Persian Love Cake

Yes, you read correctly. This week I baked love.

The recipe for Persian Love Cake was given to me this week by an adorable friend that I have had for many years, the delightful Miss Kel. We caught up for a long overdue lunch and discussed, among other things, the..... 'Go Get Your Bake On' blog. She mentioned she had in her possession a fabulous gluten free recipe for a cake that, was.. well...love. Even better, the recipe didn't involve chocolate. Finally, when she told me the name.... I was IN!!

So Miss Kel, this blog is dedicated to you and your Persian Love Cake.

Personally, the jury is still out for me on this cake. I love the concept, a love cake - aphrodisiac in cake form - does life get any better??? But the aphrodisiac qualities come from nutmeg (believed by the Arabic, Chinese and Hindu cultures), more than a tablespoon of nutmeg, which I find to be a really strong flavour. The cake is yum, it has a crispy crunch in the base that comes from the raw sugar which then combines with an interesting tang in the creamy cheesecakey filling, but I am not sure that I am that sold on nutmeg.

I made this cake and took it to a very special party today, the collective first birthday party for all the babies in my mothers group. With all the brightly coloured yummies on the table, the old love cake looked a little boring, but those that took a piece said they enjoyed it and asked for the recipe, soooo I'll let you be the judge.

Its also supposed to be served with honey and vanilla spiked greek yoghurt. When I sampled mine with the suggested accompaniment I found it to be too tart and over powering. Next time I would probably skip the side serve of yoghurt and just have it solo.


PERSIAN LOVE CAKE

Ingredients

3 cups almond meal
1 cup raw sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 tsp salt
120gm unsalted butter, cubed and softened to room temperature
2 eggs
250gm greek yoghurt, plus 250gm for serving (optional)
1 heaped tbsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
45gms pistachios
Seeds from 1 vanilla bean
2 tbsp honey


Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees and grease and line a 23cm springform cake pan with baking paper.

2. Combine almond meal, sugars, salt and butter in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.

3. Spoon half of this mix into the springform pan and using the back of a spoon, smooth out so that the mixture evenly covers the base of the pan.

4. Add eggs, yoghurt, nutmeg and cinnamon to the remaining crumb mix and pulse until just combined. Pour this mix over the prepared base. Scatter the pistachios over the top of the cake (they should not sink) in any patter or design you like.

5. Bake for apporx 30-35 minutes, or until golden (need to watch this as mine got a little toasty). Leave the cake to cool in the pan and serve with the extra greek yoghurt mixed with the vanilla seeds and honey.





HOT TIP: I was unable to remove the baking paper from the bottom of my cake without the cake breaking at the sides. In case you have the same problem, make sure you cut the paper for the bottom of the pan to the exact size and that way you won't even see it when its on a serving plate.

Apparently this cake freezes really well and the flavours intensify by day 2 or 3. I've only just made the cake so I can't comment on that.



NOW...... Go Get Your Bake On!!

p.s. apologies loyal readers for the quality of photos in this blog. Something has happened to my camera and these are all I was able to salvage.