Cardamom Cashew Wedding Cakes Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9-inch square baking pan with cooking spray. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. With a fork or dough cutter, cut in butter until crumbs form. Reserve 1 cup crumb mixture.
• Whisk milk, eggs, sour cream, vanilla, cardamom, and lemon zest into remaining crumb mixture until combined. Pour batter into pan and sprinkle reserved crumb mixture on top. Bake until top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire rack, 30 minutes. Serve cake warm or at room temperature with fresh berries.

Steps:

• Drain the ricotta in a fine mesh sieve placed in a large bowl for 1 to 2 hours until very thick. If you've bought very thick, very freshly made ricotta from a specialty shop (not the kind from the supermarket), you can skip this step.
• Meanwhile, make the milk syrup: In a small saucepan, combine the milk and cardamom pods. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer the milk until it reduces by half, 30 to 45 minutes. Stir in the sugar until it dissolves, then continue to simmer until the mixture thickens to the texture of half and half, about 10 minutes longer. Let cool, strain the mixture to get rid of the cardamom and any coagulated milk, then stir in the rose water. (Syrup can be prepared up to 3 days ahead and refrigerated.)
• Make the cake: Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9-inch cake pans, line the bottoms with parchment paper, then grease the parchment. Flour the entire pan and parchment, tapping out any excess.
• In a medium bowl, lightly whisk together the egg whites, milk, vanilla and rose water.
• Using an electric mixer, combine the cake flour, sugar, baking powder, cardamom and salt, and mix on low speed for 30 seconds to blend. Add the butter and about a third of the milk-egg white mixture. Mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened. Increase to medium speed and beat for a minute or so until everything is very smooth. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.
• Add the remaining milk mixture in 3 batches, beating well between additions. Scrape down the sides.
• Transfer the batter to the prepared pans and smooth the surface with a spatula. Bake until a tester inserted near the center comes out clean and the cake springs back when pressed lightly in the center, 25 to 35 minutes. The cakes should start to shrink from the sides of the pans only after removal from the oven. Let the cakes cool in the pans on racks for 20 minutes, then unmold and cool completely.
• Make the ricotta filling: Using an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the ricotta, cream and confectioners' sugar until quite smooth, about 30 seconds. Beat in rose water to taste. Beat on medium-high speed for about 30 seconds to 1 minute. The mixture will thicken.
• Make the mascarpone frosting: Using an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, confectioners' sugar, rose water and cardamom until fluffy, about 2 minutes. On low speed, beat in mascarpone and yogurt until the mixture is just combined and looks smooth. Do not overbeat or the mixture may curdle.
• When the cakes have cooled, use a long serrated knife to trim the tops of the cakes, so the tops are flat and even. Then cut each cake in half into 2 layers, to make a 4-layer cake. Brush cake layers on all sides with milk syrup. Place one cake round on a cake stand or serving platter, then top with one third of the ricotta filling, leaving a small border around the edge of the cake. Repeat with the remaining cake layers and ricotta filling.
• Frost top and sides of the cake with the mascarpone frosting. Top with chopped pistachios and candied rose petals, if using; chill until ready to serve.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 180c fan.
• Grease and flour a 23cm round cake tin.
• Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl.
• Add butter, egg, and milk and stir to a smooth batter.
• Pour batter into tin, smoothing the surface with a spatula.
• Bake in the lower half of the oven for approx 30 minutes.
• Let cool before removing from tin.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350 degrees. Oil a 9-inch round or square pan and set aside. Using a stand mixer, whisk egg whites until stiff but not dry, and set aside.
• In a medium bowl, combine egg yolks and sugar, and whisk to blend. Whisk in almond extract and oil. Add almond flour and cardamom. Gently stir a third of the whites into the batter, then gently fold in the rest until just incorporated.
• Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and finish cooling on a rack. To decorate, dust with confectioners' sugar and chopped pistachios.

Steps:

• Lightly spray a 9x13 inch baking dish with butter flavored cooking spray. Arrange chopped cashews in the bottom of dish.
• Combine brown sugar, golden syrup, sweetened condensed milk, and butter in a large, heavy bottomed saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Do not stir once the sugar syrup begins to boil. Heat to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C), or until a small amount of syrup dropped into cold water forms a rigid ball.
• Pour caramel over top of cashews. Stir well. Use a heatproof rubber spatula to spread the mixture evenly in the dish; allow to cool for 1 hour. Cut cooled caramel into squares or roll into balls as desired.