Name: Classic Ricotta Pound Cake
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 75 min
Ingredients: 1 and ½ cups all-purpose flour; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 1 teaspoon salt; 3/4 cup butter (at room temperature); 1 and ½ cups ricotta cheese; 1 and ½ cups granulated sugar; 3 large eggs (at room temperature); 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (or lemon extract and zest from 1 lemon)

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Classic Ricotta Pound Cake is dense, soft, and sweet. It is guaranteed to get you to rave reviews at your next potluck!

This slightly sweet Classic Ricotta Pound Cake packs a flavor punch. It satisfies your craving for a moist, buttery, and tender dessert.

This dessert is incredibly rich, buttery, irresistible. I use whole milk ricotta in this pound cake recipe.

Pound cake loaf on a wire rack with slices cut.

Table of Contents

Classic Ricotta Pound Cake

I have plenty of pound cake recipes, but this is the only one that I make in a loaf pan. Usually, when I bake a cake or sweet bread in a loaf pan, they always sink a little in the center. For some reason, I can’t get the center to bake completely before the edges get overcooked.

Also, this pound cake doesn’t have a fine crumb-like most of the other pound cakes. It’s moist, dense, and creamy, but the crumb is actually quite large especially for a pound cake.

Lemon and ricotta just go together to me so I used lemon zest and lemon extract. I also test this cake with vanilla flavoring. Both flavors were good, but I prefer the lemon.

buttery pound cake made with ricotta cheese.

Serving Suggestions

Like most other pound cakes, this is delicious by itself. BUT, It also makes a great base for ice cream, whipped cream, berries, chocolate, or caramel sauce. And, how great would grilled peaches and mascarpone be!?

*Helpful comment from Lea –

I noticed that a few people had a problem with the cake being undone, or falling in the middle. When I use ricotta cheese in making cannoli cakes, you can’t beat it for very long or it will get runny.
I made this pound cake twice and I creamed the butter and sugar together first, then mixed in all of the other ingredients, then added the ricotta cheese last and mixed it in on low speed and only until it was incorporated. Don’t over beat. As well, I baked the first one in 2 – 9 inch round cake pans and the second one in a fluted pound/bundt cake pan and they both turned out fine. In fact I had one person who ate it say it was her new favorite pound cake. Its awesome, in fact, I’m going to make a 2 tier baby shower cake and cupcakes with this recipe for next week.

Here’s more or get all my pound cakes recipes here!

Classic Ricotta Pound Cake

Classic Ricotta Pound Cake is moist, buttery, and rich. This pound cake recipe yields a very dense but moist cake. It’s a smaller pound cake that makes one loaf pan instead of the standard tube or bundt pan.

Author: Paula

4.73 from 116 votes

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Prep Time: 15

Cook Time: 50

Total Time: 1 15

Servings: 12 servings

Equipment

Ingredients

1 and ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter at room temperature
1 and ½ cups ricotta cheese
1 and ½ cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or lemon extract and zest from 1 lemon

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Grease a 9-inch loaf pan with butter or solid vegetable shortening then sprinkle of granulated sugar or flour. Wilton cake release is great to prevent sticking too! (I use shortening and sugar. Sugar doesn't leave white patches like flour does.)
In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter, ricotta, and sugar until smooth about 2 minutes.
Add eggs, one at a time. The batter may look curdled at this point. It's okay just keep mixing. Stop the mixer and scrap the sides. Return the mixer to med-low.
Add the flour mixture and either vanilla extract or lemon zest and extract, depending on which you prefer. Scrap down sides and allow to beat about 30 seconds.
Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
Bake 45 to 50 minutes. Test cake by inserting a wooden pick into the center. If the pick is clean or has dry crumbs the cake is cooked perfectly. Dark pans cook faster than light pans as well as if you put the pan on a cookie sheet to bake. (I ALWAYS put cakes or pies on another pan to prevent spills from leaking in the oven.) Watch the time and cake carefully according to your oven and your pans.
Allow cake to cool on wire rack 15 minutes before inverting onto serving tray.

Nutrition

Nutritional information given is an automatic calculation and can vary based on the exact products you use and changes you make to the recipe. If these numbers are important to you, I recommend calculating them yourself.

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111 Comments

I had some leftover homemade ricotta I did not want to waste and came upon this recipe. Did not disappoint! 10 Stars! Hubby LOVED it and I can’t wait to try in a bundt pan next time. Thanks for sharing this winner!

Paula says:

08.21.20 at 12:26 pm

Thank you so much!

Reply

The flavor is absolutely delicious, but unfortunately, this recipe leads you astray if you follow the cooking directions. I would definitely recommend cooking longer and covering with foil after a while. I haven’t repeated this recipe to have a perfect suggestion, but the conditions I failed with were: I used a Pyrex baking dish and cooked this for 1 hour uncovered, then about 8 minutes covered, then let sit in the hot dish for another 10 and the inside was still pretty much liquid (shame on me for not having patience and assuming it would bake up more than it did) while the top and sides were about to burn. Nonetheless, I will definitely try this again with some alterations because we couldn’t help but devour the cooked scraps!

I made this twice today. I didn’t use a loaf pan, but a Bundt pan that Lea in the comments had mentioned she used. Lea also added the ricotta at the end of the recipe. I found that I had no issues with the cake being too wet or taking more than 50 minutes. I used vanilla extract and blood orange skin for flavor.
However!! I made it twice bc the original cake stuck to the pan! I sprayed it with butter Non stick spray & it stuck. Second cake, I over sprayed!! It still stuck, just not as bad. I managed to piece the cake together & served it with fresh, homemade Strawberry Syrup .
Definitely peruse the comments. Lea’s posts were very helpful. Cheers!

I put this in a classic bundt pan and baked it for 45 minutes and it was PERFECT!! My family could not keep their hands off of it. It’s so moist with just the perfect amount of sweetness. It’s a perfect complement to any flavor of ice cream or some berries and homemade whipped cream. I used vanilla this time, but next time, I think I’ll try it with lemon. It would also be good with almond extract.

Lots of comments about how long it takes to cook. If taking temperature of the cake with an internal thermometer, what temperature would indicate that the cake is properly cooked?

Has anyone tried baking this with a reduced amount of sugar? I was wondering if it would hurt the recipe too much to cut it down to 1 cup.. my parents and myself are diabetics but we still like to have a treat now and then and I just know that they would love ricotta pound cake 😁

Mandy says:

06.19.20 at 9:23 pm

I cut it to 1 1/4 and it’s fine- better even!

Reply

Recipe states 45-50 min at 350. I had to cook it 15 minutes longer. A bit sweet…but yummy.

Thanks, Paula.
This is delicious. I needed to bake it longer.. 60-65 minutes. I used a Pyrex/Glass loaf pan.. not sure if that needed more time.
Love this recipe as I always have some ricotta left over after making my lasagna.
This recipe is a keeper!

This was so easy and delicious! It came out perfect! Mine came out a bit darker on top (I think it was my pan), but perfectly moist inside. I make my own whole milk yogurt and use the whey from straining to make the whole milk ricotta. Yummy!