Easy Blueberry Ricotta Cake with lemon glaze is perfect served as a coffee or breakfast cake. Ricotta cake is a delicately sweet and elegant dessert with a clafoutis-like texture.
We love blueberry desserts like our popular Blueberry Lemon Cake, epic Blueberry Pie, or loaded Blueberry Crumble. This blueberry ricotta cake does not disappoint.
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Blueberry Ricotta Cake Recipe:
I was tempted to call this a cheesecake but the texture isn’t what you would expect from cheesecake. Ricotta cake is a cross between a clafoutis, custard, soufflé and cheesecake. You’ll have to try it for yourself, then report back and share your thoughts. This blueberry lemon ricotta cake is a delight and I particularly good served slightly warm, dripping with lemon glaze.
What is Ricotta Cheese?
Ricotta cheese is made from whey leftover from making other cheeses. It is inexpensive and available in the refrigerated cheese aisle of most grocery stores, or you can make homemade ricotta. It is smooth and slightly grainy in texture. Ricotta is a versatile cheese and works well in sweet desserts like this ricotta cake and in savory dishes like Classic Lasagna.
Can I substitute with Cottage Cheese?
The flavor profile of cottage cheese is similar to ricotta but the texture is different as even “small curd” cottage cheese has significantly larger curd than ricotta cheese. If you must substitute, drain and mash the cottage cheese first.
How to Make Ricotta Cake:
This cake is simple to assemble and your oven does the rest.
- Pre-heat the oven, grease and line a 9″ springform pan and whisk together dry ingredients.
- Beat eggs and sugar until frothy
- Blend in melted butter, ricotta, sour cream, vanilla and lemon zest.
- Add flour mixture, mixing until combined then transfer to pan, top with blueberries and bake
It will poof up slightly in the center like a typical cheesecake and relax down slightly as it cools. Once it’s out of the oven, let it rest in the pan for 20 minutes then transfer to a cake platter and serve warm with lemon glaze.
How to Make Lemon Glaze:
It really doesn’t get any easier and all you need for a good lemon glaze are 2 ingredients: (1) FRESH lemon juice and (2) powdered sugar. Stir to combine and add more lemon juice for a thinner glaze or add more powdered sugar for a thicker glaze. Lemon glaze adds a fresh pop of lemon flavor to many fruit-based cakes or these Blueberry Muffins.
Storing Ricotta Cake:
You can keep the cake at room temperature for a day after it is made, but I would cover and refrigerate overnight for longer storage.
More Breakfast Cake Recipes:
These breakfast cakes all have 2 things in common: easy and delicious! They come together fast and are wonderful for unexpected (or expected) company.
- Easy Strawberry Cake drizzled with irresistible strawberry sauce
- Berry Crumb Cake with buttery crumb topping
- Easy Almond Cake (naturally gluten free!)
- Apple Cake – a classic “sharlotka” cake
- Fresh Peach Cake – with the softest crumb
- Apple Dapple Cake – glazed apple coffee cake
This Ricotta Cake was inspired by the Blueberry Breakfast Cake from King Arthur Flour.
Blueberry Ricotta Cake
Ingredients
For the Blueberry Ricotta Cake:
- 4 large eggs, room temperature
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 8 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted (not hot)
- 15 oz ricotta cheese, (about 2 cups)
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 Tbsp lemon zest, from 1 large lemon
- 8 oz blueberries, (1 1/2 cups) rinsed and dried
For the Glaze:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 Tbsp lemon juice, freshly squeezed
Instructions
How to Make Ricotta Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350˚F. Grease a 9” springform pan and line the bottom with a ring of parchment. Whisk together flour, salt and baking powder and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat together eggs and sugar on high speed for 2 minutes until frothy.
- Blend in melted butter until smooth. Add 15 oz ricotta, 1/4 cup sour cream, 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1 Tbsp lemon zest and beat on medium speed for 1 minute or just until blended.
- Add flour mixture and beat on low speed just until incorporated. Pour batter into prepared pan and sprinkle 1 1/2 cups blueberries evenly over the top.
- Bake in the center of oven at 350˚F for 60-65 min or until edges are lightly browned and cake appears set. It will still have a slight jiggle in the center. Remove from oven and cool 20 minutes in the pan then transfer to a cake platter. Once cake is on the cake platter, you should be able to easily slide out the parchment from under the cake.
How to Make Lemon Glaze:
- In a small bowl or measuring cup, stir together powdered sugar and lemon juice, adding more juice or powdered sugar to thin or thicken the glaze to desired consistency. Drizzle over warm cake and serve.
Nutrition Per Serving
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
We, Love your Blueberry Ricotta Cake we make it at least once a month……..sometimes more, because everyone loves it!!! thank you, Polly & Jack
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review, Polly & Jack!
Can I substitute the ricotta cheese for cream cheese? And if I can, how much cream cheese?
They are not quite the same. I have not tested cream cheese to advise. If you’d like to substitute with cottage cheese, see my note above for my recommendation.
Natasha,
just made this cake for the 2nd or 3rd time, and made the glaze but think it was an awful lot as it just pooled on top!
Again, to gift to several colleagues and friends, esp to my realtor who thinks its my best, but again mixed berries with flour and then folded into cake as prefer them inside rather than on top!
thx again:) Kelli
Thanks for sharing, Kelli! We enjoyed the amount of glaze on this cake, but you can definitely use less glaze if you prefer.
Hi Natasha, I have loved every single recipe from you thus far, thank you for being so methodical with your preparation steps especially for beginners like myself (not to mention creative)! I have a quick question about this recipe. I don’t have a spring foam pan and would like to avoid buying one so would a standard 8″ or 9″ cake pan be sufficient? Thank you and keep up the splendid job!
Hi Lena, one of our readers shared ths comment “Wonderful cake. Used 9″ standard cake pan lined with parchment, frozen blueberries, baked in a Breville toaster oven for 60 min, no drizzle. Beautiful result. Thank you for this recipe!”
Thank you, I will try that. Have a joyous and healthy holiday season!
Thank you, Lena! You as well.
I’ve made this in the summer when BB’s are best, and it’s fab!
Searching somewhere in this blog where swear I read about canned peaches being an alternative.
Am I dreaming?
Hi Judy! I have not tested this with canned peaches. I searched through the comments to see if anyone has tried canned peaches but did not find any responses regarding this.
I came across 2 Bellwether Farms twelve ounce basket ricottas in the managers special at Murrays cheese. I wanted to use all of the ricotta, so I increased the ingredients by another 50% and used a 10 inch spring form pan. I increased baking time by 15 minutes. I did not make the glaze.
This is the most perfect ricotta cake. Creamy and not too sweet. My husband loved it as well. Thank you for posting this terrific recipe.
Hi Kathi! Thank you for sharing that with us! I’m glad you loved the recipe.
I Iove BAKING anything with ricotta as it always tastes dreamy!!the few changes i made were using butter to coat the pan w/o the paper which is always a challenge to cut 4 me,
when i was prepping the lemon to zest, placed it in the microwave 4 too long, and juice was squirting out so put that into my pan, and got a different lemon to zest, also coated the berries with flour as planned to add those to the batter, and then put some extra ones on top; prefer the fruit to be all over the cake, and this is! it baked almost the entire time as wanted to to be golden on top!
have my realtor stopping by 2morrow and i usually bake for him, so he’ll have a slice and maybe some to take away. i rarely bake for myself but primarily for all the 1st responders in our lives; i’ll refrigerate it and glaze shortly b4 he comes over! thx again Natasha:): Kelli
put 4 stars until i taste it!!!
Hi Kelli! Thank you for trying the recipe. I hope it’s a hit!
cake was fantastic, best ever my realtor said! am making it again now to serve to friends who visit after surgery 2morrow; soft as cheesecake but less fattening, decrease sugar a bit as berries are very sweet; use butter from wrapper to coat pan and then flour! BRAVO Natasha:): kelli
Hi Kelli! Thank you for sharing. I’m glad it was a hit.