This blueberry, lemon & ricotta olive oil cake is simple to whip together, bursting with citrus flavours and takes advantage of blueberry season for all my Southern Hemisphere friends! This cake is perfect served just as it is as the blueberries create the most rich and sweet jam throughout.
Blueberry, Lemon & Ricotta Olive Oil Cake
I absolutely adore a simple cake that can work as both a breakfast cake with a side of coffee or a dessert cake with a side of ice cream. This is that cake. It uses minimal ingredients but does not skimp on flavour. It’s also a light and fluffy cake as it uses olive oil as opposed to butter. When the cake is baking away, the blueberries burst open and create the most lovely purple jam throughout. Not only is it aesthetically pleasing, but it’s also extremely tasty!
There are strong notes of citrus throughout from the use of both lemon juice and zest. To take the citrus flavour even further, I have rubbed the sugar and lemon zest together to infuse it with that lemony taste.
Olive Oil in a cake?
Yes! You read correctly. This cake uses olive oil making it extremely moist, fluffy and light. Olive oil based cakes also have a fruity flavour and tender crumb. Another bonus about baking with olive oil as opposed to butter is that you don’t need any fancy equipment to make this cake. There is no need for a stand mixer! All you need is a spatula and large bowl. And while it’s a simple cake to make, it is by no means simple tasting. It’s fancy and sophisticated enough to take to a dinner party and just as easy to dress down and serve with a cup of coffee for breakfast.
How to make this cake the best it can be
Pick the right olive oil – Olive oils come in all shapes and sizes from a more robust and heavy flavour to a more light and fruity taste. It really does come down to personal preference and while most cakes call for a light and fruity olive oil, I do like to use Rich Glen Frantoio Olive Oil as it has notes of green fruit and herbaceous apple and is of high quality.
Infuse your sugar – to take that citrus flavour to the next level, it’s crucial to rub the lemon zest and sugar together to further infuse it with a lemon taste. You can do this by rubbing the sugar and zest together with your fingertips
Keep it simple – olive oil cakes are more dense and rich and do not need an icing. I like to dust my olive oil cakes with icing sugar and sprinkle some extra lemon zest on top!
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This recipe was sponsored by Rich Glen Olive Oil.
Blueberry, Lemon & Ricotta Olive Oil Cake
Ingredients
- 1 cup caster sugar
- 2 tbsp lemon zest
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup lemon juice
- 3/4 cup Rich Glen Olive Oil
- 200 g ricotta
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 2 cups white all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 punnets blueberries 400g
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celsius and pre-line a 20cm baking tin.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the lemon zest and sugar and rub the two together with your fingers to flavour the sugar. Add the eggs and whisk until pale, smooth and frothy.
- In the same bowl, combine the lemon juice, olive oil, ricotta and vanilla essence and whisk until all ingredients are well combined. Sift in the flour and baking powder and gently combine the wet and dry ingredients with a spatula. Add 1 punnet of blueberries and gently fold through.
- Transfer the cake batter to the baking tin and smooth out on top with a spatula. Scatter the remaining blueberries on top and push them into the batter so their tops are slightly exposed.
- Bake for 50 minutes or until golden on top and a skewer comes out clean when poked into the middle. Leave to cool for 15 minutes in the tin then transfer to a cooling rack. Serve on its own or with ice cream.
Hi! Could I use raspberries instead of blueberries? And how many cups (or ounces) are in a punnet?
You absolutely can! I have made it with raspberries several times and it’s just as delicious. The amount is 400g. I will update that in the recipe now.
Just wondering if this reciepe would work well making it Gluten free. Or would I have to add eggs/ and or Xanthan gum for binding?
It would! I also have a GF blueberry cake recipe that I will be sharing shortly.
Yay awsome can’t wait to make it 😊
This looks so delicious!
Wishful thinking, but any possibility it can be made with a substitute for the sugar? And if so, anything you could suggest?
My mum has made it with stevia before. You will need to lower your ovens temp and cook it for a little longer!
Can you substitute ricotta, cheese allergy
Yes! Use some milk or heavy cream!
Hello!
May I ask how many eggs are meant to go in the cake?
The ingredients don’t list the eggs but the recipe mentions them. I had to guess and used three.
You guessed correctly! I have now fixed the recipe to include the eggs 🙂
Hi! It looks so good .. can I pls ask if frozen blueberries will work fine too for this recipe ? Thanks
I have tried frozen blueberries and it makes the batter a little too wet. I would recommend using fresh if you can.
Thank you soo much for replying.. will try with fresh .. can’t wait, it looks so yumm!!
Hi! I think you’re missing 3 eggs in the ingredients list … your lovely time lapse explains it though. The cakes in the oven now! Can’t wait: it looks lush!
Thanks so much for letting me know! I have now updated that 🙂
We are in the Caribbean and berries are not so bountiful but this is such a good base recipe…I reckon that lime infused sugar, pineapple in the cake and sprinkled with coconut would be awesome. Off to the kitchen we go!!!
Sounds delicious! I would love to hear how it turned out.
Another question 😊 Does the cake freeze well? Im not serving it for another 5 days but only have time today to make it
Can you please share the gluten free recipe of this cake? Thanks
It will be up very soon! Make sure you follow me on Instagram to know when it goes live.
Hi! I just made this wonderful cake and wanted to see what your recommendation is for storing. Will it be ok on the counter or would it be better to stay in the refrigerator? It turned out amazing!!
I keep it on the counter for 2 days then pop it in the fridge!
Just made this cake. The cake has a great light texture, it’s not very sweet tasting and the cake is mild in flavor. The blueberries add a nice sweetness. I think the caster sugar has a much less sugary taste. I’m tempted to try this with regular granulated sugar, increase the vanilla and increase the lemon zest. Definitely a nice light cake tho.
Thank you for this lovely feedback! You can always add more sugar if you need it to be a little more sweet!
Hi, I’m in the States and I attempted to make this awesome cake . I had to adapt your recipe to cups/ ozs / lbs etc .. well .. when it came to punnets of blueberries I assumed it was the same as a US pint !! Wrong ! Put way too many in . It’s very soggy .. As your audience is international , maybe u could list their measurements as well .. I do love your recipes and hopefully will be making more . Thx Sue
Thank you for that feedback. I am sorry the cake didn’t turn out the way it should! I will start to look into ways I can provide alternative measurements.
Hi😊 how big is your cup in this recipe???
Hi! I am in Australia so 1 cup is equal to 250 ml or 125g
I made he cake with enthusiasm and hope that it would turn out as in the photo. My first doubt was the ratio of liquids to flour, in particular, the amount of oil. Secondly, in general terms, when you have a dense cake, a tube cake would work better. In any event, I followed the recipe. The result was a very dense, doughy, and extremely oil cake. I watched the video after the fact and y batter did not come anywhere near what is in the video. Mine was completely soupy with the result indicated.
I would love to, but I am very hesitant to try it again.
I am sorry it did not turn out for you! I am in Australia and use Australian cups. Perhaps this is where the measurements were off?
I’m making this cake right now and have the same fears. My batter looks nothing like the video. Praying for a miracle.
Oh no! This may be because I am based in Australia and our cup measurements are different. I will get this updated for you. How did the cake turn out?
The recipe sounds amazing however I do have an important question, is the olive oil regular or extra virgin? I think extra virgin might be too strong a taste for the cake.
You can use a light olive oil if you like! It really depends on personal preference.
I am in the US, and I followed the recipe as written (using US cups), EXCEPT I only used 175g frozen blueberries because that is all I had. US cups are about 10mL more than AUS cups, so you might have expected it to come out a little drier, but I found them to be great!
I converted the recipe to muffins by upping the oven temp to 190C and baking for 30-35 minutes, until the tops turned golden brown.
I am so glad you loved the cake! They sound delicious as muffins too! I must try this.