Boysenberry, Ricotta & Pistachio Cake
With Stracciatella Icing
DIFFICULTY: Medium
PREP + COOK TIME: 3-4 Hours
Ingredients
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Ingredients ✴
Boysenberry & Pistachio Cake:
165g salted butter, softened
1 ¼ cups caster sugar
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 ¾ cups plain flour (make sure you don’t pack the flour down when measuring)
1 Tbsp baking powder
50g ground pistachios
250g full-fat ricotta cheese
¼ cup unsweetened Greek yoghurt
1 heaped cup frozen boysenberries (about 150g)
Boysenberry Compote & Icing:
2 cups frozen boysenberries (about 250g)
Juice of ½ lemon
3 Tbsp caster sugar
2 cups icing sugar
100g softened butter
250g cream cheese
80g Wittaker’s milk chocolate, very finely chopped (or grated)
Directions
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Directions ✴
Preheat your oven to 170°C bake. Grease & line the base and sides of two 20cm cake tins with baking paper.
Boysenberry Cake: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or, use hand-held electric beaters), beat the butter, sugar, olive oil and vanilla together on high speed for 3-4 minutes, until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition until combined. Whisk flour, baking powder and ½ tsp table salt together in a separate bowl then add to the egg/butter mixture, along with the ground pistachio. Beat together on low speed, until just combined. Add the ricotta and yoghurt and beat again on low, until just combined. Gently fold through the boysenberries. Divide batter evenly between the two prepared cake tins and spread out into an even layer. Bake on the lower middle oven rack for 35-40 minutes, until golden and a skewer inserted comes out mostly clean with a few moist crumbs. Set cakes aside to cool in the tins for 20 minutes, before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Remove and discard the baking paper.
Boysenberry Compote: Add boysenberries, lemon juice and caster sugar to a small pot on medium heat. Cook for about 8 minutes, stirring often, until reduced, glossy and jammy. Set aside to cool in the fridge.
Icing: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or, use hand-held electric beaters), beat butter and icing sugar together on medium speed for about 5 minutes, until pale and fluffy. Add the cream cheese and beat again on medium speed for 1-2 minutes, until smooth and fluffy. Add the finely chopped chocolate and beat again for about 20 seconds, until just combined. Set aside at room temp, until ready to use.
Assembly: Once the cakes have cooled completely, assemble the cake. Place one of the cakes on a cake stand or serving plate. Spoon over roughly half of the icing, and spread out over the cake in an even layer. Dollop over roughly half of the cooled boysenberry compote, letting some drizzle down the sides. Place the second cake on top, and repeat with the remaining icing and boysenberry compote. Decorate with flowers and mint leaves, if desired. Serve cake at room temperature.