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.

My Favourite Nutmilk Recipe

Here is my favourite nut milk recipe, it is a recipe found in the bible that is the Quirky Cookbook that I have slightly adapted.  I used to make 100% almond milk but found I was going through almonds like no ones business and they don't come cheap. This litre of milk costs about a dollar to make and it lasts me three days.  I use it in my coffee by adding 170g of the milk to my thermomix with a teaspoon of coconut oil, heated to 70 degrees then whizzed on speed 8 for 20 seconds.  It gives the perfect milk for your own home made bullet proof flat white.

I find the difference between store bought almond milk and home made almond milk is like comparing UHT (long life) dairy milk and fresh milk.  It's hard to find an almond milk that doesn't have added potential carcinogens such as carrageenan anyway if it's not cancer causing it does cause digestive tract inflammation which I'd rather avoid.  Besides, I much prefer the taste of this homemade milk and it is about a quarter of the price of the store bought stuff.  You'll need a nut milk bag for this or some muslin, or old pair of tights!!  I recently sieved this at a friends house and the result was much more watery as the pulp hadn't been squeezed.  On a faff level it's about a 5/10 but you soon get used to it and when it makes you feel so good you realise it's worth the effort.

Ingredients

50g of almonds
50g of sunflower seeds
1000g filtered water
1 tsbp coconut oil, macadamia oil or light flavoured olive oil
1 pinch of sea salt
10g of raw honey or your preferred sweetener (or not all all)

Method

Weigh your almonds and sunflower seeds into a bowl on top of your Thermomix.  Add a pinch of salt OR splash of apple cider vinegar and cover with water. Put a lid or cover over your bowl and leave it on your bench to soak for 10-14 hours.  If you are in a rush you can just put boiling water over the nuts and seeds and leave for twenty minutes.

Drain and rinse your nuts and seeds and then add to the mixing bowl with all of the other ingredients.

Blend 2 min/ speed 9. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with spatula, then cook* 4 min/ 60C/ speed 4.

Allow to cool then strain through a nut milk bag squeezing hard to extract all of the liquid.  Transfer into glass bottles and use as needed.

Notes

Keeps in fridge for 1-3 days.  It does separate so shake before use.  Can be used in place or ordinary milk for everything.

*if in a hurry no need to cook, just strain.