Makes a 9 inch round cake
Recipes are nomads: they travel from one person to the next and, like Chinese whispers, they change a bit each time they pass. We don’t know where this recipe started its journey, but it came to us from Laura Jane, a wonderful Australian baker with whom we worked for a spell. She used to bake it with chocolate flakes—delicious—which we changed to blueberries. This is in fact a cheesecake in disguise. The ricotta keeps it extremely moist and juicy while the ground hazelnuts bring texture and flavor, and work terrifically well with the fruit. After you have made it once or twice, why not experiment with the fruit-nut combo—walnut and date perhaps, or strawberry and almonds?
115g unsalted butter
125g granulated sugar
3 eggs
25g all-purpose flour
½ tsp table salt
zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp ground ginger
150g ground hazelnuts
250g ricotta cheese
1 pint of blueberries (150g)
100g hazelnuts, roughly chopped
2 tbsp demerara sugar
Preheat the oven to 350°F/325°F convection. Butter the bottom of a 9 inch cake tin, line with baking parchment and butter the sides.
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy—you can use an electric mixer with a paddle attachment or do it by hand with a large spatula. Add the eggs one at a time, making sure each is well combined before adding the next. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the flour, salt, lemon zest, ground ginger and ground hazelnuts and mix until fully incorporated. Fold the ricotta and half the blueberries into the batter and scoop into the prepared tin. Top with the remaining blueberries and the roughly chopped hazelnuts, and sprinkle with the demerara sugar.
Bake for about 55–65 minutes or until the cake has set, the blueberries have exploded a little and oozed blue syrup, and the hazelnuts are golden. Allow to cool in the tin. Once cooled, place in the fridge to help it set so that you can transfer it to a serving platter.
The cake keeps well in the fridge for 3–4 days, but it’s best to bring it up to room temperature before eating so that you can enjoy all the flavors to the fullest.