Rose & Pistachios bundt cake
This cake has been on my ‘To try’ list for quite sometime now. The usual chocolate and the black forest cake fails to woe me these days, and I am in constant look out for new flavours and their combinations. A few days back I came across a Persian love cake and realised that the cake in many ways reminds me of the Indian flavours. This is my own version with Indian flavours, try it only if you want something unique with intense flavours.
What you’ll need :
1 cup fine sugar (195 gms)
1/2 cup butter (113 gms at room temperature)
2 eggs
1 tbsp rose essence
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour (187 gms)
1/2 cup milk
4 cardamom pods (peeled and finely powdered)
A pinch of nutmeg powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup milk
Rose petals (optional)
1/2 cup pistachios
For the lemon icing
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
4 tbsp fresh lemon juice
A pinch of salt
How to :
In a mortar and pestle, powder the pistachios until they are halved. Remove a few of them and powder the rest to smaller pieces.
Preheat the over to 170 degrees C. Grease a 10-inch bundt pan with butter or with a nonstick cooking spray.
In a nonstick pan, add 1 tbsp each of rose water, lemon juice, icing sugar and heat it for about 30 seconds until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is free flowing. Remove from heat and keep it aside
Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until light and fluffy. The mixture should be noticeably lighter in color. Add eggs one at a time, allowing each egg to blend into the butter mixture before adding the next. Mix in rose water.
Combine flour, nutmeg, baking powder and gently sieve it into the wet ingredients. Add the bigger pieces of pistachios, milk and fold the mixture with a spatula. Remember to not use the mixer at this stage or else you run the risk of a making a dense cake.
Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until a knife edge inserted into center of cake comes out clean. Prick holes in the still warm cake. Slowly pour the rose and lemon syrup over the cake. Let the cake cool before removing from pan
In a medium bowl, whisk together confectioners' sugar, lemon zest, salt and fresh lemon juice until smooth to make a lemon glazing
Once the cake has cooled, gently remove it from the bundt pan, turn it upside down and cover it with lemon icing and sprinkle the almond powder.
Decorate with some rose petals
Since I couldn’t find a bundt pan, used a cheat pan, which had a hollow middle, but the groves weren’t the way I wanted. Anyways the lemon icing and almond decoration hid the top of the cake completely and it didn’t matter much at the end!
