Ingredients
| FOR THE CAKE | |
| 170g shelled pistachios | |
| 190g self-raising flour | |
| ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon | |
| seeds from 15 cardamom pods, finely crushed using a pestle and mortar | |
| ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) | |
| ½ teaspoon fine sea salt | |
| 280g caster sugar | |
| 170g unsalted butter at room temperature, cut into 3cm cubes | |
| 190g egg whites, at room temperature (from about 5 large eggs) | |
| 120g Greek yoghurt, at room temperature | |
| 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste | |
| 240ml whole milk | |
| FOR THE TOPPING | |
| 60g kataifi, defrosted if frozen, roughly cut into 4cm lengths | |
| 1 teaspoon caster sugar | |
| ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon | |
| 25g unsalted butter | |
| FOR THE LABNEH CREAM | |
| 180g labneh, bought or homemade (see recipe) | |
| 130g mascarpone | |
| 140g cream cheese | |
| 50g icing sugar, sifted | |
| LABNEH | |
| 450g natural (plain) yoghurt | |
| ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt |
My mum is a really good baker. She’d bake a cake every weekend and it would always come out perfect. So perfect, in fact, that she once made her signature Victoria sponge and went to answer the doorbell, only to return moments later to an empty plate, a trail of crumbs and our dog Max, gazing up at her with guilty eyes and a sugar-powdered nose. My journey into baking was not so smooth. I would be impatient, flustered and heavy-handed – all things that don’t bode well in the world of desserts. With time, and perhaps a bit of maturity, I’ve learnt to find joy in desserts, so long as I get to be a little bit whimsical in the process. If you can’t find kataifi in Turkish or Middle Eastern supermarkets, you can thinly shred some filo (phyllo) sheets to create the same effect.
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Instructions
| 1. | Preheat the oven to 165°C fan/185°C. |
| 2. | Grease and line the base and sides of two 20cm-diameter, loose-based cake tins with baking paper. |
| 3. | (If you only have one tin, then you can bake one cake at a time.) |
| 4. | Pulse the pistachios in a food processor until they resemble ground almonds. |
| 5. | Zip 150g into a large bowl (reserve the rest for decorating) along with the flour, cinnamon, cardamom, bicarbonate of soda and salt and whisk to evenly combine. |
| 6. | Put the sugar and softened butter into a second large bowl and beat with a hand mixer on a medium-high speed until light and fluffy – about 3-4 minutes. Scrape down the sides with a spatula. |
| 7. | Lower the speed to medium and add a third of the egg whites at a time, mixing until fully incorporated with each addition. |
| 8. | Scrape down the sides with a spatula again, then increase the speed to medium-high and beat for 1 minute, until the mixture is nice and smooth. |
| 9. | Add the yoghurt and vanilla and beat for 30 seconds, then scrape down the sides once more. |
| 10. | Turn the speed down to low and add a third of the flour mixture and a third of the milk. |
| 11. | Alternate these until combined, and the mixture is smooth. |
| 12. | Evenly divide the batter between your prepared tins (about 650g per tin). |
| 13. | Bake for 37-40 minutes or until a cake skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow both cakes to cool completely in their tins. |
| 14. | (Ideally, both cakes would cool in their tins, but if you only have one tin, allow the first cake to cool slightly after cooking and release it carefully from the tin. |
| 15. | Re-line the tin and repeat with the remaining batter.) |
| 16. | With the oven still on, line a medium baking tray with baking paper. |
| 17. | In a bowl toss together all the topping ingredients, using your fingers to separate the kataifi strands as much as possible so they aren’t too clumped together. |
| 18. | Spread out onto the prepared tray and bake for 15-20 minutes, stirring halfway, until golden. Set aside to cool completely. |
| 19. | Lastly, use a hand-held mixer (or a whisk and some arm power) to beat together the labneh cream ingredients in a medium bowl, for about 1 minute, or until soft peaks. |
| 20. | If too thick, add a splash of milk to make it easier to work with. Refrigerate until needed. |
| 21. | Once cool, release the cakes from their tins and discard the baking paper. |
| 22. | To decorate the cake, place one of the cakes on a cake stand (a rotating one is easiest if you have one). |
| 23. | Use an offset spatula to spread a little less than half the labneh cream on top of the cake, spreading it evenly all around. |
| 24. | Next, top with the second cake, stacking it so that it’s aligned. |
| 25. | Use the remaining labneh cream to coat the top and sides (an offset spatula will help you most here). |
| 26. | You’re going for a rustic look so don’t worry if it’s not perfect. |
| 27. | Lastly, sprinkle the top of the cake with the kataifi, followed by the reserved ground pistachios. |
| 28. | LABNEH |
| 29. | Begin by making the labneh the day before you need it. |
| 30. | Mix together the yoghurt and salt. |
| 31. | Line a sieve with cheesecloth or a clean tea towel with plenty of overhang and place over a clean bowl. |
| 32. | Transfer the yoghurt to the lined sieve and fold over the overhang to encase the yoghurt. |
| 33. | Top with a weight (a couple of cans will do) and place in the refrigerator overnight. |
| 34. | The next day, unwrap the mixture, discarding the collected liquid – you now have labneh. |
| 35. | Keep in a sealed container in the refrigerator (it will keep for up to 5 days). |
This is an edited
extract from
Lugma: Abundant
Dishes And Stories
From My Middle
East by Noor
Murad, published
by Quadrille.
Photography by
Matt Russell and
Matt Wardle.