Getting a daikon in my vegetable box was met with a little ooooh, now what might I do with that? I’d never cooked with them before, hadn’t seen any recipes and quite possibly I wasn’t sure I’d even eaten any before either. Hooray for delivered vegetable boxes I say, because it completely gets you out of any cooking ruts you might have accidently fallen into. It’s now a vegetable I actively seek as, in this super simple pickle form, well it’s quite delicious.
Little sprigs of lavender are constantly gracing my kitchen window sill. We have a prolific bush out front that produces and produces. Easily adding a little purple distraction to an other wise messy and cluttered tiny kitchen. Distractions like these are most welcome.
Now it had been awhile since I had made Sri Lankan Love Cake. Quite awhile. My love for anything Sri Lankan orientated hadn’t dwindled since I had last baked it, so there was a certain amount of nostalgic mixing on putting the cake together. I had scrubbing elephants in a river to think of, small beach side swinging hammocks to fondly recall and food. Rather a lot of delicious food, that really is something else.
Love Cake recipes seem to vary a fair bit, and as I’ve never actually eaten anyone else’s Love Cake, (sounds slightly raunchy doesn’t it) I’m really not sure how my version (s) compare. Online recipes seem to have rather a lot of eggs, which I haven’t used quite so much here. I have tweaked it a little bit since the last time I baked it though, and using the rose petals rather than rose water. I like this edition a little better and visually, well it’s hard to take a bad picture if something is sprinkled in icing sugar and showered in rose petals….I think even a sausage would look good with that combination.
Love Cake
150 gms crushed cashew nuts (cadjunuts)
150g semolina
2 eggs
4 egg whites
150g sugar
150g softened butter
2 tbls rose petals
1 1/2 tbls brandy
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Cream butter and sugar together. Add the eggs, brandy, rose petals, spices and cashew nuts. Fold through semolina.
Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks appear and fold into mixture. Cook in a square tin, greased and lined with paper, (or well greased bundt tin as I have here). Bake at 180C for approximately 25-35 minutes or until golden.
cityhippyfarmgirl 
Trying other people’s love cake is positively g-rated when trying their love sausage gets thrown into the equation! Hope you’ve had a lovely week, love your sunday morning posts.
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I snorted tea thanks to you Rachael…thanks for that 🙂
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ooh, your photos are delicious!
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It’s the rose petals I tell you, takes the pictures some place special.
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I think so, and I must admit that I paused for a moment to imagine a sausage covered in rose petals 🙂
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Sara, I really was going to do it…like we both said, my blog I make up the rules 🙂
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Right 🙂
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Your cake is gorgeous and I see it’s also GF. I’ll try this. I have a friend who married a guy from Sri Lanka and so this would be god to serve to them. I need one of your pretty cake tins! I have just subscribed to Lettuce Delivery to have organic produce delivered to my door. Looking forward to seeing what’s in my mystery boxes xx
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Neaarrrrly gluten free CL. To my knowledge there is still gluten in the semolina, but if low gluten was tolerated it might be a good one.
And hope your new delivery brings lots of delicious goodies to your door.
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I have 50 lavender plants at Casa Debbio and they have quadrupled in size since implanted them last year. The little buggers were covered with flowers on long stalks when I had to leave at the end of June, but they hadn’t opened. I had been coaxing them for weeks, but they just ignored me. I hope to see them when I return in September.
The cake looks amazing, I will be trying this soon, thank you.
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Not long to go Debra before you are back to your lavendar. (Did you propagate them? I was thinking of giving it a crack.)
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Your love cake looks and sounds delicious!
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Thanks Ali 🙂
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beautiful cake brydie..and i’m always on the look out for recipes that use extra egg whites..x
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Custard first Jane (yolks) and cake second (whites). It’s win win really.
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Such a pretty cake Brydie, I love lavender x
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Thanks Jane, I hope you have a lovely week.
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I’m in LOVE with this love cake and the scent of your past adventures thrown in the mix. Semolina is wonderful to cook with. We can’t survive winter here without our organic fruit and veg box.
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Ahh lovely adventures gone by Zena. I’d love to take my kids to Sri Lanka one day. It would blow their minds scrubbing elephants in a river I think.
Hooray for fruit and veg boxes I say.
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Oh this looks so very special , I will have to make it! Question- have never cooked with rose petals – does it have to be a special kind of rose petal?
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Kim this is the brand I’ve used, http://www.pariya.com/order/ They are beautiful to use, and far nicer than rose water which I’m not that fond of. Do you grow roses? Were you thinking of using your own?
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I do like a recipe that includes rose petals and this cake looks divine. Isn’t it wonderful when something as simple as mixing a cake conjures up so many memories.
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It is Anne… Instantly transported.
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Pickles are so nice and refreshing Brydie, and the daikon would be so sweet and mild- yum! Delicious sounding cake,I love roses 🙂
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super fresh and mild is the daikon isn’t it. It’s a good bounce when the rest of the meal has some heat to it.
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This looks delicious and I have some lovely dried rose petals left over from the summer that may well be used for more than madeleines now!
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Oh yay! Lucky you!
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Cashews, rose petals and brandy! I’ve certainly never made a cake with that exotic combo. Sounds absolutely delicious. Beautiful photos too. I also had a daikon in my last veggie box, and chose to pickle it too although I hacked mine into great fat chunks – yours looks much more delicate and easier to ingest!
Poor old sausages are hard to make sexy in a photo – I would totally love to see one scattered with icing sugar and rose petals (perhaps lounging on a broderie doily)… I think you need to do it Brydie.
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Saskia, you know it’s going to happen don’t you…it really must.
Sausages, just you wait…
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Love that Love Cake. Remind me, when I get home, to send you my Grandmother’s Love Cake recipe for you to try (my mum is Sri Lankan!). I’ll have to try this one, looks delish.
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I’ll take you up on that Ms Hassell.
I’m an 1/8th Sri Lankan (I think) 🙂
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“if something is sprinkled in icing sugar and showered in rose petals….I think even a sausage would look good with that combination.” If you photograph a sausage with that combination on top then we are talking madness. 🙂
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Ahh I do love a touch of madness Rose. Keeps the day from being a little same same kind thing.
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Gorgeous cake!!
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Oooh. This cake! I was excited on your behalf for the daikon – I haven’t experimented with that vegetable either – but that excitement has been overwhelmed by my love of the cake. It looks gorgeous and I think I will have to see out some lavender.
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A perfect name for the cake…it is lovely to look at and sounds delicious.
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what a lovely cake!
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My daughters are Koreanophiles and adore anything Korean and so I have had a lot to do with daikon in it’s many and varied stages. I love it raw, sliced thinly and just eaten like the giant radish that it is. Great to add to kimchi as well. Your cake has made me twitch with excitement. I just found an amazing recipe for vegan orange poppyseed cake that Steve made me for my birthday. We were in awe of it’s deliciousness and I am going to convert it to a rose poppyseed cake and will make a rosewater drizzle for the topping…might sub black sesame seeds for the poppyseed, might even make the cake with matcha! Cheers for giving us this lovely recipe, even if I am already nixing the eggs, the butter and most of the other ingredients in the process 😉 I guess my cake won’t bear much resemblance to yours BUT it came from the same kernel of an idea so that links them intrinsically albeit authentically 😉
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Owh… Love cake, this may be the answer to the lack of love in my world at the mo. Super pretty too. 🙂 Hope you’ve had a lovely week, and enjoyed your weekend too.
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Wow, we just had some fermented daikon with our chicken soup tonight and you’ve also reminded me that this very cake that was gifted to me for my birthday when staying in a hut in Goa in India. I can’t wait for our chooks to start laying so I can make it!
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oooh that’s an exciting gift to be had (and a rockin’ place to have a birthday too.) Come on chooks!
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