1135. Isfahan Loaf Cake

Isfahan is the dessert combination of rose, raspberry and litchi, resulting in an amazingly fragrant and sophisticated dish coveted by master patissieres around the globe. This here is an almond pound cake flavored with these aforementioned ingredients and glazed in a rose-white chocolate concoction perfect for any ladies' gathering.
Using whole almonds will give you far superior results and retain the moisture in the cake, so I do recommend you take this extra step of grinding your own almonds for this. One or two specialty items are required, namely: whole freeze-dried raspberries, rose syrup (which comes pink, and dyes the entire cake inside and out a lovely shade of pink), and caned litchi. While you could leave the litchi whole, I was very glad to have quartered them because I found a whole preserved syruppy wasp in a litchi that I would have missed otherwise!

Ingredients:

250g butter, softened
2 cups whole almonds
1 1/4 cup powder sugar
4 eggs, room temperature
1 1/4 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup yogurt
1/3 cup rose syrup
1/4 cup whole freeze-dried raspberries
10 pieces canned litchi, quartered

For the glaze:
125g white chocolate
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 Tbsp rose syrup

Method:

Preheat oven to 360F.
Blitz the whole almonds in a food processor until they are ground. Whisk them into a bowl with the flour and baking powder; set aside.
Cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Fold the flour mixture into the butter mixture with a spatula, adding the yogurt and rose syrup to reach a dropping consistency. Finally, fold in the freeze-dried raspberries and quartered litchis, then pour the batter into the prepared tin.
Bake for about 1 hour in the preheated oven. Let cool 10 minutes, then turn out on to a wire
rack to cool completely before glazing.
To make the glaze, chop the chocolate and put in a bowl with the cream. Microwave, stirring at intervals, until smooth and melted. Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes before stirring in the rose syrup and pouring over the cooled cake to cover and set.

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