AMAZING ARMENIAN NUTMEG CAKE

It was with great trepidation that I made this nutmeg cake. Nutmeg can be such an strong spice if it's used too much and I just thought that 2 teaspoons of the stuff in a cake batter would be too overwhelming. I was wrong! The nutmeg flavor becomes muted and you are left with a deliciously spiced sponge which invokes the spirit of Christmas with it gorgeous aroma. A traditional Armenian cake, its a little different as it has a biscuit like crust on the top which is such a good idea as it adds a bit of texture to the bake. It's also incredibly simple to make. Bonus!

This is quite a simple recipe so there isn't really much you can change about it other than the nutmeg but this is a recipe for a nutmeg cake so I'm assuming if you are reading this that you like nutmeg.

The only thing you can do is if you can't be bothered faffing around with the biscuit top to the cake is to just whack the whole mixture into the baking tin and make the whole thing a sponge rather than dividing it up into the biscuit and sponge components. You may need a few extra minutes baking to allow for the extra sponge mixture but just bake it as per the below, give it a test and then pop it back in if you still think it needs a bit longer.

So as that is everything, lets get to the recipe. You should get about 12 slices out of this recipe and they will be gone in no time once everyone you're serving this too get their chops around it.

Nutmeg Cake

220g Self Raising Flour

330g Light Soft Brown Sugar

125g Cold Unsalted Butter

2 Tsp Freshly Grated Nutmeg

250ml Milk

1 Whole Egg

1 Tsp Bicarbonate Of Soda

1. Pop your oven on to 180 degrees (160 fan) and grease and line a 23cm round cake tin.
2. Place the flour and sugar into a bowl and give everything a mix together. Add in the butter and rub the butter into the sugary flour mixture until it resembles breadcrumbs (much like making shortcrust pastry!).
3. Take roughly one third of the mixture and press it into the bottom of the cake tin to form a biscuit dough like base. Add the nutmeg to the remaining dry mixture and stir everything together until well combined.
4. In a second bowl add in the milk, egg and bicarbonate of soda and whisk together until well combined. Pour the milk mixture into the bowl with the nutmeg mixture and fold everything together until well combined.
5. Pour the cake batter over the dough base and pop the baking tin into the oven to bake for roughly 40 minutes until golden on top and an inserted skewer comes out clean. 
6. Remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool slightly in the tin before turning the cake out onto a wire rack so that the biscuit base is now on top of the cake.  

Now that you've let the cake cool in order to turn it out that should be said that the cake is actually really nice served hot with a nice big blob of ice cream so whack a few slices round in the microwave to warm it up again before plating up. Doing so brings out that nutmeg aroma and flavor to really give it some oomph. Cracking through that biscuit top to get through to the cake with your spoon is also very magical and satisfying. The crunchy texture that it has works so brilliantly with the softer nature of the cakes sponge body. Who knew that this little piece of Armenia would be so amazing!