Personally, I think Giada De Laurentiis is just divine. I love her Food Network shows, and I love the surprising dishes and treats she comes up with—so I decided all this was reason enough to finally try out one of her recipes. I chose this recipe for lemon cookie cakes because one of its main ingredients is ricotta (added to preserve the moist, cake-like texture), and I had plenty of ricotta and lemons left over from Tuesday’s zucchini-ricotta cheesecake. A perfect excuse to make dozens of cookies, no? And these cookies turned out beautifully. But I suppose I should expect nothing less from the lovely Giada.

Ingredients for the cookies: 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 stick unsalted butter, softened (Just leave the butter out overnight. It will be the perfect temperature in the morning.), 2 cups sugar, 2 eggs, 1 (15-ounce) container part-skim milk ricotta cheese, 3 tablespoons lemon juice, and zest of 1 lemon. For the frosting: 3 cups powdered sugar, 6 tablespoons lemon juice, and zest of two lemons.

Cream together the butter and sugar for approximately 3 to 4 minutes, then add the eggs one at a time, mixing until fully incorporated. Add the ricotta, lemon zest and lemon juice. Last, fold in the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Drop 2 tablespoon portions of the dough onto a greased cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes. The cookies will spread out and rise, and they may start to turn golden on the edges, but otherwise they should be white.

When the cookies are completely cooled, mix together your frosting and smooth 1 tablespoon or so on each cookie. The frosting Giada calls for is particularly tart and thick, but I can envision a fluffy cream cheese frosting working just as well on these.

While the lemon cookie cakes are fine just as they are here, there are a few things that would top them off just perfectly—nonpariels (purely for decorative purposes) or candied lemon peel.