//SNIP

  //The following is added to my dao.store() method after the creation of a new entity 'newEntity'.
  //The code here exists in the context of a hibernate session (inside a Spring JPA template execute() callback)

   //resolve the cached query criteria without executing it - my criteria query has been refactored so I can get the criteria via a local private method 'getQueryCachedCriteria'
   CriteriaImpl criteriaImpl = (CriteriaImpl) getQueryCachedCriteria(session,newEntity.getNaturalIdentifierField());
                  
   //resolve runtime attributes of the criteria necessary to access the query cache - i have a helper class to perform the necessary magic
   Type[] resultTypes = helper.getResultTypes(sessionFactoryImpl,criteriaImpl,entityClass.getName());
                  
   Set querySpaces = helper.getQuerySpaces(sessionFactoryImpl,criteriaImpl, entityClass.getName());
                  
   String sqlString = helper.getSqlString(sessionFactoryImpl, criteriaImpl, entityClass.getName());
                  
   QueryParameters queryParameters = helper.getQueryParameters(sessionFactoryImpl, criteriaImpl,entityClass.getName());
                  
   Set filterKeys = FilterKey.createFilterKeys((SessionImplementor)session).getLoadQueryInfluencers().getEnabledFilters(),session.getEntityMode());

   QueryKey key = QueryKey.generateQueryKey(sqlString, queryParameters, filterKeys, session);
   
   //get a handle on the query cache
   QueryCache queryCache = sessionFactoryImpl.getQueryCache(criteriaImpl.getCacheRegion());
   
   //get the current result from the cache
   List result = queryCache.get(key, resultTypes, true, querySpaces, session);
                  
   if(result==null){
   //The query has not been cached so we don't need to do anything here.
   //The next time the query runs it will be resolved from the db and added to the cache
   //including the new entry.
   return;
   }
                  
   //update the result,
   if(!result.contains(newEntity)){
   result.add(newEntity);
                     
   //then put the result back in the cache (update)
   if ( session.getCacheMode().isPutEnabled() ) {
      boolean put = queryCache.put( key,resultTypes, result, queryParameters.isNaturalKeyLookup(), session );
   }
   }

//SNIP   

//here is my natural id criteria:
   
   public Criteria getQueryCachedCriteria(
         org.hibernate.Session session,
         Entity entity){
      
      Criteria criteria = session.createCriteria(persistantClass, "e");
      
      NaturalIdentifier naturalIdentifier = Restrictions.naturalId()
         .set("e.naturalIdentifierField", entity.getSomeField());

      criteria.add(naturalIdentifier)
         .setCacheable(true)
         .setCacheRegion("query.query1");
      
      return criteria;
   }