Sometimes you want a cake that is beautiful and dainty . . . womanly, feminine, and perfect for celebrating those special occasions in a gal's life. Things like sweetheart celebrations, birthdays, new babies, and weddings to come.

Or perhaps something as simple and special as sharing friendship, or being sisters, finding fairies, enjoying tea parties or kindred spirits.

A cake that is light and delicately flavoured, and yet moreishly, scrummily yummy at the same time. This cake fits the bill on all counts: moist and buttery, scented and flavoured with just the merest hint of cardamom and white chocolate, sweetly spiced and fragrant  -- yet rich.



Filled with a beautifully flavoured and scented rosewater and white chocolate ganache -- think turkish delight here -- very reminiscent of that scrummy flavour, but mixed with sweet white chocolate and cream. Then the whole beautifully feminine creation is blanketed in a sweet coat of a milky white glaze and sprinkled with delicate pink sugar. You could also use rose petals, lightly frosted with a hint of sugar. They would be quite pretty too.



Don't be impatient like me, though. Do let it set up before cutting into it. Oh, I am such a naughty girl . . . but in a very good way.



White Chocolate and Cardamom Cake
Makes one 9 inch cake
Printable Recipe

Delicately flavoured white chocolate cake filled with a scrummy rosewater and white chocolate ganache. Yummo!

130g unsalted butter, softened, plus more to butter pan (1/2 cup)
3/4 tsp ground cardamom
170g pf self raising flour (1 1/3 cups)
100g of white chocolate, finely chopped (3 1/2 ounces)
130g white caster sugar ( scant 2/3 cup)
2 large free range eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla

For the ganache:
100g of white chocolate, chopped (3 1/2 ounces)
100ml of double cream (1/3 cup)
2 tsp rosewater

For the glace icing:
150g of icing sugar, sifted (approx 1 1/4 cups)
milk

Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/gas mark 4. Butter a deep 9 inch cake tin and line the bottom with baking paper. Set aside.

Melt the white chocolate in a bowl set over simmering water. Don't let the bottom of the bowl touch the water. Set aside.

Place the butter and sugar for the cake in a bowl. Cream together until light and fluffy. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time, along with the vanilla. Whisk in the flour and cardamom. Stir in the chocolate, mixing all together well. Spread into the prepared pan. Bake in the heated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling, removing the paper. Leave until completely cool.

Place the chocolate for the ganache in a bowl. Bring the cream and rosewater to the boil. Pour the boiling cream over the chocolate. Let it sit for a few minutes, then gently whisk until the chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth. Let cool, then chill in the fridge for about 15 to 20 minutes. Whisk until it thickens.

Carefully split the cake into two layers. Place the top of the cake, cut side up on a plate. Spread with the white chocolate ganache. Top with the bottom of the cake, baked side up, over top of the ganache.

Whisk together the icing sugar with enough milk to give you a pourable glace frosting. It should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, but runny enough to pour. Pour this over the cake, allowing it to drizzle down the sides. Sprinkle with pink sugar. Allow to set before cutting into slices to serve.




Marie Rayner moved over to the UK from the East Coast of Canada in the year 2000.  For the first ten years, she worked as a personal chef on a country manor estate situated in the Garden of England.  She is now retired and blissfully cooking away for her husband, the Toddster, and their little pup Miztie in a little terraced house in the beautiful NorthWest.  She is the author of a cookbook, based on a lifetime of recipes and cooking experience, entitled Recipes From The Big Blue Binder. You can also visit her blog The English Kitchen. 

Text and photos: Marie Rayner