Carrot, Pistachio & Coconut Cake

22 May 2014




A while ago now I decided to dispose of my towering pile of cookery magazine. It was getting out of hand. I did however go through them before putting them out for recycling to tear out any recipe that were favourites or ones I had never made, yet still wanted to. I now have a small box of these random recipes of which this one falls into the category of 'never made but wanted to'. 

On Sunday we had a family lunch to celebrate Arthur's birthday and I made this cake for pudding. In fact I made it last week and popped it in the freezer, defrosting it the day before I needed it. It was delicious and I will be making it again very soon. It lends itself to summer really well and it light, tasty and with the specks of pistachio, carrot and dried rose petals, very pretty too. 

Carrot, Pistachio & Coconut Cake

Serves 8 - 10

3 large eggs
200g golden caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
200g ground almonds
100g desiccated coconut
2 tsp ground cinnamon
140g unsalted butter, melted
2 large carrots, coarsely grated
100g pistachio nuts, roughly chopped
icing sugar, for dusting
dried rose petals and ground pistachios (optional)
To Serve:
300ml double cream
2 tbsp icing sugar
a few drops of rose water

Heat oven to 160C / 140C fan / gas 3. Line the base and sides of a 24cm springform cake tin with baking parchment.

In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract together. Add the ground almonds, coconut and cinnamon, and stir before adding the butter. Mix throughly, add the grated carrots and pistachios, then mix again until all ingredients are evenly combined. Pour the mixture into your cake tin and bake for 1 hr, checking at 40 mins to ensure it's cooking evenly.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 4 hrs (or overnight) before turning out the cake onto a plate. 

Dust with a little icing sugar, then scatter with dried rose petals and pistachios, if desired. Just before serving, tip the cream, icing sugar and rose water into a bowl and whisk to soft peaks. Serve a dollop of cream alongside each slice of cake.

This cake will keep for up to one week, if covered with cling film - though the chances of it still being around for that long are slim.

No comments:

Post a Comment