This citrus-packed Lemon Ricotta Cake is a quick and easy bake with a fluffy texture and moist crumb. Top the cake with a colorful blueberry glaze for a truly perfect dessert!
Stand mixer with paddle attachment, or handheld mixer
Bundt pan
Fine mesh sieve
Ingredients
Lemon Ricotta Cake
3cupsall-purpose flour360g
2teaspoonsbaking powder
½teaspoonbaking soda
½teaspoonkosher salt
4largeeggstwo whole eggs, two egg whites (room temperature)
1½cupsgranulated sugar300g
3-4tablespoonslemon zestor 1½ peeled lemons
¼cupvegetable oil60ml
¼cupunsalted buttermelted (57g)
¼cuplemon juicefreshly squeezed (60ml)
2teaspoonsvanilla paste or extract
¾cupricotta cheese (full-fat)room temperature (180g)
1cupwhole milk(240ml)
Blueberry Glaze
1cupblueberriesfresh or frozen (115g fresh)
1½cupspowdered sugarsifted (180g)
1-2tablespoonswater, milk, or heavy cream
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350℉/180℃. Grease and flour a bundt pan and set aside.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside.
3 cups all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Separate two of the eggs, keeping the whites and saving the yolks for another time.
4 large eggs
Peel one and a half lemons and add the peels to the food processor with the sugar. Blend until no chunks of peels remain. Alternatively, zest 3-4 tablespoons of lemon zest using a microplane and mix it into the sugar with your fingertips.
Add the eggs and egg whites to the bowl of a stand mixer and beat on medium high speed for about 3 minutes until foamy and fluffy.
Add the lemon zest sugar, vegetable oil, melted butter, lemon juice, vanilla, and ricotta and mix to combine, then scrape down the sides.
¼ cup vegetable oil, ¼ cup unsalted butter, ¼ cup lemon juice, 2 teaspoons vanilla paste or extract, ¾ cup ricotta cheese (full-fat)
With the mixer running on low speed, add half of the flour mixture, drizzle in the milk, then add the remaining flour. Stop mixing as soon as the flour is incoprorated.
1 cup whole milk
Pour the mixture into the prepared bundt pan and spread evenly. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean from the center (but still has moist crumbs).
Remove the pound cake from the oven and rest on a cooling rack for 20 minutes, then turn the cake out of the pan onto a serving platter to finish cooling.
Blueberry Glaze
When the cake has finished cooling, add the blueberries to a small saucepan over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Gently mash down the blueberries as they are cooking to release all the juices.
1 cup blueberries
Once the blueberries have started to break down and produce juices, pass them through a fine mesh sieve into a small bowl so you are left with only the thick liquid.
Sift the powdered sugar into a separate bowl, and start by adding only 1 - 2 tablespoons of the blueberry juice to the sugar. Mix until incorporated (it will be very thick and pasty at this point), then slowly add in a small drizzle of liquid at a time and whisk together. The glaze should be thick, but pourable.
1½ cups powdered sugar, 1-2 tablespoons water, milk, or heavy cream
Once the cake is cool, spoon or pour as much glaze as desired over the cake. Slice, and serve!
Notes
Store the cake at room temperature for one day, then in the refrigerator for an additional three days, tightly covered. Test the pour of the glaze on an overturned drinking glass to see how it falls. Add more powdered sugar if it's too thin, and more liquid if it's too thick.Note that the glaze can be a different color and shade each time it's made and depends on the batch of blueberries. Follow my blueberry glaze post for guidance on how to make different shades of glaze.Note: This recipe has been adjusted to create a lighter, fluffier texture and was updated on June 22, 2022.