Here’s another cake from Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh’s SWEET. Instead of mini cakes with chocolate ganache I opted for one 6″ cake and kept it plain. This cake performs a balancing act between hazelnut cake and baked ricotta cake. With little dots of dark chocolate throughout it’s dense, super moist and keeps incredibly well. Oh, and did I mention yummy?
Preheat your oven to 180ºC (350ºF) and grease and line a 22cm (8″) cake tin. Toast 250g (8¾ oz) of blanched hazelnuts in the oven for 10 minutes and cool them completely before processing them with 35g (1¼ oz) of plain flour until you have hazelnut meal. Set aside in a bowl. Now process 100g of dark 70% chocolate until it’s the size of coarse crumbs and addit to the hazelnut meal along with 100g of ground almonds and mix well. Increase your oven heat to 190ºC (375ºF). Using a paddle in a mixer, cream 200g of butter with 250g of caster sugar until light and creamy. Add 6 egg yolks, one at a time until well mixed. Remove the bowl from the mixer and stir in 400g (14 oz) of ricotta cheese, 2 teaspoons of pure vanilla essence and ¼ of a teaspoon of salt (don’t add this if you used salted butter). In a clean dry bowl whisk 6 egg whites until you have stiff peaks. With a large spatula fold the egg whites into the cake mixture in a few batches. Transfer the mixture to the prepared cake tin and bake in the oven for approximately 60. The cake should colour a little and a tester should come out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the tin a little (until the sides of the cake pull away from the tin) before removing to a cake rack to cool. Sprinkle with powedered sugar to serve.
michelle picker cooks 