This delicious Chocolate Chip Ricotta Cake is wonderfully tender and made extra moist with the addition of ricotta cheese. It is also incredibly easy to make!
If you have not tried adding ricotta cheese to your sweet treats, we need to fix that right away! Ricotta’s mild flavor doesn’t overpower the taste of the sweet treats it is added to, but it does make them very moist and tender. In other words, it makes them incredibly good!
And that’s exactly what this Chocolate Chip Ricotta Cake is – ridiculously good!
This chocolate chip ricotta loaf cake is studded with chocolate chips which makes this cake a favorite with both kids and adults. I mean, who doesn’t love a chocolate chip treat?
Whether you are making this Italian cake for a special occasion, a brunch potluck, or to just have around to snack on, it is sure to disappear quickly!
If you are a fan of these flavors, be sure to check out my Chocolate Chip Ricotta Pancakes recipe too. You might also like the lemon versions of these ricotta treats so check out my Lemon Ricotta Cake and Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with Strawberry Syrup too.
Ingredients in Chocolate Chip Ricotta Cake
- Flour: all purpose flour.
- Baking powder
- Salt: a small amount is added to enhance the flavor.
- Butter: softened, unsalted butter.
- Ricotta cheese: Depending on the brand of ricotta cheese you get, it may or may not need to be strained. If it is a bit thin and watery, scoop it into a cheese cloth and tie the cloth to wooden spoon. Then suspend the spoon over a large bowl to allow the excess moisture to drip away. Drier ricotta’s can be used straight out of the container.
- Sugar: granulated sugar is used in the cake and icing sugar (aka confectioner’s sugar or powdered sugar) is used to dust the cake after it has cooled.
- Eggs
- Vanilla extract
- Chocolate chips: You can use regular sized chocolate chips or mini chocolate chips for this cake.
**Note: Ingredient quantities and full instructions are in the recipe card at the end of this post.**
How to make Chocolate Chip Ricotta Cake
- Prep your pan. Preheat oven to 350F and line a loaf pan with parchment paper or grease generously with butter.
- Mix the dry ingredients. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Mix the wet ingredients. In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or in a large mixing bowl using a hand mixer), add the butter, sugar, and ricotta and cream together. Slowly add the eggs and vanilla, mixing to incorporate everything.
- Combine the wet and dry ingredients. Slowly add the flour mixture on low speed until it is all incorporated. Remove the bowl from the stand mixer. Using a spatula, stir in the chocolate chips.
- Bake. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for approximately 60 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer onto a cooling rack and let cool completely.
- Dust. Once the cake has cooled, dust it with icing sugar.
Tips for making a great cake
- Tip #1: Strain the ricotta if needed. If your ricotta is “wet”, make sure you strain it first in a sieve or cheese cloth to remove as much moisture as possible. If it is very wet than your batter will take longer to bake and you run the risk of burning the outside while the inside is under-baked.
- Tip #2: Cream the ricotta well with the butter and sugar. Before you add the other ingredients, you need to cream together the ricotta, butter and sugar well. Beat them well for a few minutes so that they are fluffy and smooth. This will help add some airiness to them that will make for a lighter cake.
- Tip #3: Don’t over-mix your batter. Once the dry ingredients are added to the wet ingredients, blend only until they are combined. Over-mixing at this stage can cause you to have a dense cake.
- Tip #4: Cool the cake completely before dusting it. If you add the icing sugar before the cake has cooled, it will melt and disappear into the cake.
Storing this cake
Once cooled completely, you can wrap the cake in plastic wrap or place it in an airtight container or cake dome. It can be kept at room temperature short term, but will last longer stored in the fridge (I find it keeps well for about 5 days).
Can you freeze Chocolate Chip Ricotta Cake?
Chocolate Chip Ricotta Cake can be frozen for longer storage. If you are making the entire loaf cake in advance and wish to freeze it, you can wrap the cooled cake well in a few layers of plastic wrap. Then place it in a freezer safe ziploc bag.
You can also store leftover slices in the same manner (wrapping first in plastic wrap and then placing them in a freezer bag).
When you want to eat the ricotta cake, just thaw and enjoy!
I hope you enjoy this cake as much as we do! If you give this recipe a try, let me know what you think!
Happy baking!
-Cathy
You may also like:
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread
Zucchini Bread
Chocolate Chip Ricotta Pancakes
Chocolate Chip Ricotta Cake
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 cup butter softened
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup ricotta cheese strained if needed. See notes.*
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cup chocolate chips
- icing sugar (aka confectioner's sugar or powdered sugar), for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and line a loaf pan with parchment paper or grease generously with butter.
- Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, add the butter, sugar, and ricotta and cream together. Slowly add the eggs and vanilla, mixing to incorporate everything.
- Slowly add the flour mix on low speed until it is all incorporated. Remove the bowl from the stand mixer. Using a spatula, stir in the chocolate chips.
- Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for approximately 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer onto a cooling rack and let cool completely.
- Once cooled, dust it with icing sugar.
Notes
Note: Metric ingredient measurements are provided as a courtesy using a third-party calculator and are rounded to the nearest unit. The recipes provided on this site have not been tested with metric measurements and their accuracy cannot be verified.
Nutrition
The nutritional information provided is based on third-party calculations and is an estimate only. Accurate nutritional facts will vary based on the particular brands used, portion sizes, measurement accuracy and more.
I have to try making this! ????
What size loaf pan? I’m guessing 9×5
I hope you love it as much as we do! I use a standard size loaf pan so it’s about that. Maybe 8.5 x 4.5 inches.
It says and cream, but no cream listed in amounts.
Hi Paige. There is no cream in this recipe. The word cream you see in the instructions is used as a verb (as in you are creaming together the butter, sugar, and ricotta).
Will this freeze well?
Yes, you should be able to freeze it 🙂
If I doubled the ingredients, do you think I could bake this in a bundt pan, and bake for a bit longer?
I have had luck doing that with other loaf pan recipes.
I haven’t tried it in a bundt pan myself but imagine you could. Let me know if it turns out!