Cake Heaven - Carrot, cardamom and pistachio cake

This carrot cake tops every other carrot cake I've ever made - I had planned to make a carrot cake this week as I needed to use up the carrots and the some of the raisins that I didn't use when making the Kabuli Pulao earlier in the week. But as I went into the kitchen to make the cake I realised that I also had some pistachios left over and some ground cardamom for the Kabuli Pulao I ground my own so had about 3 tsps left). My partner is allergic to walnuts and the last time I made carrot cake at home I did miss having the walnuts to give the cake texture... pistachios seemed like the perfect solution! I never expected my weekly challenge to cook a dish from a different country would inspire a cake like this - but voila! here it is! I have never been big on having a lot of icing on a cake, and so decided to pair the cake with an orange curd and a simple icing sugar dusting.

I chose a curd made with complete eggs (whites and yolks) as I didn't immediately have a use for the egg whites. If you want a much richer and deeper yellow curd then you could use a recipe that just calls for the yolks.

As my challenge continues I will make sure to share any ideas I have on how to use up left over ingredients!

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Carrot, Cardamom and Pistachio Cake

Ingredients:

For the cake

• 150g (3/4 cup) of granulated sugar.

• 150g (3/4 cup) soft brown sugar

• 295ml (1 1/4 cup) vegetable oil

• 3 eggs

• 80ml (1/3 cup) buttermilk (you can use 80ml of milk with about 1tsp of lemon and vinegar instead - just mix and let it sit for about 10 minutes)

• 250g (1cup) of plain flour.

• 1tsp baking powder

• 1tsp baking soda

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 2tsp ground cinnamon

• 3tsb ground cardamom

• 5 medium carrots grated

• 80g (2/3 cup) raisins

• a large handful of pistachios chopped coarsely.

• 1 tbs of icing sugar

For the curd

• 1 orange, juice and zest

• juice of half a lemon

• 50g sugar

• 50g butter

• 2 eggs, beaten until they are completely homogenous (no translucent white bits)

Method

For the cake

1. Preheat the oven to 350F or 176C.

2. Grease two 8inch baking tins and line the bottom with parchment paper.

3. Whisk the sugars and the oil until they are well combined. The add the 3 eggs and whisk until you have a smooth consistency. Add the buttermilk and whisk for another minute.

4. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt cinnamon and cardamom and whisk until the mixture becomes smooth (about 1 minutes).

5. Add the Carrots, raisins and pistachios. Fold into the cake batter and divide it evenly between the two baking tins.

6. bake for 35-40 minutes, (until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean) in the middle rack of the oven.

7. remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.

For the curd

1. Add the Orange juice, orange zest, lemon juice, sugar and butter to a bowl.

2. Set the bowl onto a water bath or bain marie (see the first picture above)

3. Stir until the butter has melted and then add the beaten eggs. (remember, the eggs must be beaten until the mixture is completely homogenous or your curd will be lumpy).

4. Continue stirring and you will notice that the mixture starts to thicken. As you can see in the second photograph above the curd is starting to stick to the sides of the bowl. At this stage it would coat the back of a spoon.

5. Once the curd is thick enough sieve it to remove the zest and leave it in the fridge to cool.

To assemble the cake

1. Once the cakes are cool put one of them upside down onto your cake stand or plate. Then liberally spread the curd over the cake and put the second cake on top flat side down.

2. Sprinkle the top with the icing sugar (if you use a small sieve you will achieve a much more even dusting).