One bowl, no mixer, no creaming butter and sugar. Ricotta, oil, eggs, vanilla and sugar go in together and get a good mix, then the flour goes in, then the blueberries get folded through. Into a lined tin and it bakes for 45 minutes.
The ricotta is what makes it worth doing. It keeps the crumb soft and slightly tangy in a way that butter doesn’t, and because there’s oil in there instead of butter it stays soft for days rather than drying out overnight.
There’s an optional lime icing at the end, just icing sugar and lime juice mixed to a drizzle. The cake is good without it, and a bit sharper and more interesting with it.
Why You’ll Love It
It’s a one bowl cake with a stir and no technique to get wrong, so it’s a good one if you don’t bake much or if you’re baking with kids. Fresh or frozen blueberries both work, which the recipe says outright, so you’re not waiting for them to be in season or paying punnet prices in winter. Ricotta and oil aren’t expensive and the rest is pantry staples. It suits afternoon tea, a lunchbox, or dessert with cream, and it holds up for a few days on the bench without going dry, which is more than most cakes manage.
Handy Tips
Don’t overmix once the flour goes in. Give it enough to combine and then stop, because working it after that makes it dense instead of light. Don’t worry about lumps from the ricotta before the flour, though. Those are meant to be there and they smooth out in the bake. Line the tin with baking paper rather than just greasing it, since the crust goes properly golden and you don’t want it welded to the tin. If you’re using frozen blueberries, fold them in still frozen, because thawed ones bleed and you’ll end up with a purple cake. Test it by pressing the middle lightly, and if it springs back it’s done. And let it cool completely in the tin before the icing goes anywhere near it.
Make It Your Way
The lime icing is the variation the recipe builds in, and it’s worth doing at least once. It’s 2 cups of icing sugar with the juice of half to a whole lime, mixed until it’s smooth and drizzly, poured over the cooled cake and left to set. Half a lime gives you a sweet glaze, a full one makes it properly sharp against the blueberries, and the recipe leaves that to you on purpose. Left plain, the cake is more of an everyday afternoon tea cake, which is a perfectly good thing for it to be. Iced, it turns into something you’d put on a plate for visitors.
How to Store It
It keeps well, which is the ricotta and the oil doing their job. Three days in an airtight container is the window I’d give you, and it’s genuinely as good on day two as it is on day one. If you’ve iced it, keep it somewhere cool so the icing doesn’t go sticky, and don’t stack the slices on top of each other. I can’t tell you how it freezes, because that hasn’t been tested for this one.
Other Recipes You’ll Love
Blueberry Ricotta Cake
Prep Time 15 minutes 
Cook Time
45 minutes 
Total Time 1 hour 
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- In a big mixing bowl, add the ricotta, oil, eggs, vanilla and sugar.
- Give it a good mix—don’t worry if it’s a little lumpy from the ricotta, that’s totally fine.
- Add the flour and mix until combined.
- Gently fold through the blueberries so they’re nice and even.
- Pour your batter into a lined 19cm cake tin and smooth out the top.
- Bake at 180°C for 45 minutes or until it springs back when pressed lightly in the middle.
- Let it cool in the tin before icing.
- Mix the icing sugar and lime juice in a bowl until smooth and drizzly.
- Pour it over the cooled cake and let it set. Zesty and sweet—YUM!
Nutrition
Video
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FAQs
Can I use cottage cheese instead of ricotta?
I wouldn’t. Cottage cheese is wetter and grainier than ricotta and the texture is the whole reason this cake works. If firm ricotta is hard to find, the tub kind from the supermarket is fine, just drain off any liquid sitting on top first.
Do frozen blueberries really work?
Yes, the recipe says fresh or frozen both work. The one thing to get right is folding them in while they’re still frozen. Thawed berries bleed into the batter and you get a purple cake with grey streaks, which tastes the same but looks like a mistake.
Can I leave the blueberries out?
You can, but then it’s a ricotta cake rather than a blueberry ricotta cake, which is still nice. Chopped strawberries or raspberries work in their place, and so do dark chocolate chips if you want to go a different direction entirely.
Why did my blueberries all sink to the bottom?
Usually the batter was too loose, or the berries went in before the flour had come together. Fold them through at the end, gently, into a batter that’s already thick. Frozen berries are less likely to sink than fresh ones because they’re heavier and firmer to start with.
Can I make it gluten-free?
Yes. Swap the self-raising flour for a gluten-free self-raising blend and add 1/2 teaspoon of xanthan gum if the blend hasn’t got any in it. The flour is the only thing in here carrying gluten, so there’s nothing else to work around.
Can I make it in a loaf tin instead?
The recipe is written and timed for a cake tin, so a loaf tin would be deeper and would need longer, and I can’t give you a time I haven’t tested. If you do try it, go by the spring-back test in the middle rather than the clock.
Super easy and so moist and delicious! Such a great cake and will be making it again and again.
This is a 5 star recipe. It is so quick and easy to make and the cake is moist and delicious. I will be making this one again.
This is a 5 star recipe. It is so quick and easy to make and the cake is moist and delicious. I will be making this one again.
What’s the cake tin size please?
19cm cake tin. I’ve added it to the recipe.