Nutty Rose Ginger and Citrus Cake
For the day that’s in it, here’s my take on a Persian Love Cake. I didn’t have all the ingredients needed for the original recipe. So I decided to play around with what I had.
Basically, I added in some orange, some stem ginger and syrup, and I increased the amount of rose water. I also halved the amount of cake batter as I wasn’t sure how well my additions would work out.
They worked out great. I love this. It has a very unique flavour.
If I do come across some finely ground blanched almonds and some raw pistachios I will definitely make the original. I’m sure I’d love it. But this was a happy little discovery too.
Nutty Rose Ginger and Citrus Cake
Ingredients
- 115g unsalted butter, softened
- 80g caster sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 6 cardamom pods
- 45g gluten-free plain flour
- 165g ground almonds
- 1 orange
- 1 lemon
- stem ginger in syrup
- rosewater
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- pinch of finely ground salt
- 1 1/4 cups icing sugar
- unsalted pistachios
- dried rose petals
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl beat together the softened unsalted butter and the caster sugar until well mixed and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
- Zest the orange and place it in a small bowl with one tablespoon of freshly squeezed orange juice, one tablespoon of rosewater and two tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice.
- Remove the cardamom seeds from their pods into a pestle and mortar. Grind to a fine powder. Add the ground cardamom seeds to the mixing bowl together with the ground almonds, gluten-free plain flour, and baking soda. Add in a small pinch of finely ground salt. If you only have coarse salt to hand, grind it to a fine powder in the pestle and mortar. Pour in the orange zest and juices. Mix everything together well.
- Grate about a one inch piece of stem ginger and mix in well also.
- Grease and line an 8 inch cake tine and pour/spread the cake batter into the tin. Bake in an oven at 180 C for about 30 minutes. When it’s done if you poke the cake with a skewer it should come out clean. Take out of the oven and let it cool down for 15 minutes or so.
- In a small cup or bowl mix 2 1/2 tablespoons of stem ginger syrup with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of rosewater. Taste and adjust to your liking. Does it need more sweetness, more syrup? More sharpness, more lemon juice? More rosewater? When you have the syrup to your liking, transfer the cake to a plate and poke the top of the cake several times with a skewer. Drizzle the syrup over the cake. Let the cake cool completely.
- When the cake is cooled, mix together the icing sugar and one tablespoon of strained lemon juice. Beat till you have a nicely smooth mix. Spoon the glaze over the cake and transfer to the fridge for 30 minutes.
- When ready decorate the cake with shelled and crushed unsalted pistachios and dried rose petals.
