• Start by preheating the oven to 180℃, line a 9 inch round tin with butter and baking paper.

For the macerated strawberries:

• Cut the strawberries into quarters and transfer to a bowl, add the balsamic vinegar and castor sugar. Stir until combined and let it sit for 10 mins, we can get on with the cake batter in that time.

For the cake batter:

• In another bowl, add the butter, sugar and vanilla. Beat well until pale and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, gently fold together and add the ricotta. Half way through the folding, add the macerated strawberries and fold together until combined.

Assemble & bake:

• Transfer the half the batter to the tin and layer more ricotta and strawberries with sliced almonds.
• Add the remaining batter into the tin and smooth it out. Add more ricotta and strawberries, top with almonds and Demerara sugar.
• Bake for 45-50 mins until the cake has risen and the top is golden. The tooth pick test will not work well here as there ricotta keeps the cake extremely tender and soft. Hence when you poke the cake with tooth pick it shouldn’t have wet batter on it, moist or wet crumbs is fine.
• Once the cake is baked, it needs to cool as the cake will be too hot to cut into it and it will break apart. Let it cool down in the tin and remove after a couple of hours once its cool enough to handle. Slice with a sharp knife and serve with a dusting of icing sugar.