Persian Love Cake

I've had a real urge lately to post some of my favourite recipes here to share with you so here we go with the first one, Persian Love Cake.

I 'found' this cake last year at my friend Rachel's birthday, it was lovingly baked to share by Kira.  Usually birthday cakes will be full of wheat and so off the menu for me, but I was excited to hear this one was gluten free (my bottom line) so I indulged it was absolutely delish. 

Kira kindly shared her recipe and I am sharing with you today.  The original recipe calls for twice the amount of sugar in the ingredients here and I really think it is sweet enough.  When you switch from sugar to fat for a fuel you start to taste the sweetness in formerly savoury foods such as pumpkin, carrot and beetroot.  If I accidently eat something sugar laden I am transported back to the racing heart, shakes and slight manicness of too much sugar - better avoided.  Yes there is quite a lot of sugar in this cake but you are only having a small slice, and I find the good fats from the nut meal, eggs, yoghurt and butter help to slow down the sugar metabolism.

I made this for the markets last week and as it flew off the plate.

Make this in a small round tin mine was 20cm.

Ingredients

360g (3 cups) almond meal
220g sugar (coconut, rapadura, raw)
120g organic butter
2 eggs, lightly beaten
250g Greek style or plain natural organic yoghurt
1 tsbp nutmeg
45g pistachios chopped or bashed

Method

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease tin and line bottom with baking paper.
• Combine almond meal, sugar and butter in mixing bowl and mix SP5 20secs or until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs, or rub with fingers in a bowl
• Spoon half of the mixture into your tin and press down to cover evenly, this is your cake base.
• Add eggs, yoghurt and nutmeg to remaining crumble mixture and mix SP4 20secs or until a creamy smooth consistency is achieved.  Mix with a spoon if you're sans TM.
• Pour creamy mixture over base. 
• Scatter bashed pistachios around the edge.
• Bake for about 30 mins until lightly golden
• Cool in pan on a wire rack until room temperature.
• Serve with a dollop of natural yoghurt.
• Keeps for a week in an air tight container.

Celebration Cake

When it comes to a special occasion like a birthday, I like to have a nice piece of birthday cake, not made from kidney beans, or raw ingredients but made with eggs and butter and sugar and of course chocolate.  There are plenty of Paleo Chocolate cakes on the web, all using coconut milk or cream, I don't really like coconut cream....and dairy is tolerated well, so here is my Primal Chocolate Cake!

The cake is pretty flat and I got about eleven slices out of this 20cm round cake, that works out to be about one teaspoon of coconut sugar per serve (minus the chocolate topping mind you).  All of the ingredients are top quality wholefoods.  When I ate this cake it felt decadent and bitterly sweet and it went down well, didn't make my heart palpitate or keep me awake all night!

It's an adaptation of the EDC "Too easy chocolate cake" Quirky has an awesome dairy free version but if you like butter and cream come walk with me.  Even though all ingredients are primal 'approved' it is still a decadent sweet to be enjoyed in small quantities on special occasions, as opposed to a daily dessert.  It's better for you than a gluten filled, refined sugar bomb of an insulin cascade but it isn't 'healthy' if eaten in large quantities.

It's faff free and cooks quickly and the ganache looks better the more you just slap it on.  Winning for me on all counts,  So here is the recipe:

Ingredients

120g organic butter
2 free range eggs
100g full cream organic milk
1tsp organic vanilla extract
60g coconut sugar
120g almond meal
2 teaspoons of gluten free baking powder
30g cacao

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.  Grease and line a 20cm cake tin and set aside.

Place butter into mixing bowl and melt 2 min/60 degrees/ speed 4.

Add all remaining ingredients and mix 20 sec/ speed 5.

Pour into prepared cake tin and bake 25-35 minutes ir untuk an inserted skewer comes out clean.  Allow to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.  Serve warm or allow to cool completely before icing or storing in an airtight container.

Ganache Ingredients

100g Lindt 70% cocoa chocolate bar, broken into pieces
80g full fat pouring (whipping) cream

Method

Place chocolate into mixing bowl and grate 10 sec/ speed 8. Scrape down sides of bowl.

Add cream and melt 2-3 min/50 degrees/ speed 3. 

Cool completely in fridge.  Insert butterfly and whip 1 min/speed 3.


I served this with some Organic natural yogurt, but whipped cream would work too, if desired.

Enjoy. I made this for my Mam it was her 69th Birthday, doesn't she look great.