Tishpishti (nut cake)

Here is a delicious nut cake adapted from "The Complete Guide to Traditional Jewish Cooking" by Marlena Splieler. This cake cake is popular among sephardic jews. I won't claim to know a lot about the traditional aspect, but the cake is indeed super moist and easy to make.

Serves Many

2 1/2 cups caster sugar
4 cups cold water
1 cinammon stick
1 tbsp rose water (this can be purchased from ethnic stores, I got mine from a Persian grocery store)
1 tbsp lemon juice
5 eggs
4 oz walnuts
4 oz blanched almonds
2 tbsp pine nuts (optional)
1 tsp ground cinnamon

• Put 1.5 cups of sugar in a heavy pan, add water and the cinammon stick. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves, then boil without stirring for about 5 minutes to make a syrup. Set aside and when it's cool, add the rose water and lemon juice.
• Grind walnuts and almonds (I did this in a blender in a few batches). Mix with the eggs, the 3/4 cups remaining sugar and pine nuts, if you got them.
• Scrape the mixture in a round cake pan. The recipe recommended 12", I put this into 10" and think that 9" or even 8" would do just fine. Bake at 350F for 1 hour.

• Pour the cold syrup over the hot cake and sprinkle with cinammon. Leave to cool. Refridgerate. Serve the next day at room temperature or out of the fridge.