Strawberry Ricotta cake – easy 1 Bowl recipe
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I’m in love with this beautiful, deliciously scented strawberry ricotta cake! Its moist texture, juicy strawberries, and vanilla and lemon hints make this super easy one-bowl cake sure to impress!
Bonus? It’s a breeze to whip up (no beating is required!)
The creamy, mildly sweet ricotta creates an amazing, dense texture that pairs beautifully with juicy strawberries and vanilla. This soft, fresh Italian cheese, with its delicate flavour, keeps the lovely crumbs moist for days without weighing them down.
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And it’s not too sweet, not too heavy, not too wet, it’s just right and so yummy.
I’m talking about a marriage made in heaven—absolutely one of our favorite ricotta dessert recipes. There is no food coloring or flavoring, just simple, fresh ingredients and cheerful strawberries.
If strawberries are out of season or too expensive for your tight budget, go for frozen, as I did: they’re much cheaper, convenient, and work just fine.
List of the ingredients
- Fresh or frozen strawberries
- Whole-milk ricotta
- All-purpose flour
- Eggs
- Sugar (caster sugar, light brown sugar, granulated is ok too)
- Vegetable oil
- Vanilla (extract or essence)
- Lemon zest
- Baking powder + pinch of salt
How to make this strawberry ricotta cake
(Note: this is a quick description, the full recipe is at the bottom of the page)
- Stir eggs and sugar well in 1 bowl to dissolve the sugar.
- Add the vegetable oil and mix again until well combined.
- Add the ricotta, lemon zest and vanilla extract and stir until smooth.
- Stir in the dry ingredients and mix until combined (do not overmix).
- Pour the batter into a baking pan, I used this 9 x 3 inch deep.
- Place the strawberries on top.
- Bake for 40 minutes and serve dusted with powdered sugar. Enjoy!
RECIPE NOTES & TIPS
Strawberry ricotta cake ingredients
RICOTTA: Whole milk ricotta is best. Its fat content and moisture improve your cake texture. I used 1 cup/250 grams of ricotta (they don’t sell 15-oz containers here in the UK). But if you buy a large container of ricotta, check below how to use up your leftovers!
STRAWBERRIES: you can use either fresh or frozen strawberries. However, frozen strawberries are convenient, available all year round, and save you money.
The recipe is also great for using up your not-so-perfect or not-so-fresh strawberries: cut them into pieces and fold them into the batter, as I do in this strawberry bread. Don’t waste!
SUGAR: The recipe calls for only 1/2 cup, which is just a fraction of the amount of sugar used in regular cakes. But you can save yourself that extra cup of sugar with such beautiful ingredients, and you won’t miss out on deliciousness!
VANILLA + LEMON ZEST: Their lovely flavors shine in this cake! You can use only zest or vanilla if that’s all you have, but don’t skip both.
VEGETABLE OIL: I used expeller pressed canola oil (rapeseed oil here in the UK).
FLOUR, EGGS, BAKING POWDER, PINCH OF SALT: as usual in cakes.
Baking tips to make this strawberry ricotta cake
ROOM TEMPERATURE INGREDIENTS: make sure eggs and ricotta are at room temperature.
DO NOT OVERMIX THE BATTER: Working flour too much can produce gluten, which creates a dense, rubbery cake.
MEASURE THE INGREDIENTS CORRECTLY: A kitchen scale is always the best option. If you use cups, it’s important you don’t scoop the flour out of the bag with your measuring cup because you could end up with more flour than you need. Use a spoon to transfer the flour from the bag into the measuring cup instead of using the back of a knife to level off the top. I find this post helpful to explain this spoon & level method.
OVEN: Make sure you preheat the oven and, let me state the obvious, do not open the oven door for the first 25 minutes (at least).
How to use leftover ricotta?
I’ve got you covered. If you buy a large container of ricotta, I promise you won’t have leftover ricotta in the fridge. These terrific recipes are perfect to use the versatile, creamy ricotta:
- Lemon ricotta pasta
- Crostini with ricotta
- One-pot tomato pasta with ricotta
- Pasta with zucchini
- Ricotta spaghetti
More delicious ricotta recipes?
If you make this strawberry ricotta cake or have a question, let me know by leaving a comment. I would love to hear from you! x
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Ricotta Strawberry Cake (easy 1 bowl recipe).
Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- ½ cup (100 grams) sugar (caster or brown sugar)
- ⅓ cup + 1 Tbsp (85-90 grams) oil (canola or vegetable oil)
- 1 cup (250 grams) whole-milk ricotta
- 1 tsp vanilla extract (or essence)
- 1 lemon zest
- 1 ½ cup + 2 Tbsp (200 grams) all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 18-20 (approx 300-350 grams) strawberries, fresh (top removed) or frozen
- 2 Tbsp Powdered sugar, to decorate (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F /180°C, place the shelf in the middle position, and grease and line a 23 cm / 9" cake pan with parchment paper (a loose bottom cake pan is best).
- In a large bowl, stir sugar and eggs vigourously until well combined.
- Stir in vegetable oil and mix well. Then add ricotta, lemon zest, vanilla extract and mix well with a whisk or a spatula until smooth.
- Mix flour, a pinch of salt and the baking powder in a second bowl, than add these dry ingredients onto the liquid ingredients, stir until combined and the flour is incorporated, but do not over mix.
- Pour the batter into the cake pan, smooth the surface, top with the whole strawberries pushing them gently into the batter.
- Bake for about 35-40 minutes or until skewer inserted into centre comes out clean.
- Stand 15 minutes in the cake pan before removing from the pan. You might need to turn out onto cooling rack if you don't use a loose bottom cake pan.
- Serve a room temperature dusted with powdered sugar if you wish. Enjoy!
At 40 minutes, my cake ( used blueberries), was not nearly done. Just added another 15 minutes. I’ll have to review the recipe. Maybe I did something wrong. I thought I was pretty meticulous did weigh everything in grams except for to spoon the flour and level off. Maybe blueberries were too watery? Was I supposed to drain the ricotta first?
Hi Kim, sorry to hear that. I think the blueberries and ricotta were fine – but the ratio of flour to liquid seems to be off unfortunately.
Hope the cake turned out well, despite the long baking time. x
I made this today it is delicious, moist, and easy to make. Used a spring form pan worked like a dream.
That’s great to hear, Pamela! Thanks a lot for sharing your feedback. x
Thank you for the recipe for a really easy, yet impressive looking cake. Faced with rapidly deteriorating strawberries and a random tub of ricotta, this recipe jumped out of my search results. I switched the vegetable oil for olive oil and used orange zest (as no lemons to hand) and as an addition, one teaspoon of ground ginger to the batter. Worked well, cake enjoyed by family in one sitting, luckily I put aside a slice for my morning coffee time the following day. Greetings from Hungary.
I’m so pleased the whole family loved it, Bernard!
Thanks so much for taking the time to share your feedback. : )
Hi Katia
Greetings from Johannesburg!
It looked great and came out very light too. I used butter instead of oil as I prefer the taste.
I was looking for something like a gateau, so I chopped some of the strawberries into the dough, topped the rest of the strawberries as per your recipe and garnished with piped fresh cream.
(butter and fresh cream… yummy – next time I’ll be more health/calorie conscious).
It was delicious!
Thank you for sharing your recipe.
Karla
You’re so welcome, Karla! : )
I’m so pleased it turned out delicious, and thanks for sharing your lovely feedback.
Have a great weekend. x
How is this a “one bowl” recipe when the instructions clearly call for a SECOND bowl for the flour, salt and baking powder?
Yes, you have the option to use a second bowl to mix flour and baking powder, but you can also make the batter in 1 bowl if you wish, mixing all the ingredients there, it works just fine.
I will add a note to the recipe.
Cheers
Hi Katia , greetings from Collingwood, Ontario Canada. I wonder if I can use applesauce instead of oil. Thanks.
Ruth
Hello from London, Ruth!
Sorry, but I’ve never tested the recipe with applesauce, I’m not sure about the result.
Have a lovely weekend. x
This was easy to make and passed my husbands taste test. He was disappointed however that it was not cheesecake. I had repeatedly told him it was ricotta cheese CAKE but until he ate it, he did not get the emphasis🤣. My ricotta was homemade from the whey after making chèvre . The goat milk definitely had a different taste than one would get with cows milk ricotta. I used frozen raspberries because I had a very good season last summer and need to use them up. The ones that touched the edge of the pan burned some and created a lot of smoke. It did not affect the flavor of the cake but we had to run the fan the whole time so be sure to not let the fruit touch the sides of the pan. I would be inclined to fold them in the batter next time although the separate bite flavors were interesting with sweet chevre flavored cake and then tart raspberry.
Thank you, Sarah… I love your comment! You’ve used amazing ingredients, I wish I had fresh ricotta and raspberries from my garden!
I’m sure it turned out delicious, and I’m so glad your skeptical husband enjoyed it too ; )
Have a great week x
Hi Katia.
Love your site. Made this twice. The second time I was sure to let the ricotta come to room temp….was definitely better then the first time I made it. It’s such an easy recipe & I’ll be making it more often. I used frozen berries [ that’s all I had]. Will use fresh next time. Many thanks for your recipes. Nancy in New York
Hi Nancy, thanks so much for taking the time to share your lovely feedback!
I’m so glad to hear you love my site and this recipe. I remember when I took those pictures I was craving a slice of this cake, it was so moist and irresistible!
Hugs from London. x
This looks great! Would it work with olive oil instead of vegetable or canola oil?
Hi Stacey! Olive oil works too, its stronger flavor is usually mellowed out by the addition of vanilla and lemon zest (you might add a bit more of lemon zest just to make sure). It’s fine! x
I was wondering if coconut oil would throw the flavor? I try to bake with that or butter typically. Looks yummy and something to throw together quickly.
Thank from Ohio, USA
Hello Jen! I’ve never tested this recipe using these substitutions, but I think either butter or coconut oil should work. Please, keep me posted if you give it a go. : )
Greetings from London. x