Pistachio and Rose cake
From Yottam Ottolengh / Helen Goh Sweet
Ingredients
Cake
3 cardamom pods
150 shelled pistachio kernels, plus extra 25g (finely chopped) to serve
100g ground almonds
170g fine semolina
1 ¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
300g unsalted butter at room temperature (plus extra for greasing)
330g caster sugar
4 large eggs, lightly whisked
grated zest of 1 lemon
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp rose water (not essence)
½ tsp vanilla extract
Syrup
100ml lemon juice
80ml rose water
100g caster sugar
In the book there are also candied rose petals and a rose cream, You can find details of them here, I just used ordinary dried rose petals and served with plain double cream.
Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C and grease a 9-inch/23-cm round springform pan and line with baking parchment.
Use the flat side of a large knife to crush the cardamom pods and place the seeds in the small bowl of a food processor. The pods can be discarded. Add the pistachios and blitz until the nuts are finely ground—the black cardamom seeds won’t really grind down—then transfer to a bowl. Add the ground almonds, semolina, baking powder and salt. Mix together and set aside.
Cream the butter and sugar either by hand or with a mixer. Beat until fully combined, but take care not to overwork it; you don’t want to incorporate a lot of air into the mixture. Slowly add the eggs, scraping down the sides of the bowl a few times and making sure that each batch is fully incorporated before adding the next. The mixture will curdle once the eggs are added, but don’t worry; this will not affect the end result.
Remove the bowl from the machine (if using) and add the dry ingredients, folding them in by hand and, again, taking care not to over-mix. Next fold in the lemon zest, lemon juice, rose water and vanilla extract and scrape the batter into the pan. Level with an offset spatula and bake for 55–60 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean but oily.
To make the rose syrup, about 10 minutes before the cake comes out of the oven (you want the syrup to be warm when the cake is ready), place all the ingredients for the syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring so that the sugar dissolves, then remove from the heat. Don’t worry that the consistency is thinner than you might expect; this is how it should be.
As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, drizzle all of the syrup over the top. It is a lot of syrup, but don’t lose your nerve—the cake can take it! Sprinkle with the finely chopped pistachios and set the cake aside in its pan to come to room temperature. Remove from the pan and scatter rose petals over the cake. Serve immediately.