This traditional Italian lemon ricotta cake is a delicious and moist dessert perfect for breakfast or dessert. Learn how to make this Italian cake at home with this easy recipe.
There are many different Italian ricotta lemon cake recipes but this one is my favorite. This ricotta cake is super moist, has a beautiful delicate flavor of lemon and it is made with olive oil instead of butter.
In addition to being perfectly balanced in flavor, it is so easy to make. This cake is like other traditional Italian cakes in that it will not be overly sweet but just right.
My family loves eating this cake at the holidays for breakfast along with our ricotta pancakes with pancake mix. You can serve this Italian cake for breakfast or dessert and it will be great either way.
What is a Ciambella Cake
I have never been a big fan of specialized baking pans (or any specialized kitchen tools) but I made an exception with this ciambella cake pan.
This Italian cake is called a ciambella because it is baked in a special ring mold (cake pan). Ciambella means donut in Italian and this baking mold makes this beautiful shape that Italians love to use when baking their cakes.
If you do not have a round cake mold, you can use:
- A Savarin mold (which is what I used here.) This one is a 9.5-inch round nonstick mold (use as is for this recipe)
- The standard 9-inch round cake pan. (start by adding an additional 10 minutes to the bake time)
- Large Bundt pan (add about 10 minutes or so to the bake time)
- Individual bundt cake pan (you will want to decrease the bake time by ¼ if you are making small individual serving size bundt cakes)
You should also check out our other Ciambella cake recipe and Italian peach cake which are both lightly sweet and perfect with coffee at breakfast.
What You Will Need
The ingredients in this cake could not be simpler (quantities below):
- All-purpose flour. Your favorite brand will do!
- Whole milk ricotta: The ricotta is what makes this a traditional Italian ricotta cake and using whole milk ricotta creates a nice rich moist crumb.
- Eggs. I use large eggs for this recipe.
- Baking powder
- Granulated sugar
- Vanilla Extract
- Lemon. You want the juice and the lemon zest.
- Olive oil: Extra virgin olive oil or regular olive oil works fine for this. Just like with my Italian fried dough recipe, I often bake and make sweets with regular olive oil since it is cheaper and has a milder flavor.
- Whole Milk
All very simple ingredients!
How To Make This Italian Ricotta Cake
This traditional Italian cake is so easy to make. Here are the steps (full recipe below)
- Sift: Sift the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.
- Mix: In a large bowl, beat the eggs and both sugars with a hand mixer or stand mixer for a few minutes until thick then add the ricotta, lemon and olive oil and mix together.
- Stir: Fold in your your dry ingredients into your bowl of wet ingredients.
- Pour: Pour it all into a prepared cake pan.
- Sprinkle with a little brown sugar (optional but recommended).
- Give the cake pan a few good bangs to release the air bubbles.
- Bake: Bake the cake until a toothpick inserted in the center ring comes out clean then let it cool on a wire rack..
Recipe Tips!
- Prepare the cake pan: When working with a ciambella cake pan, saverin mold, or bundt pan, you will want to make sure to prepare the cake pan well before filling it. This will ensure that the cake will release from the pan after baking. Make sure to rub butter around the inside of the panm dust the butter flour and shake off excess flour.
- Avoiding air bubbles in the cake: If you do not get rid of the air bubbles, your cake will have lots of holes. Trust me, I know this from experience 🙂 To avoid these air bubbles and to improve the texture of the cake, you will want to bang your cake pan (with the batter in it) very hard on the counter a few times before you bake it.
Additions And Variations
When making this Italian lemon cake recipe here are my favorite ways to change it up!
- I like to add a sprinkle of brown sugar to the cake before baking. There is no set amount to add but it does really add a nice flavor to the cake.
- Powdered Sugar: This cake is not too sweet so I love a light dusting of powdered sugar on the top.
- Whipped Cream: I do like to serve my desserts with homemade whipped cream on the side.
- Use almond extract or your favorite extract! I sometimes omit the lemon and use almond extract in its place. Orange extract would also be wonderful with this cake.
Storing
If you were in Italy, this cake would be left out (under a cake dome)until all of it was gone. This is not always a good thing as I found out with one of the bakeries I often go to. There, at the beginning of the week the cake was fresh but by Wednesday it started to get stale.
So, in my house, once the cake is baked and has cooled, I leave it out on the counter covered for 1 day. After that, store it covered for up to one week in the fridge. You can also freeze the cake for up to 2 months wrapped tightly in plastic wrap.
Recipe Faqs
Ricotta cake freezes very well. Just wrap the cooled cake with plastic wrap and place it in a freezer-proof bag. When you want to thaw it, just place it in the fridge overnight (inside its bag) and let it defrost that way.
I like to leave my ricotta cake out for one day on the counter under a cake dome. After that, it goes in the fridge to keep it fresh. Ricotta cake has a lot of moisture so it can spoil quickly.
I always make ricotta pancakes with the leftover ricotta. Ricotta lasts for a couple of weeks in the fridge so you can make a batch of these yummy pancakes later in the week after you've made this recipe.
For More Italian Ricotta Recipes
If you loved this Italian Lemon Ricotta Cake, you may also like these:
More Italian Desserts
Italian Lemon Ricotta Cake
Equipment
- 1 ciambella cake pan or you can use a bundt pan or a 9 inch round cake pan
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cup All Purpose Flour
- 2 cups whole milk ricotta
- 4 large eggs
- ¾ cup whole milk
- ½ cup light brown sugar packed for cake batter
- ¼ cup light brown sugar packed for sprinkling over the cake before baking
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 lemon juice and zest Zest the rind of of 1 large lemon making sure not to scrape the white flesh part.
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 tablespoon butter for greasing the pan
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees
- Prepare your cake pan by rubbing butter all around the inside of your pan then adding 1 tablespoon of flour to the pan and turning it until the flour coats all of the buttered area of the pan.1 tablespoon butter
- Set your pan aside.
- In a large bowl, sift together your flour, salt and baking powder.2 ¼ cup All Purpose Flour, ¼ teaspoon kosher salt, 1 tablespoon baking powder
- In a separate bowl add your eggs and your packed brown sugar and beat with a hand or stand mixer for 3 minutes on medium speed.4 large eggs, ½ cup light brown sugar packed
- Add in your lemon juice and zest and mix well.1 lemon juice and zest
- Now add your ricotta cheese, olive oil and milk and mix well.2 cups whole milk ricotta, ¼ cup olive oil, ¾ cup whole milk
- Next, grab the dry ingredients and add those in to your wet ingredients bowl and fold them in until it is well incorporated and there are no big lumps.
- Pour your cake batter into your prepared cake pan.
- Give your cake pan a few good bangs by holding it about 3 inches over your counter and letting it drop making sure your hands are guiding the cake pan so it does not fall off the counter.
- Bang out the air bubbles 3-4 times.
- Add brown sugar to the top of the cake by sprinkling this all around the top of the cake.¼ cup light brown sugar packed
- Place into your pre-heated oven and bake for 35-40 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
- Let cool on a cooling rack for about 20 minutes.
- Once cooled, flip the cake out of the pan by inverting the cake over a large plate.
- Now flip it back right side up.
- Continue to let it cool for another 20 minutes.
- Add powdered sugar and enjoy.
Pamela says
This is INCREDIBLE! My friends were over the moon (made for book club). Had for breakfast today too! 🙂 Better and more lemony on 2nd day, fyi. I made a lemon glaze topping with lemon juice and powdered sugar and then sprinkled chopped pistachios on top. Perfect!
kisitalian says
so glad you and the book club enjoyed it 🙂 Great tip about the second day flavor too!