Keto Lemon Ricotta Cake
This keto lemon ricotta cake is soft, moist, and flavored with fresh lemon and vanilla. It takes about 10 minutes to get into the oven, and the ricotta keeps the almond flour sponge tender without needing a complicated frosting or filling.
Ingredient Notes
- Butter: Use softened butter rather than melted butter. It should be soft enough to beat easily with the sweetener while still holding its shape.
- Low-Carb Sweetener: Sukrin Gold, erythritol, or another 1:1 sugar substitute can be used. If your sweetener is not a direct sugar replacement, adjust the quantity according to the manufacturer’s conversion guide.
- Vanilla Extract: Vanilla adds a light sweet aroma that works well with the ricotta and lemon. Pure vanilla extract gives the cleanest flavor, but vanilla paste can also be used.
- Eggs: Room-temperature eggs combine more easily with the butter and ricotta and can help produce a smoother batter.
- Ricotta Cheese: Use full-fat ricotta for the richest texture. If your ricotta contains a lot of visible liquid, drain off the excess before weighing it so the batter does not become too wet.
- Lemon: You will use both the zest and juice, so zest the lemon before cutting and juicing it. Avoid grating deeply into the white pith, which can taste bitter.
- Almond Flour: Use finely ground blanched almond flour for a softer cake. Almond meal is coarser and will give the sponge a heavier, more rustic texture.
- Baking Powder: Baking powder gives the almond flour cake some lift. Make sure it is fresh, especially if the container has been open for a long time.
Expert Tips
Cream the Butter and Sweetener Properly
Beat the softened butter and sweetener until the mixture looks creamy and well combined before adding anything else. This helps distribute the fat and sweetener evenly through the batter.
Don’t Worry If the Batter Looks Split
After the ricotta and lemon juice are added, the batter may look slightly curdled or separated. This is normal and does not mean the mixture has failed.
Check the Center Before Removing It From the Oven
The outside can look fully baked while the middle is still underdone. Insert a skewer or toothpick into the center. It should come out clean or with a few moist crumbs rather than wet batter.
Let the Cake Cool Before Removing It
The cake is delicate while hot, especially because it is made with almond flour and ricotta. Let it cool in the pan before removing it to reduce the chance of it cracking or breaking.
Storage and Leftovers
Store the cake in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Because it contains ricotta, it is best kept chilled rather than stored at room temperature for long periods.
You can serve the cake chilled or let an individual slice sit at room temperature for a short time before eating if you prefer a softer texture.
For longer storage, wrap individual slices well and freeze them for up to 6 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before serving.
More Recipes You May Like
- Keto Lemon & Poppy Seed Muffins
- Keto Lemon Cheesecake with Fresh Strawberries
- Keto Mug Cake
- Keto Berry Swirl Cheesecake
Keto Lemon Ricotta Cake
Ingredients
- 2.8 oz butter softened (about 5 ⅔ tbsp)
- 3.5 oz low-carb sweetener Sukrin Gold, erythritol, or another 1:1 sugar substitute (about ½ cup)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 eggs
- 5.3 oz ricotta cheese about ⅔ cup
- 1 lemon zested and juiced
- 3.5 oz almond flour about 1 cup
- 1 tsp baking powder
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 160°C (320°F). Grease a 7-inch cake pan with butter and line the base with parchment paper.
- Add the butter, sweetener, and vanilla extract to a large mixing bowl. Beat until creamy and well combined.
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition until light and frothy.
- Add the ricotta cheese, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Whisk until fully combined.
- In a separate bowl, combine the almond flour and baking powder, breaking up any lumps.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in two batches, mixing after each addition until combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and spread evenly.
- Bake for about 50 minutes, until the cake is cooked through.
- Allow the cake to cool before removing it from the pan.
- Slice and serve.
This cake sounds really good, I am tired of chocolate with so much of it for Christmas. My favorite cake is red velvet. My Grandmother always made it for my birthday. She’s been gone for many years, but I loved that she taught me to cook and I loved that cake. Thank you for your delicious food and keep the jibber jabber!
Sahil, I made this today and I think it’s the best keto cake I’ve ever made! So light and fluffy, delicious. It would be nice with a bit of greek yoghurt on the side, I think.
As suggested, I added the eggs first.
Here’s what the mixture looked like creamed, before adding eggs: https://photos.app.goo.gl/JBW92gXRD7SdV3GA6
Here’s what the mixture looked like after the eggs were added: https://photos.app.goo.gl/WMv3ybT2rvUXhhSZ6
And here’s what the mixture looked like with the dry ingredients added: https://photos.app.goo.gl/rs8eRVmabdob8svX6
So glad to hear that and thank you sharing the results of the alternative method to mine. Glad to see it worked better.
Hi Sahil, I tried this recipe with pretty decent result. It’s a great lemon cake. I followed your suggestion of beating eggs first, but, to be honest, the consistency of the batter wasn’t any better than what I could see from your video. It was slightly less chunky for sure, but not very smooth like normal cake batter. I think that’s the way it is.
But none of that matters because end result is fantastic! I topped the cake with mascarpone and it was yum!
hehe glad to hear that 🙂
I doubled the recipe and put it in a 9×13 inch pan. The only thing that bothered me was the temperature converted to 320 degrees farenheight and if I had baked it any higher the edges would have been blacker and the center would not have been cooked. This is a very moist cake. I’m tempted next time to bake it at 300 degrees farenheight and see what happens.
The best thing I found FOR ME was to omit the nuts and lemons on top and make a cream cheese frosting with confectioners Swerve and lemon juice beaten in. I actually dab the frosting on just before serving. That way I can re-heat each serving and enjoy the frosting too.
Thank you for such a great recipe!
Great recipe! I’m just curious to know how did you get 3gr net carbs per serving? I added all the ingredients to my keto app and it came to 17gr net carbs per serving. Because the sugar replacement is about 100gr carbs per 100 grams!, a total of 254 calories.
I don’t count the sugar alcohols as those aren’t processed. So this is Net carbs.
Thank you for the answer 🙂 it came out so good I’m doigng it again!
My cake came out super flat and greasy. I followed the recipe exactly and I’m an experienced baker. I’m going to add more flour next time and more baking powder and a bit less sweetener. The taste was very lemony and good. If anyone has and ideas, I would appreciate the feedback
Hi
I made this with a bit more baking powder and it was a bit oily. It tastes great though. My changes next time is to increase almond flour to 110g, 2 tablespoons of coconut flour 14g, baking powder 1.5g, baking soda 1 tsp. The rest the same. Good luck
I am having trouble following the measurements on either one — US Imperial or Metric — i.e., 3.53 oz. of almond flour???? How many cups is this ?? HELP !“
Ruth, please please please just buy a kitchen scale. Cups are really inaccurate and a scale is very inexpensive and it’s a friend in the kitchen for life.
You are hilarious! I thought at first your were saying your wife was a “lemon”. I like your style, and I really appreciate the beautiful photos. I will let you know what I think as soon as I try this cake recipe. Thank you for sharing.
For this specific recipe, what can we replace eggs with?
Nothing. None of my baking/dessert/bread recipes have egg substitutes. They will not work without eggs.
This was an absolute hit! I usually suck at baking , but I followed your revised steps and the cake came out so good! Next maybe a Keto lemon frosting recipe?
Sure thing 😀
This recipe is so delicious!!!! Didn’t have a cake pan so I made 8 cupcakes instead. I still baked them for 50 minutes and they came out amazing! Perfect. Thanks so much. This makes keto so much better!!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I just happened to come upon your site looking for cauliflower pizza dough and I am so excited. New to Keto, however I traveled to Italy in 2010 and the hostess where we stayed made my mom and I a Lemon Ricotta Cake and I have been looking for a similar recipe ever since! Very nice site and fabulous simple recipes that I will start using today! Thanks again!Washington State USA
Greetings from Southern California!
I just wanted to thank you for this great recipe! I was not even going to try making it because every other keto cake recipe has (at best) left me wanting. This cake goes straight to the winners circle! It was your taste testing on the video that convinced me to give it a try. I changed things up ever so slightly to keto-ize an old SAD Strawberry Lemonade Cake recipe. I turned them into cupcakes and submerged 1/2 a strawberry in the batter. Then I used just the cream cheese, mascarpone cheese, lemon juice and berry puree (strawberry in this case) from your Berry Cheesecake recipe as frosting. In the frosting I also put the lemon pulp (pith removed). The result is 6.6 g carbs – 2.1 g fiber = 4.5 g net carbs per cupcake. A delight for the mouth. I think you would give this a proper Indian head nod. Enough jibber babber–time to cook more of your recipes.
If you were going to make these into muffin instead how would you change the baking time and temp?
Same temp, same time I’d just keep checking it more often and follow my intuition.
Hi Sahil,
Your recipes are bang on buddy!
I live in japan hence a lot of products aren’t readily available.
Please can you advice the amount required of stevia drops (incase of sukrin gold) and cream cheese (incase of ricotta) for this recipe. Thank you so much!
hey so the best way is to add and then keep tasting the batter for sweetness which is how I do it because everyone is using a different sweetener and the sweetness seems to vary.
I don’t really like ricotta, can I use cream cheese?
Sure. should work in theory.
suggestion: for better lemon taste is to soak the zest in its juice for hours an then taste it (not all lemons taste the same) add store juice an sugar(any sweetner tt) even salt all in very small amounts till its good but even if not as strong of a lemon taste as you want then cook an reduce reduce reduce. well worth it. use the theory with pulp an juice with zest for icing.
qu :: do you have any suggestion for a good paleo/keito/carniviour idea for a frosting ???
I would just do butter cream which is just butter, sweetener and vanilla or any flavouring you like.
Hi. Thanks for the videos! If anybody wants a more homogeneous texture (like wheat flour cake) just use a blender! Put everything in and blend the batter until smooth and a bit aerated – for maybe one minute. It works like a charm. I omitted all the butter and used 1 T. Olive Oil and used lime instead of lemon – hey, it’s what I had – and make 8 cupcakes. I oiled the cupcake papers before filling them nearly full with batter.
Just use the foil liners. Much easier than oiling paper or the tin itself.
OMG it is devine! Have it with whipped cream .
I mad it with Almond Four not ground almonds. Soo much a lighter in texture and not as dense. Whichever almond mix you use it will be awesome.
Wow! This an incredibly tasty cake! I do need to buy a smaller springform pan since mine is closer to 9″. I will double the recipe in the meantime, but I have a suggestion based on a cake that my mother used to make with semolina, eggs, and chopped raw cashews plus a few other secret ingredients!
Next time I will ad some chopped almonds for texture! I may beat the egg whites and fold those in a the end.
I want to thank you because my mom loved lemons and this reminds me of her… she never told me that lemons were hard to find in India, but since we have a lemon tree outside of our kitchen in Goa, I may try using lime one day! Cheers!
how can I replace cheese?
Sheila it’s a ricotta cake, that is the main ingredient. It’s like asking how to make omelet without egg. There are some other cake and muffin recipes on the website, I suggest making those if you don’t have or want to use ricotta cheese.