Sri Lankan Love Cake

Sri Lankan Love cake features spices, fruits, honey and nuts that makes it slightly spiced and deliciously sweet. Conventionally, this cake is baked for celebrations in Sri Lanka and it will be ideal to have a slice of this cake with a warm cup of tea in a cozy afternoon. The origin of this cake dates back to the time when Sri Lanka, which was then called “Ceylon”, was ruled by the Portuguese during the fifteenth century and it is believed to had been born from a Portuguese recipe

 

Ingredients

•  1 cup butter
• 250g cashews
• 1½ cup semolina 
• 3 tbsp. honey
• ½ tsp. almond extract
• 6 large eggs 
• 2 tbsp rose water 
• ½ tsp. cinnamon 
• 1 tbsp. lime zest 
• ½ tsp. cardamom 
• 1¼ cup caster sugar 
• ¼ tsp. nutmeg 
• 100g puhul dosi (candied pumpkin preserve / winter melon)

 

Method 

• Preheat oven to 150°C. 
• Grease a square cake pan with butter and place a baking paper.
•  Now you may chop the cashews and leave it aside. 
• Beat the butter and caster sugar in a bowl and continue beating till the mixture turns creamy and takes a pale hue. 
• Next, you may add the egg yolks while beating the mixture after each addition. 
• You may fold in the honey, cardamom, cinnamon, semolina, nutmeg, chopped cashews and rose water using a spoon. 
• In a bowl, beat the egg whites till you can spot the firm peaks formed in the mixture and now add in the above ingredients which were folded in, to the egg whites. 
• Now you can add the mixture in the greased pan and bake the cake for about 1 hour or till the mixture is firm to the touch. 
• Then you can turn off the oven and leave the cake in it for a while, for the cake to cool. 
• You can cut the cake into slices and dust it with icing sugar.

 

 

 

 

 

By Mekhala Egodawele

Photo source : Internet