about $3.50) and two 8-ounce containers of mascarpone (about $3.30 each), but there's a sweet payoff. I brought the finished product into the office, and my coworkers raved about it. For Valentine's Day, you could decorate it with chocolate shavings, sprinkles or strawberries for an added measure of elegance.

Sicilian Love Cake

Courtesy of Valerie Bertinelli

1 box chocolate cake mix (plus ingredients called for in directions)

MASCARPONE-RICOTTA FILLING:

28 ounces ricotta cheese (3½ cups)

4 ounces mascarpone cheese (½ cup)

3 large eggs

¾ cup sugar

1⁄8 teaspoon kosher salt

COCOA-MASCARPONE FROSTING

10 ounces mascarpone (1¼ cups)

1 cup whole milk

1 3.9-ounce box instant chocolate pudding mix

1 tablespoon sugar

Instructions: Preheat oven according to cake-mix directions. Spray inside of 9-by-13-inch pan with cooking spray. Prepare the cake batter according to the cake-mix directions, pour into the prepared pan and set aside.

To make the filling, combine the ricotta, mascarpone, eggs, sugar and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a bowl with a hand mixer) and beat until smooth. Gently pour the filling on top of chocolate batter so the top is completely white. Bake until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean and the chocolate layer has risen to the top, about 50 minutes. Let cake cool completely.

To make the frosting: Just before serving, blend mascarpone, milk, chocolate pudding mix and sugar until smooth. Using an offset spatula, spread the frosting evenly over the cake and serve.

Note: Our ricotta came in a 32-ounce container, so we used it all, even though recipe calls for only 28 ounces. We also added a teaspoon of vanilla to the filling.

Strawberry Love Cake

Courtesy of Valerie Bertinelli

1 box strawberry cake mix (plus ingredients called for in directions)

FILLING

32 ounces ricotta cheese

¾ cup sugar

4 ounces mascarpone

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 large eggs

FROSTING

12 ounces mascarpone

1 ¾-ounce box instant strawberry crème pudding

1 cup milk

Instructions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9-by-13-inch pan with cooking spray.

Prepare the cake according to the directions on the box and pour into prepared pan. Set aside.

To make the filling: combine ricotta, sugar, vanilla, eggs, and 4 ounces of mascarpone in a bowl of a stand mixer (or in a bowl with hand mixer) and beat on medium speed until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Gently pour the filling over the cake batter to cover completely.

Bake until skewer inserted in the center of cake comes out clean and the strawberry layer has risen to the top, about 50 to 60 minutes. Cool completely.

To make the frosting: Combine 12 ounces of mascarpone with the pudding mix and milk. Beat until smooth and creamy. Spread frosting evenly over cake.

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