Lemon Ricotta Cake

Deliciously moist Lemon Ricotta Cake is the perfect balance of sweet and tart! It’s light and fluffy texture and sweet lemony flavour goes perfectly with coffee and tea.

If you have ever tasted a ricotta cake before, you know how good they are. If you haven’t tried one, this Lemon Ricotta Cake is a place to start! This moist cake has a nice lemon flavor and tender crumb. You can’t really taste the ricotta cheese that is in it but its presence provides the perfect moisture and texture to this lemon cake.

Lemony desserts are among the best kind of desserts there are. I love the blend of tartness and sweetness. While I tend to gravitate towards lemon desserts more in the spring and summer months, I love making this lemon ricotta cake any chance I get.

What is not to love about a moist slice of cake with the perfect balance of zingy lemon flavor and sweetness? Its delightful and goes so well with a cup of coffee or tea.

If you are a fan of this lemon ricotta cake, you should also check out my Chocolate Chip Ricotta Cake! I even have pancake versions of these cakes- be sure to check out my Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with Strawberry Syrup and Chocolate Chip Ricotta Pancakes.

Ingredients in Lemon Ricotta Cake

• Flour: All purpose flour.
  
  
• Baking powder
  
  
• Salt: Just a little to enhance the flavor of the cake.
  
  
• Butter: softened, unsalted butter.
  
  
• Ricotta cheese: The ricotta cheese I use for my cake isn’t very “wet” and so I don’t need to strain out any liquid. If your ricotta cheese is a bit too thin and water, you can easily strain out the excess liquid. To do this, place the ricotta in a cheese cloth and tie the cheese cloth to a large wooden spoon. Then you suspend the spoon over a large bowl to allow the liquid to drip into the bowl.
  
  
• Sugar: white granulated sugar is used in the cake and icing sugar (aka confectioner’s sugar or powdered sugar) is used to make the lemon glaze.
  
  
• Eggs
  
  
• Vanilla extract
  
  
• Lemon: Both lemon juice and lemon zest. Freshly squeezed lemon juice will give you the best flavor and is what I recommend using. The store-bought jarred juice isn’t as flavorful and delicious.

**Note: Ingredient quantities and full instructions are in the recipe card at the end of this post.**

How to Make Lemon Ricotta Cake

1. Prep your pan. Preheat oven to 350F and line a loaf pan with parchment paper or grease generously with butter.
   
   
2. Mix the dry ingredients. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
   
   
3. Cream together the butter, sugar and ricotta. In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, add the butter, sugar, and ricotta and cream together.
   
   
4. Mix the wet ingredients. Add the eggs, vanilla, lemon zest and lemon juice, mixing to incorporate everything.
   
   
5. Combine the wet and dry ingredients. Slowly add the flour mix on low speed until it is all incorporated. Remove the bowl from the stand mixer.
   
   
6. Bake. 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.
   
   
7. Glaze. In a bowl, whisk the icing sugar and lemon juice together to create a glaze. Pour or drizzle over the cake.

Tips for Making the Best Ricotta Cake

• Tip #1: Strain the ricotta if it is too “wet”. While many tubs of ricotta are rather thick and not too watery, this varies between brands. If you are worried your ricotta looks a little to wet, strain it first. As mentioned above, you can do this by placing it in a cheese cloth and then tying the cloth to a large wooden spoon. Suspend the spoon and cheesecloth over a large bowl and allow the excess liquid to drip out. Doing this will help ensure your cake is not overly wet and therefore dense.
  
  
• Tip #2: Cream the butter, sugar, and ricotta cheese until it is fluffy and smooth. This adds a little airiness to the batter, making the cake a bit lighter.
  
  
• Tip #3: Use the spoon and level method for measuring flour. If you aren’t weighing your flour (I personally don’t weigh my ingredients when baking), you will want to make sure you are measuring out the flour as accurately as possible. As flour sits in a container or the flour bag, it can become compacted. Scooping the flour directly into your cup can also compact the flour and result in using too much of it in your recipe. To avoid this, you want to use a spoon to fill your measuring cup. Once you have filled the measuring cup to the top (you actually want to spoon a little extra on top), use the back of a butter knife to level the top off. This results in a more accurate measurement.
  
  
• Tip #4: Don’t over-mix your batter. This is true for all baked goods. Once you add the flour to your batter, you want to mix until it is incorporated but no more than necessary. Over-mixing will make baked goods dense.
  
  
• Tip #5: Cool the cake before glazing. In order to avoid melting the glaze and having it disappear into the cake, make sure the cake has cooled completely first.

Storing ricotta cake

Once the cake has cooled completely, you can wrap it in plastic wrap or place it in an airtight container or cake dome. The cake 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).

Freezing Lemon Ricotta Cake

Lemon ricotta cake can be frozen for longer storage. You can freeze the entire cake or individual slices. To freeze the cake, wrap the cake or individual slices in plastic wrap and then place it in a freezer bag. When you want to enjoy the cake, just thaw and enjoy!

I hope you enjoy this delicious lemon ricotta cake as much as we do!

Happy Baking!

-Cathy

You may also like:

Chocolate Chip Ricotta Cake
Cranberry Orange Streusel Cake
Chocolate Zucchini Cake
Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with Strawberry Syrup
Chocolate Chip Ricotta Pancakes
Lemon Cheesecake (No Bake)
Lemon Crinkle Cookies