Rose Scented Almond Cake—no flour!

Facing way too many limes and a whole fresh coconut, I needed a good recipe. This one is a lovely custardy cake, complex with the flavours of rose and almonds, where the sum is larger than the parts. 

This gets buzzed up in a blender, and it’s easy and fast to make.

The Cake

½ cup rose sugar (if you don’t have, use plain white, and add a few drops of rosewater to the syrup, later)

½ cup whole almonds

½ cup dessicated, unsweetened coconut

2 inch piece fresh coconut

2 tablespoons of lime juice and zest

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ teaspoon baking powder

Pinch of salt  

Stir in the last ingredients.

This wonderful recipe comes out of an amazing Dubai based cooking blog, but the author used a few terms I was unfamiliar with, so I’ve tweaked this, as I usually do, even with my own recipes.  

She called for caster sugar, something to bewilder me.  Apparently it’s finer than table sugar, but not as fine as icing sugar.  So, I put my rose sugar, petals and all, into the blender and buzzed for a few moments.  That went into the mixmaster bowl, along with the eggs. 

Then I turned back to the blender, and added the almonds and dessicated coconut.  I buzzed those till they were a course powder.  Then the fresh coconut piece went in, and that was buzzed till it was finely chopped.  

Returning to the mixmaster, I switched on high, and beat till the eggs got all fluffy and gorgeous, about three minutes.  Adding the lime juice, zest and vanilla, I beat for another minute or so.  Then the baking powder and a pinch of salt went in, mixmaster still going till it was blended in, about 30 seconds.  

The coconut and almond mixture had to be stirred in.  

Use enough paper to lift out easily.

Finally I poured it into a parchment lined small loaf tin, and baked it at 325 F for about thirty minutes, or till a toothpick inserted in the middle came out clean.  

This needs to stay in the loaf tin to cool, at least an hour.  Remove the paper before plating.  You can serve it warm, or chilled as I did, once you’ve glazed it.

The Glaze

In a small pot, mix ¼ cup of jaggery, an equal amount of water, and a bit more lime zest.  Boil till it thickens.  If you haven’t used rose sugar, add a few drops of rosewater at this point.  Pour over the cooled cake, and serve.  Oh lusciousness.  It tastes like love, itself.