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Sri Lankan love cake
Makes: 16-18 finger slices
Prep time: 45 minsTotal time: 
Recipe photograph by Jonathan Gregson
Sri Lankan love cake
Based on a traditional Sri Lankan recipe, this fragrant bake is great for sharing with people you care about
Makes: 16-18 finger slices
Prep time: 45 minsTotal time:
See more recipes
Nutritional information (per serving)
Calories
325Kcal
Fat
21gr
Saturates
10gr
Carbs
25gr
Sugars
16gr
Fibre
1gr
Protein
7gr
Salt
0.3gr
Tamsin Burnett-Hall
Tamsin learned the tricks of the trade from cookery legend Delia Smith. A trusted recipe writer for the magazine for over 25 years, she is now our Cookery Workflow Editor, overseeing testing and editing to ensure that every recipe tastes great, is straightforward to follow and works without fail. In her home kitchen, Tamsin creates fuss-free flavour-packed food for friends and family, with baking being her ultimate form of comfort cooking
See more of Tamsin Burnett-Hall’s recipes
Tamsin Burnett-Hall
Tamsin learned the tricks of the trade from cookery legend Delia Smith. A trusted recipe writer for the magazine for over 25 years, she is now our Cookery Workflow Editor, overseeing testing and editing to ensure that every recipe tastes great, is straightforward to follow and works without fail. In her home kitchen, Tamsin creates fuss-free flavour-packed food for friends and family, with baking being her ultimate form of comfort cooking
See more of Tamsin Burnett-Hall’s recipes
Ingredients
- 150g semolina, cornmeal or polenta
- 200g unsalted cashews
- 6 large eggs
- 250g soft unsalted butter
- 150g golden caster sugar
- 75g clear honey
- the ground seeds from 20 cardamom pods
- ½ tbsp ground cinnamon
- grated zest and juice of 1 lime
- grated zest of 1 orange
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp concentrated rose extract (we used Nielsen Massey)
- 75g cut mixed peel or chopped dried apricots
- icing sugar, to dust
- heart confetti sugar sprinkles or edible flowers to decorate, optional
Step by step
Get ahead
The cake keeps for up to 6 days in a cake tin, or can be frozen in slices.
- Tip the semolina, cornmeal or polenta into a frying pan and dry fry for 5 minutes, stirring, until it smells toasted. Leave to cool.
- Preheat the oven to 160°C, fan 140°C, gas 3. Grease and line a 20cm x 30cm cake tin. Grind the cashews finely in a food processor.
- Separate 4 of the eggs; put the whites in a medium mixing bowl and set aside. Lightly beat the yolks with the remaining 2 whole eggs, ideally in a jug. Get all of the remaining ingredients measured out and ready before you start making the batter itself.
- Put the butter, caster sugar, honey and a good pinch of salt in a large mixing bowl; beat with an electric mixer for 2-3 minutes until pale and creamy. Gradually trickle in the egg yolk mixture, beating constantly. Now mix in the spices, citrus zests and lime juice, vanilla, rose extract and mixed peel or apricots.
- Stir in the ground cashews and the cooled toasted semolina, cornmeal or polenta.
- Using cleaned beaters, whisk the reserved egg whites until they have floppy peaks – don’t let them get too stiff or they will be hard to fold in. Stir a large spoonful through the batter to loosen it then carefully fold in the rest.
- Pour the batter into the prepared tin and shake gently until level. Bake for 30-35 minutes until risen, firm and shrinking away from the sides of the tin. Cool the cake in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out to cool on a wire rack.
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To decorate, use an A4 sheet of card to make a stencil. Place over the cooled cake and dust with the icing sugar. Carefully remove the stencil and scatter with the sugar sprinkles and edible flowers, if using. Cut into fingers to serve.TipMake it gluten free
Simply use cornmeal or polenta instead of semolina when making this cake batter.