This week I am baking cakes

Specifically cheesecakes, and even more specifically, ricotta cheesecakes. I had an idea, some flavours in my mind, and went searching for recipes. Most of them involved flavours I didn't want - mixing the ricotta with cream cheese, for example. So I played around and invented.

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The first time I made a ricotta cake with sugar and flour and almonds and so on and baked it in a pastry case. Very good, but.... So I tried again, this time with less flour and sugar, and no pastry. This is what we have, this is what I am happy with. These are the four stages of the cake, pictured below.  In the tin, unbaked; baked; turned out, and cut.  I don't blanch the almonds first, but I suspect it would be better if I had. Paler, anyway, but not necessarily better in flavour.

500g ricotta
80g caster sugar
60g plain flour
80g ground almonds
Three eggs, separated
2 tablespoons currants, soaked in rum
Grated rind one orange Butter, breadcrumbs for the cake tin

PROCESS

• Mix the sugar with the ricotta and the grated orange rind.

• Add the flour, stir well but gently. Add the ground almonds, and the currants.

• Add the egg yolks, one by one.

• Beat the egg whites until still. Fold carefully through the mixture.

• Put into a well buttered baking tin (20cm diameter) lightly sprinkled with breadcrumbs.

• Bake at 170 C until the sides of the cake are just shrinking away from the sides of the dish and the top is lightly golden.

• Leave to cool in the tin before turning out.

• Dust with icing sugar before serving.