Lemon Ricotta Cake

Published March 16, 2018. Updated October 8, 2018

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This Lemon Ricotta Cake is the perfect dessert to welcome spring! It’s an Italian inspired, made from scratch cake that has such an irresistible flavor. The ricotta in the cake lends moisture and a delicious richness and the lemon zest adds a welcome zing. Trust me, this is a cake people wont forget about!

Lemon Ricotta Cake

Lemon Ricotta Cake

Admittedly this is a not so traditional Italian Ricotta Cake – the more traditional ricotta cake is made either with either almond flour or semolina flour.

I’ve tried the almond version and while it’s so delicious I actually prefer this softer version made with all white flour.

Lemon Ricotta Cake

A Perfect Cake

This ricotta cake is perfectly rich, it has a good density (similar to muffins), it’s amazingly moist, and perfectly lemony.

And it’s perfectly highlighted with toppings of fresh, lightly sweetened strawberries and fluffy whipped cream. The blend of the three layers together is simply dreamy.

Lemon Ricotta Cake

A Cake fit for Brunch

I love that this cake isn’t overly sweet, in fact it would even make an ideal weekend breakfast/brunch cake. Serve it to guests on Friday night for dessert then save what’s left (if there is any) for breakfast on Saturday – sounds like a good plan to me!

Lemon Ricotta Cake

A Cake Recipe You’ll Want on Repeat

Unfortunately this cake of mine is already gone (I made this cake a few weeks ago, I’m a few weeks ahead with recipes to share).

But no worries, I’ve bought more ricotta to make it again! It’s a perfect spring treat and I just can’t get enough of it! I have a dessert addiction, can you tell??

Lemon Ricotta Cake

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Lemon Ricotta Cake
4.91 from 71 votes

Lemon Ricotta Cake

This cake is the perfect dessert to welcome spring! It's an Italian inspired, made from scratch cake that has such an irresistible flavor. The ricotta in the cake lends moisture and a delicious richness and the lemon zest adds a welcome zing. Trust me, this is a cake people wont forget about! 
Servings: 12
Prep20 minutes
Cook40 minutes
Ready in: 2 hours

Ingredients

Topping

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch springform pan, line bottom with a round of parchment paper and butter parchment.
  • In a medium mixing bowl whisk together flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.
  • In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream together sugar, butter and lemon zest until pale and fluffy.
  • Mix in eggs one at a time (mixture will appear lumpy), blend in vanilla.
  • Add in half of the flour mixture and mix just until combined, add ricotta and mix just until combined. 
  • Add in last half of the flour mixture and mix just until combined. Gently fold batter to ensure ingredients are evenly incorporated. 
  • Pour batter into prepared springform pan and spread into an even layer. Bake in preheated oven until cake is set (a toothpick can come out moist but no batter), about 45 - 50 minutes.
  • Let cake cool 10 minutes then run a knife around edge to loosen any edges that may have stuck slightly, remove springform ring and continue to let cool.
  • Once cool, slice and serve with macerated strawberries and whipped cream.

Macerated Strawberries

  • In a medium mixing bowl toss strawberries with 2 Tbsp of the sugar. Cover and let rest in refrigerator while cake is baking and cooling.
  • In a separate medium mixing bowl using an electric hand mixer whip heavy cream until soft peaks form. 
  • Add 1 1/2 Tbsp sugar and whip until stiff peaks form. Store in refrigerator until ready to serve.
  • Recipe source: Cooking Classy
Nutrition Facts
Lemon Ricotta Cake
Amount Per Serving
Calories 354 Calories from Fat 180
% Daily Value*
Fat 20g31%
Saturated Fat 12g75%
Cholesterol 108mg36%
Sodium 101mg4%
Potassium 221mg6%
Carbohydrates 37g12%
Fiber 1g4%
Sugar 22g24%
Protein 7g14%
Vitamin A 725IU15%
Vitamin C 23.9mg29%
Calcium 130mg13%
Iron 1.3mg7%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Nutrition values are estimates only. See full disclaimer here.

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232 Comments

  • Kristina

    I have made this cake before and loved it!
    Any chance you could adjust this to make 18 cupcakes..? That would be amazing!

    • Jaclyn

      Jaclyn Bell

      I haven’t tried as cupcakes yet but it should work well as cupcakes too. I’m not sure how many you’d get, just fill 2/3 full and bake at the same temp.

      • Kristina

        Thank you! If I boldly deviate from your recipe, I‘ll come back to report ;-)

      • Kristina

        For the record, the dough made 18 cupcakes and I baked them for 20 minutes at 350F. They came out fine, but the cake tasted better, so I’ll stick with that going forward ;-)

        • Jaclyn

          Jaclyn Bell

          Thanks so much for your feedback on how they turned out, that’s helpful to know!

  • Janw

    Excellent texture and flavor! Served it for Memorial Day party and everyone raved about how delicious it was. Of course, they all wanted the recipe!

  • Tracy E Spehr

    I made this cake for a brunch. Everyone loved the cake! The cake was moist and tasted fresh with the lemon flavor! Thanks for another great recipe!

  • Jennifer Gearhart

    I just made this cake for tomorrow’s group meeting, it is spectacular. I used the zest from home grown Meyer lemons, whole milk ricotta, real vanilla, organic eggs. It came out so great. Lovely and moist, topped with powdered suger and for tomorrow organic black berries and strawberry’s macerated with a small amount of sugar because the berries this year are really sweet. It’s going to be. Huge hit.

  • L

    Absolutely delicious!
    Light and airy, wow!
    I did not add whipping cream, I added lemon curd cream and sliced strawberries on top with a sprinkle of powdered sugar!
    I will definitely make this again!
    Thank you for this recipe,

  • Wendy Williams

    What would you suggest if I don’t have a springform pan?

  • Barb

    I was looking at making a ricotta cake for Easter and saw this! The reviews look very good! The one issue is I saw is that many people commented that their cake didn’t rise enough. I am wondering if I can increase the amount of baking powder so it would be sure to rise. I’ve had similar problems with cakes not rising in the past (maybe it’s just me) and I would prefer not to have to make the cake twice. I am pretty certain it’s not my baking powder although. So if you could tell me if this is possible that would be great! Thanks! Can’t wait to make this for my grandkids!

    • Jaclyn

      Jaclyn Bell

      The general rule is 1 tsp baking powder per 1 c of flour. Adding more doesn’t necessarily make a cake rise higher, it can actually cause the opposite to happen. Here just be sure to whip the butter sugar mixture to very light and fluffy to add air then be careful not to over-mix the batter. Also use a ricotta that’s not overly wet such as galbani. Hope that helps!

  • Claire C. Dunaj

    I followed this recipe to a “T”, however it didn’t rise much and even though the toothpick came out “dry” after 50 minutes and the tope was looking cooked & cracked, the inside did not look light & dry. It was moist, but didn’t looked thoroughly baked through. I was disappointed in the outcome. Can you offer me any suggestions???

    • Jaclyn

      Jaclyn Bell

      Sorry it gave you trouble! I recommend using a kitchen scale to weigh ingredients if possible, then I might suggest using a different brand of ricotta. Maybe it was overly wet.