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Cardamom nut cake

Fragrant, nutty and beautiful to boot.

By Lisa Featherby
  • 15 mins preparation
  • 1 hr 15 mins cooking plus cooling
  • Serves 8 - 10
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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.

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

  • 1
    Preheat 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.
  • 2
    Meanwhile, 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.

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  • undefined: Lisa Featherby