Ricotta Olive Oil Cake Recipe
Published September 21, 2022. This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
This incredibly moist and flavorful Ricotta Olive Oil Cake Recipe loaded with lemon and almonds will quickly become your favorite. You will not believe just how tasty and tender this cake is.
In my family, we need a sweet to finish every meal, and if there’s a cake, there are extra smiles. If you have a similar family, then you must try my Funfetti Cake or Tres Leches.
Olive Oil Cake
Olive oil cake is a simple cake that uses olive oil to help flavor and hydrate the cake for flavor and moisture. The flavors of the olive oil are subtle, but the result is a very moist cake with gentle lemon flavors from the lemon zest. While this is a classic Mediterranean cake, I push in on the Italian region and use Ricotta cheese to assist with flavor and moistness.
This is a very easy-to-make cake and is one of my most popular cake recipes. Do not let the “olive oil” in this recipe frighten you. It is extremely light and fluffy and nothing short of delicious. See the video below for detailed instructions for making this.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Ricotta – Use a good full-fat ricotta cheese. If you can get ahold of a true sheep’s milk ricotta, even better.
- Oil – Use good virgin olive oil. Extra virgin olive oil will give too strong of a flavor.
- Sugar – Granulated sugar is what you will need for this recipe.
- Lemon – The zest of lemon will give great flavors to this olive oil cake.
- Eggs – Large eggs that are chilled or at room temperature work great.
- Flour – You will need all-purpose flour and almond flour for this recipe.
- Leavening Agents – Both baking powder and baking soda is used in this cake.
- Salt – I always use sea salt in my recipes.
How to Make a Ricotta Olive Oil Cake
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the ricotta, olive oil, sugar, and lemon zest until completely combined.
Next, add in one egg at a time and mix to incorporate before adding in the next one.
In a separate large bowl, whisk together the flour, almond meal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until combined. Whisk well to ensure all clumps are removed.
Transfer the dry ingredients to your wet ingredients and whisk together until everything is combined.
Pour the batter into a 9″ springform pan and bake for 60-70 minutes or until golden brown on top of the cake and firm in the center. You can add a parchment paper round to the bottom of the pan.
Place the lemon ricotta cake onto a wire rack and let it cool to room temperature before decorating and serving.
Make-Ahead and Storage
Make-Ahead: You can make this cake up to 1 day ahead of time.
How to Store: Cover and keep at room temperature for up to 3 days. Place it in the refrigerator and cover it for up to 5 days. You can freeze this covered for up to 3 months and thaw it in the refrigerator for 1 day before serving.
How to Serve: Pull the cake out and let it sit for 1 hour at room temperature before serving.
Chef Notes + Tips
- Use finely ground almond flour. This is also known as almond meal.
- There are a few ways that you can finish off this cake. You can do it by simply sprinkling on some powdered sugar, or you can decorate it with some whipped cream, lemon slices, and fresh mint.
- For more lemon flavor, feel free to add lemon juice from 1 lemon.
- This is not a gluten-free cake.
- Feel free to also serve with fresh berries.
- Add 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract to the wet ingredients if you want added flavor.
More Cake Recipes
Video
Ricotta Olive Oil Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups of ricotta
- 2/3 cup of olive oil
- 1 ½ cups of sugar
- zest of 1 lemon
- 3 eggs
- 1 ½ cups ap flour
- 3/4 cup of almond meal
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/3 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk the ricotta, olive oil, sugar, and zest until completely combined.
- Next, add in one egg at a time, and they are completely mixed in.
- In a separate large bowl, whisk together the flour, almond meal baking powder, baking soda, and salt until combined. Whisk well to ensure clumps are removed.
- Transfer the dry ingredients to your wet ingredients and whisk together until everything is combined.
- Pour the batter into a 9" spring form pan and bake for 60-70 minutes or until browned on top and firm in the center.
- Place the cake onto a cooling rack and let it cool to room temperature before decorating and serving.
I made this yesterday. My neighbor makes olive oil cake pretty often. Was curious with this recipe with the addition of almond flour. It came out very good. Cake was soft, flavorful and fragrant. I did make it with orange zest instead of lemon as that’s what I had handy. Cake baked up easily and the crust of it had a little crispiness to the texture. Was a big hit with the neighbors. Would make again either with lemon zest or orange zest. Thank you Chef!
Hi Billy! Love your videos and recipes and cooking lessons. I’ve just made the Riccata Olive Oil Cake. We have electric ovens, not my former gas one, which I prefer. I baked the cake at 350⁰ as you indicated, but my cake was verry brown 20 min early. I tested it and the knife came out with batter, so I tented it with foil and let it finish, tho tested at 45 min to be sure. I’d set timer for 55 min, and at that time the cake was done.
Is this an issue with electric ovens? Should I cook the cake at 325⁰ instead? It will be cooled completely!!
I’ll serve it tomorrow evening, so won’t add conf sugar and lemons till then. Wondering if I should put the cooled cake in an old-fashioned tupperware cake container with a sealed lid? Or wrap in foil to keep it moist?
Thanks for your thoughts.
It smells terrific!!
If I don’t have enough ricotta (10 oz instead of 12) can I substitute plain yogurt something else or just make it with a little less ricotta?
I think you could and it would be ok.
Can I leave out the almond flour if I do not have it and use all ap flour?
no
I served this for Easter dessert. What a hit! It’s easy to make & delicious! This recipe is a keeper! I did however, grease the springform pan (mine isn’t non-stick). I also found 1/3 t. of soda curious…all my teaspoons go from 1/4 to 1/2.
I made this cake this evening for Easter dinner dessert. I seriously have never eaten or made a dessert as decadent as this. This recipe is a masterpiece and I don’t say that lightly. My tongue did flips. It was so flavorful and yet subtle, so light and airy. The moistness made it melt in my mouth. This should win awards! I will always use this recipe as a new family heirloom. What a showstopper! My guests raved about it. Thank you for continuing to bless us with your God given gifts!
I made this cake and it was beyond delicious! Moist tasty easy to make a definite home run!
Do you have to grease the pan before adding the cake mixture?
no, because you use a springform pan which is already non-stick.
Can I use a 10″ springform?
yes, but you cooking time will likely need to decrease.
If you use a 10″, as I have, the cake cooks a bit faster and it tends to flatten out in the middle, still good, but for 10 bucks get a 9″ pan if you can.
What a cake – I started out wanting to make cookies but I love baked goods with olive oil – amazing! I accidentally used 15 oz of ricotta – I guess the recipe technically calls for 12 oz. I also suggest adding in the juice of a lemon. Will make this again and again
So this is week 4 of me as a baker. I’ve been on a steep learning curve to fine tune my results. I couldn’t wait to try this recipe so this week I did. I swapped in cake flour for the all purpose flour but otherwise I followed the directions exactly. I’ve made some pretty fancy cakes before today but this one got RAVE reviews from my family. Best cake yet they tell me. I’m so thrilled. It is delicious and so easy. Will definitely make this again and again