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 cake as my birthday treat for friends. It is one of the best cakes I have made . The taste and texture were both exquisite. I live in India where ricotta cheese is not easily available. I substituted it with paneer (freshly made cottage cheese). It turned out to be excellent.
Many many thanks Chef Billy Parisi for sharing your recipes and your passion for cooking. Your videos are always a delight to watch and leave me feeling good about life. All the best.
many thanks!
I made this cake last night using part skim ricotta and it was the best cake ever – it was so moist and the texture was wonderful. We had it again this morning with our coffee and pretended we were back in Italy sitting at a cafe in Rome. I’m going to make it again this weekend for dinner guests using whole ricotta to see the difference. Even with all the lemon zest, it was a touch underwhelming so next time I’m adding more lemon juice or even better Limoncello!
Thanks Billy – love watching you and your recipes are great and your teaching techniques are perfect.
thanks for giving it a shot!!
Can I use part skim ricotta instead?
yes
Hello
Was wondering if I could use avocado oil instead of olive oil.
Thank you
Without testing it, I’m not sure.
We absolutely love this cake! It has become the family all time favorite, and my son requests that I make it for him regularly. Today I substituted avocado oil for olive oil, and since I didn’t have ricotta subbed 1 cup plain Greek yogurt & 1/2 cup cottage cheese blended until smooth. It came out perfect as always! Also I bake it in my little Breville convection oven! Thanks again Billy!
Was wondering about almond meal but I read now that you could use ground almond flour I don’t have either one of those so I guess I’ll go to the store to get some almond flour before I make this cake. It sounds so delicious. Thank you for sharing some of your delicious recipes with us. When my family tells me how great it is how good it tastes, I feel like a chef to at times. Let’s Cook
Hello Mary,
I did not have almond meal or flour at home. So I simply ground raw almonds in the blender. It worked fine. I hope this suggestion helps you. Chef Billy will be able to tell us if this was ok or not.
Have fun!
goes really well with ice cream. we skipped the powdered sugar on top, was still absolutely delish!
so good!!
I made this yesterday & it did not disappoint. I took it out at 50 mins as it seemed done, and it was, but probably could have come out 5-10 mins earlier and been more moist. Your video says 45-50 mins, but the written recipe says 60-70 mins which is definitely too long. I assume that’s a typo?
Cake was yummy , very moist and so easy to make.
Does it actually need 1 tablespoon of baking powder . It seems like a lot .
yes, don’t change a thing.
Bravo 🙂 I made this 2nite and it was Amazing 🙂 I used my 9″x 3 ” pan with parchment on the bottom. I let it cool as instructed and it released from the pan perfectly 🙂 This is delicious Chef 🙂 its a keeper 🙂 thank you so much 🙂
fantastic!
Hi Chef,
Is it possible to use honey instead of sugar and if so, how much honey would you suggest?
Thanks!
Without testing it, I’m not sure on the amounts.