Lemon Ricotta Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Normally, lemon ricotta cake is dusted with icing sugar. But I like a bit of frosting! Also, I wanted to practise making frosting because I screwed it up last time. You can also make it without frosting, and just icing sugar on top.

This recipe is combined from a few different sources, but adapted for Australian ingredients and metric units.

Like most cake recipes, this one is one where you sift and mix dry ingredients and then combine them with wet ones. It’s not rocket science.

Disclaimer: I’m not a food blogger, just a guy who likes to keep my recipes somewhere easy to find! These are all things I’ve made, so if you like it, you can make it and it’ll work.

Ingredients

Cake:

• 200g all-purpose flour
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp fine sea salt
• 100g unsalted butter, very soft (not melted)
• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 ¼ cups caster sugar
• 2 large lemons, zested and juiced (60ml)
• 3 large eggs (room temperature)
• 340g whole milk ricotta cheese (drained if very wet, room temperature)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Frosting (see recipe below)
• Berries or compote for decoration

Frosting:

• 100g cream cheese (brick type, not tub), softened
• 50g unsalted butter, softened
• 100g icing sugar(sifted)
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• Zest of 1 lemon

Instructions

At an appropriate time, preheat oven to 175°C, fan forced. Grease a round springform pan with butter, line the base with parchment paper, and grease the paper. (I do this after step 3 roughly, but it feels weird to put it there)

1. Dry ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
2. Wet ingredients: In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter, olive oil, sugar, and lemon zest until light and fluffy (2–3 minutes).
   • Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping the bowl between each.
   • Mix in ricotta, lemon juice, and vanilla until combined. The batter may look slightly curdled—this is normal.
   • Using a spatula, fold in the dry ingredients in two batches. Do not overmix.
3. Pour the combined batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 45–55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. (If baking in two layers, it’ll be more like 30-35 minutes).
4. Cool in the pan for 20 minutes, then remove it from the tin, and cool it on a rack. You can accelerate this in the fridge.

While the cake is cooling, prepare the frosting.

1. In a bowl, beat the butter and cream cheese together until smooth and creamy — but don’t overdo it! About 1-2 minutes with a hand mixer.
2. Add powdered sugar, lemon juice, and zest.
3. Beat until light and fluffy, another 1–2 minutes.

Spread the frosting over the cooled cake using a palette knife or the back of a spoon, then decorate it with berries.