plum hazelnut ricotta cake

plum hazelnut ricotta cake

• 25 Jan 2021

Now that stone fruit are back in the fruit shop, I have so many recipes I want to share with you. I've even frozen some plums and apricots just in case they disappear from the shelves before I have time to bake with them.

 

Today's recipe is an adaptation of the apple ricotta cake I made a few months ago. I just knew it would taste delicious if I made it with plums. I played around with the recipe to make this version which uses toasted hazelnuts in the batter and as a topping.

I've given you instructions for a stand mixer, but when I make small cakes like this one, I often make the batter in my food processor so it takes no time to put together.

Here's the recipe for you which makes a 17 cm cake. For all my recipes, For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Plum hazelnut and ricotta cake

Ingredients

Filling

125 g ricotta, well drained

1 egg yolk

20 g caster sugar

½ tsp of vanilla extract

½ tsp lemon rind

 

Cake

3-4 plums, stones removed

1-2 tbs caster sugar

110g unsalted butter

110g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

75g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

Pinch salt

50g (1/2 cup) toasted hazelnut meal

2 tbs coarsely chopped toasted hazelnuts

1 tbs caster sugar

 

Filling

For the ricotta filling, mix all ingredients together in a small bowl until combined.

 

Cake

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 17cm tin with baking paper.

Thinly slice the plums into a small bowl then dredge with sugar. If the plums are very tart, you may need to use a bit more sugar. Set to one side.

 

Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla together until light and smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, and beat together. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl and then add the hazelnut meal. Stir to combine to make a soft batter. 

 

Spoon ⅔ of the cake mixture into the prepared pan. Spoon the ricotta filling, over the cake batter, spreading it almost to the edge. Top with the reserved plum slices. Gently spoon over the remaining cake batter and then smooth the surface. Top with the toasted hazelnuts and gently press into the cake batter.

 

Scatter the sugar on top of the cake and bake for about an hour until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out moist but relatively clean. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning onto a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

If you can't eat nuts just swap the nut meal with the same quantity of flour and top the cake with the plum slices instead. A light dusting of sugar over the top of the cake before baking will give a contrast in texture.  

I have at least 3 more stone fruit bakes coming your way. Hopefully they'll be as tasty as this plum cake. 

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen. 

 

Bye for now, 

 

Jillian