This carrot, pistachio and almond cake is subtly flavoured with cinnamon. It does not contain any flour and is held together with eggs and ground nuts. Grated carrot and coconut give it a wonderful crumbly texture. I have made this version of Sabrina Ghayour’s recipe with olive oil, rather than butter and I have reduced the amount of sugar as the carrots make it quite sweet. It is a fabulous recipe and delicious with a dollop of thick Greek yogurt. I also served it as a pudding with a side of stewed and spiced apricots and some extra slivers of pistachio nuts.
Makes 10 slices
Ingredients
3 free-range eggs
150g caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
200g ground almonds*
100g desiccated coconut
2 heaped tsp ground cinnamon
150ml olive oil
2 large carrots, scrubbed and coarsely grated
100g shelled pistachio nuts roughly chopped
icing sugar for dusting
Greek yogurt to serve
Method
Preheat the oven to 160C/Fan oven 140C/Gas 3. Line a 23cm springform cake tin with baking parchment - both bottom and sides.
Whisk the eggs, sugar and vanilla essence together in a bowl until frothy. Add the ground almonds, coconut and cinnamon and stir well. Add the olive oil, grated carrots and pistachio nuts and stir again until the ingredients are well mixed. Pour or spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin and place it on a baking tray in the oven.
Cook the cake for an hour until it feels firm to the touch and a crust has formed on the top. Check the cake after 40 minutes to see if the cake is cooking evenly. If it isn’t turn it round.
Remove the cake from the oven when cooked and allow to cool on a wire cooling rack. Dust with icing sugar and serve with Greek yogurt.
*I was short of ground almonds so I ground whole almonds in my Nutribullet which worked fine.
