Just before Thanksgiving, I decided to make one of my favorite cakes, Giada De Laurentiis’s orange-ricotta pound cake, substituting oil for the butter. It worked beautifully and best of all, the cake materialized in one bowl very quickly.
This made me wonder which other cakes made with butter could be given the same treatment? I haven’t experimented extensively, but I suspect nearly all. I have long loved the flavor and texture of cakes made with oil, olive or otherwise, but I especially love making cakes with olive oil this time of year. Here’s why:
- No need to wait for butter to soften. If you have a microwave, softening butter is likely no big deal. If you don’t, it’s a pain in the rear. This time of year, butter doesn’t soften quickly on the countertop, so other tricks must be employed.
- No need to beat butter. Many cake recipes call for beating butter till it’s light and fluffy. No such instruction is called for with oil-based cakes.
- Speed. Without having to soften butter or beat it, oil-based cakes come together very quickly.
- Texture. This is a personal thing: I prefer (often) the texture of oil-based cakes.
- Longevity. In my experience, cakes made with oil keep longer, which is a boon this time of year, when anything that can be made ahead of time holds strong appeal. Often, too, the flavor of cakes made with oil improves over time.
This cake bakes for about an hour or until an instant-read thermometer registers about 200ºF. I love my Thermapen for testing cakes—I tend to underbake cakes and am perpetually disappointed when I cut into one only to find uncooked batter.
One-Bowl, Orange-Ricotta Pound Cake
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Adapted from this Giada De Laurentis recipe, this version calls for oil in place of butter, and the whole thing is made in one bowl. This cake keeps well for days—tuck it in an airtight bag or container. It makes a beautiful gift—wrap it in parchment paper and tie it with baker’s twine. See visual here. Often I make this in three mini loaf pans to give as gifts.
Yield = 3 mini loaves or 1 standard (9 x 5 x 3-inch) loaf
Ingredients
- 3 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups whole-milk ricotta cheese
- 3/4 cup neutral oil, such as canola or vegetable
- 2 tablespoons orange-flavored liqueur such as Grand Marnier
- 1 1/2 cups (320 g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- zest of 1 orange
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 cups (192 g) all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease one 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan with butter or nonstick spray. Alternatively, grease three mini loaf pans.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and ricotta till blended. Add the oil and liqueur and whisk until blended. Add the sugar, salt, and zest, and whisk again to combine. Add the baking powder and whisk again to incorporate. Add the flour and use a spatula to incorporate until it is no longer visible.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan or pans and bake until a toothpick comes out clean and the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan, 50 to 60 minutes (or longer; about 35 minutes for mini pans). If you have an instant-read thermometer, it should register about 200ºF. Let the loaves cool completely in their pans, then turn out onto a rack. Do not wrap until completely cool.
Susan says
Looks delish! Looking at my pantry now – can anything be subbed for the orange liqueur? Can a clementine be used to sub for the orange? Thanks for any thoughts on this!
alexandra says
Yes! I’ll add notes to the recipe: use 2 tablespoons freshly squeeze orange (or clementine) juice in place of the liqueur. Yes to clementine in place of the orange.
Debbie says
Hi! Do you think we can add some cranberries to this for that extra Christmas vibe ????
alexandra says
Absolutely!
Rebecca says
Alexandra, I have often thought about substituting oil for butter in the cakes I bake, mostly for the same reasons as you. In fact, I’ve gone as far as substituting melted coconut oil in cake recipes that use melted butter, and when I did this, I found that the cake was slightly more fragile/crumbly but otherwise delicious. But now I think I will try not only your recipe today (which looks delicious), but also some of my old favourite butter-based recipes, encouraged by your success!
PS I was given your cookbook for a birthday present some months ago and have made several no-knead bread recipes from it and have very much enjoyed the results :).
alexandra says
Hi Rebecca, thanks so much for writing in! I, too, have used coconut oil with success. I want to revisit so many recipes and not only try the oil-for-butter swap but also try the one-bowl method, which I think so many recipes could employ with success. If you start by beating eggs, then add wet ingredients successively, followed by sugar, and dry ingredients, I think most cakes will turn out? Fingers crossed 🙂
Also, I’m so happy to hear you’ve been enjoying the no-knead breads from my book 🙂 🙂 🙂 Means the world. Happy happy holidays!
Joyce says
Love a nice orange cake, especially with olive oil. Thanks. I’d love to print it off and keep, but there are now 2 huge 2-color ads that print with the recipe? Anyway to suppress those for printing?
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alexandra says
I’m trying to figure this out! Those ads are super annoying in the print box … I didn’t know they appeared there. I emailed the plugin company — they are very responsive, so I should hear from them soon. Stay tuned!
alexandra says
All fixed! Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Ads will no longer appear in any of recipes in the print dialogue box. Yay!
Francis-Olive says
Pinned! xoxoxox
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alexandra says
Yay!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Rebecca Brown says
I made this today and it turned out great. I didn’t have the ingredients to make it orange flavored, but I did have the ingredients to make it a lemon bread. Are used lemon extract and limoncello. The bread took a lot longer to bake than 50 minutes. I baked it in one large loaf pan
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alexandra says
So wonderful to hear this! Love the idea of lemon + limoncello. So festive!
Nancy E. Sutton says
Hi Alexandra! I’ll be trying avo oil (and maybe melted butter, coconut oil).. too easy not to! But I wonder if you can characterize the general difference between the results. I’d guess the ‘oil’ are denser and heavier (ok by me) and the butter/w beaten egg are lighter… any difference in cohesiveness? (i.e., crumblier?) Thanks!
alexandra says
Hi Nancy! No difference in cohesiveness — great question — but yes in texture: oil cakes, in my observation, are a little denser and moister, but not dense in an unpleasant way. That said, I have not tried coconut oil, and someone commented recently that she found cakes made with coconut oil to be a little crumblier in texture, so if you do plan on using coconut oil, keep that in mind. Hope that helps! I’ve yet to try avo oil … heard great things!
Maria says
Could I make this with olive oil?
alexandra says
Absolutely!
Cindy says
Love your website!
Has anyone tried to substitute a full fat Greek (thick, 6% MF or higher) yogurt for the ricotta cheese?
Thanks!
Cindy
LLBR says
I had some ricotta in the fridge when this recipe was posted … timely, as I was just beginning to bake for Christmas gift giving. The recipe produced four small loaves (the tiny aluminum loaf pans you find in any store) and they made pretty gifts that were well received. My daughter’s mother-in-law loved it and ate half the little loaf in one sitting – that’s saying a lot!! I’ve never heard her rave about any food before and honestly thought the gift would likely be received as a gesture rather than something to be consumed or enjoyed. Thanks, Alexandra. Happy New Year to you and yours.
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alexandra says
So happy to hear this, Lynne! I love how this one looks in mini loaf pans. So happy it was well received. Happy New Year to you and your family as well!
Amelia says
Hi Alexandra – I’d love to try this recipe in a Mary Ann pan. Any tips on bake time, since it’ll be a wider and shallower pan?
alexandra says
Hi Amelia, I’m not familiar with Mary Ann pan … sounds cute! If it’s wider and shallower, I would just start checking it much sooner — maybe even at the 35 minute mark. It may take as long as 45 minutes (or longer), but I suspect it will cook faster.
Carol says
Thank you for this recipe! I made it exactly as written, and it was fabulous – really good with a hot cup of tea. I agree with you about the oil – the texture and keeping-qualities of this cake are excellent, and it really does come together quickly. This seems like a versatile recipe, too – I can imagine it with a handful of chocolate chips added, or with different liqueurs.
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alexandra says
So happy to hear this, Carol! And I agree: very versatile. I’ve made a lemon variation (using the original recipe) and I’ve used various liqueurs. LOVE the idea of some chocolate chips. Yum.
M Nielsen says
this cake turned out wonderful, although it overflowed my pan a bit. Perhaps my loaf pan is a little smaller than what you recommended, thanks for another winner!
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alexandra says
Oh no! I do find my 8.5×4.5-inch loaf pan to be a little too small for this one — I use my 9×5-inch one bc I’ve had issues in the past. Going to make a note ASAP in the recipe. Glad you liked it even so! Thanks for writing!
Chris says
Thank you (and Giada) for this amazing pound cake! I love the original recipe but have also riffed on this many times in the last couple months with great success.
Full fat Greek yogurt (I used 5% Fage) can be used in place of the ricotta for a more sour version of the cake that I find is just as delicious, just a bit different. I always have small amounts of yogurt lying around and have found that you can sub out all or part of the ricotta for Greek yogurt with no downside in texture.
More fun variations I’ve tried:
Limoncello – sub in limoncello and lemon zest for the grand marnier and orange zest
Banana Rum – sub in dark rum for the grand marnier, add 1/2 tsp. vanilla, sub in 2-3 mashed overripe bananas for the ricotta
The one-bowl theme and core ingredients makes a great (and easy) cake template!