Rose and cardamom remind me of trips to Turkey and Dubai however, both being strong flavours that can overpower many dishes they need to be balanced to make a great cake. This has been successfully made for multiple birthdays to great delight.
One odd part of the recipe here is the cardamom infusion. Firstly crush the cardamom in a mortar and pestle then put in a small cup. Adding sugar here, whilst crushing, enables the pods to be broken easier. Then by adding the mixture to just boiled water and covering the cup you are almost creating a tea pot effect where the flavours leach out into the water sugar syrup. Leave this to happen and once you have sieved this you have your freshly made cardamom extract
Time: 45 minutes to prepare and 30 minutes to decorate
Serves: generously serve 8
5 large eggs
250g of self raising flour
400g of butter
250g of caster sugar (Plus one tablespoon)
300g of icing sugar
Rose water
7 Cardamom pods
Handful of shelled pistachios
Apricot or Peach jam
Dash of milk
Edible rose petals
- Prepare the cardamom infusion by crushing the cardamom with a mortar and pestle with a tablespoon of caster sugar. Add 25ml of boiling water and cover for 30 minutes then strain the solution.
- Cream the caster sugar and 250g of butter together. Then add the eggs and half the flour and beat together. Then add the remaining flour and beat together.
- Add the cardamom infusion to the mixture gradually and fold together. If you don’t mind raw eggs taste the mixture whilst adding the infusion as strength of cardamom may vary in potency.
- Place in a buttered tin and bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 25-35 minutes depending on tin. Use a knife to check the center to ensure cake is baked.
- Once the cake cool slice into two layers and spread with jam and sprinkle with half the pistachios (preferabley broken into smaller pieces).
- Now make the butter cream by beating together the milk, half the icing sugar and remaining butter (this needs to be a room temperture). Then add the rest of the icing sugar until smooth and creamy.
- Now add the rosewater to taste, this can be a very overwhelming flavour. Add small drops at a time.
- Spread the buttercream and decorate with rose petals and pistachios.
Recipes from my kitchen, Edinburgh, Scotland 