Persian Love Cake

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 cups almond meal
• 1/2 cup coconut sugar
• 1/2 cup maple sugar
• 1/4 cup + 50g crushed pistachios
• 2 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 120g coconut butter or ghee (or 1/2 of each)
• 2 organic free range eggs
• 250g natural unsweetened coconut yogurt
• zest of 1 orange
• extra pistachios, rose petals, coconut flakes, and lacuma dusted on top to serve

Directions

Start by preheating oven to 180C. Grease and line a 20-22cm round cake tin. In a food processor, pulse together the almond meal, sugars, coconut butter, 1 1/2 tsp ground cardamom, 1/4 cup crushed pistachios and a pinch of salt until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Spoon half the mixture into the prepared cake tin and press down to form an even base. To the remaining mixture, add the eggs, yoghurt, half the orange zest and the remaining spices and pulse until smooth and creamy. Pour over the base and shake gently to ensure mixture is even in the tin. Scatter the top with 50g chopped pistachio and bake for 40 minutes or until the cake is golden. Cool in the tin on a wire rack. To serve, dust the cake with lucuma and scatter over your decorative toppings. If you like, you can mix the extra yoghurt with remaining orange zest and little cardamon, maple sugar and pistachios and serve alongside the cake.