A fragrant, nutty cake with a lot of moisture and richness to it. It's not a Persian love cake, but we couldn't help throwing a few rose petals on top for a romantic touch.
Cardamom nut cake
Fragrant, nutty and beautiful to boot.
- 15 mins preparation
- 1 hr 15 mins cooking plus cooling
- Serves 8 - 10
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Ingredients
- 160 gm softened unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
- Plain flour, for dusting
- 250 gm raw sugar
- 150 gm almonds, very finely chopped
- 65 gm finely chopped walnuts
- 65 gm finely chopped pistachio nuts, plus extra, coarsely chopped to serve
- Seeds from 7 cardamom pods (1⁄2 tsp seeds), crushed with a mortar and pestle
- 4 eggs
- 150 gm (1¼ cups) almond meal
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 80 gm plain yoghurt, well stirred
- Rose petals (see note), and small roses, to serve
Lemon & rose icing
- 90 gm (¼ cup) pure icing sugar, sifted
- Juice of ½-1 lemon
- Few drops of rosewater
Method
- 1Preheat oven to 150°C. Butter and flour a 22cm-diameter cake tin and line the base with baking paper. Beat butter and sugar in an electric mixer until pale (6-8 minutes). Stir in nuts and cardamom seeds, then with the motor running, add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold in almond meal and baking powder, then fold in yoghurt. Spoon batter into prepared tin and bake until a skewer withdraws clean (1¼-1½ hours). Cool in tin (15-20 minutes). Carefully turn out onto a plate, then invert onto a wire rack so the original top is facing up. Cool completely.
- 2Meanwhile, for lemon and rose icing, stir ingredients in a bowl to combine. Transfer cake to a plate, drizzle with icing and serve topped with rose petals, roses and pistachio nuts.
Notes
We brushed some of the petals with eggwhite then dusted them with caster sugar and semi-dried them (we let them stand at room temperature for 2 hours) for decoration, but this is optional.
Drink suggestion: Sweet Rutherglen muscat. Drink suggestion by Max Allen.
