SHF - Persian Love Cake & A Little Link Love

There have been a lot of firsts since I first started my blog - my first food groupie blush when Clotilde commented on my blog, my first smile at success having html coded, and now, my first Sugar High Friday.

I’ve been reading food blogs for a while now, but admittedly I watched them from afar, like a seagull eying off a bag of hot chips, yet not quite ready for the swoop.

I’d swoon over Beatrice’s picture perfect photography, salivate over Jocelyn and Fanny’s dessert driven recipes and marvel, laugh and eat up each last morsel of David’s witty style of writing. These are the names of just a few of the food bloggers who have inspired and entertained me over the years.

But there comes a time when the smell of those chips begins to smell too good - the salt too pungent and their crunch too appealing - to resist buying your own, or to go in for the figurative swoop. And so, as it did for me, begins your own food blog…

Food blogging events such as Sugar High Friday (SHF), I’ve come to discover, are just one of the many fascinating ingredients that make up the food blogosphere. However, if there was one that encompassed all that was beautiful about this world - the solidarity (one person chooses a theme and all participants create a dish based on this theme by a certain date), the strength, warmth and comfort of the community (you share this recipe along with your experiences on your own blog, and on that of your host’s, for all participants to comment upon and see), and of course, its sheer breadth (wow, me, blogger X from Ecuador and blogger Y from Sweden, are all baking cupcakes together - neat!) -  then it would have to be the Food Blog Event.

So in the spirit of sharing and inspiration taken from my SHF creation, the Persian Love Cake, I am sharing a little link love for all food blog newbies and seagulls, perhaps lurking.

This may seem premature - Almond & The Hazelnut is just more than a month old and I certainly have a lot more to learn (frightfully, it feels at times). But as a beginner, these are some of the resources I have found useful for a beginner. If you recommend any others, please feel free to add them in your comment.

And while the ones below form part of the list, don’t miss the others bolded above, studded throughout the text. Nor the recipe for the aromatic and spice-infused Persian Love cake below, it is Sugar High Friday after all…

Delicious Days - Having recently celebrated their second birthday, the Delicious Days duo have kindly compiled  a list of food blogging Do’s and Don’ts. A powerhouse in the food blog sphere, this is essential reading for all new to the game, and for those seeking to tweak their pitch.

Is My Blog Burning - for comprehensive listings of food blog events such as Sugar High Friday, Waiter There’s Something in My… and the quirky EoMEoTE.

Food Blog S’cool -  It’s schooling, food blog style with technical tips, special advice and forums for those running a food or drink blog. Of particular value are the forums where you can post a thread or read replies to other’s problems concerning, for example, errant search gadgets or content theft.

And now to…

Sugar High Friday: Time to Spice Up Your Life

In search of spice for this month’s SHF (hosted by Anita at Dessert First) I was on the lookout for something - and please, do excuse the lameness of this here pun - with a little spice (I have been known to use corny phrases, even at the best of times).

As a nut lover, I was immediately drawn to this recipe’s dedicated use of almond meal, with not a hint of flour in sight. And while I do love a well-named dessert, there were certainly some other strong points in Mr Love Cake’s favour - its use of Greek-style yoghurt as a binding agent, its two-layered taste and its decidedly easy means to be created. But with this SHF’s theme seeking out spices, it was the recipe’s call for nutmeg, a spice that I use not nearly enough, which sealed the deal.

In honor of the event, I decided to get a little Sugar High Crazy and add some cardamom to the mix too, which I think paired beautifully with the nutmeg and added another spice-laden, earthy dimension to the mealy creation. Next time round however, I would reduce the amount of nutmeg and the sugar for the just right balance of spice-tensity and sweetness. I have included these adjustments in the recipe below.

Persian Love Cake

This recipe has been adapted from one shared in Australian Gourmet Traveler and was taken from Qom’s restaurant in Coolum, Queensland.

3 cups almond meal

1 cup raw sugar

¾ cup brown sugar

120g butter, softened

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, lightly beaten

250g Greek-style yoghurt, plus extra to serve

1 ½ teaspoons nutmeg

½ teaspoon cardamom

45g (1/4 cup) pistachios, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 180°C. Lightly butter and line a 26cm diameter springform pan. Combine almond meal, sugars, butter and salt in a bowl, then rub with fingertips until coarse crumbs form. Spoon half the mixture into the prepared pan, gently pressing to evenly cover the base. Add the egg, yoghurt, nutmeg and cardamom to the crumble mixture and beat with a wooden spoon until smooth and creamy. Pour over prepared base, smooth top and scatter pistachios over the top. Bake until golden, approximately 30-35 minutes. Cool completely and serve with extra yoghurt.