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Cuisine:Description
adapted from Julia Busuttil Nishimura’s cookbook A Year Of Simple Family Food
Ingredients
125g unsalted butter, softened
125g raw sugar
2 eggs
200g fresh full-fat ricotta
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or powder
pinch of salt
finely grated zest of 2 large lemons
2 tablespoons lemon juice
250g (1 2/3 cups) self-raising flour
3–4 apples (500g in total), peeled, cored and cut into 1-2 cm pieces
1–2 tablespoons milk or soy milk
3 tablespoons pine nuts
icing sugar, for dusting
Instructions
Pre-heat oven to 180C (convention)/160C (fan-forced/convection).
Grease and line a 20cm round springform cake tin with baking paper.
Cream the butter and sugar together in a stand mixer (or with a wooden spoon). Add both eggs, one egg at a time and beat until pale and fluffy.
Add the ricotta, vanilla, salt, lemon zest, lemon juice and flour. Mix gently with a wooden spoon until just combined and flour is completely incorporated. Stir in the apple and a tablespoon or two of milk/soy milk if you feel the batter is very hard and not easy to mix. (I used about 2 tablespoons).
Spoon into the prepared cake tin. Scatter pine nuts on top. Bake in the pre-heated oven for approximately 40-45 minutes until golden, risen and pulling away from the edge of the tin. Turn off the oven. Allow to rest in the oven for 5 minutes.
Remove from oven and cool completely. Lift out with the baking paper and place it on a cake serving plate. Dust with icing sugar. Cut and serve.