Shalvi Mohindra
Pastry Chef and Chocolatier
Ingredients
- 1 cup ground almonds
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp ground cardamom or ground ginger
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 large egg
- 2 Tbsp honey
- ¼ cup Greek yogurt (or any thick yogurt)
- ½ Tbsp orange zest (optional)
- ⅛ cup orange juice
- ¼ cup crystalline ginger chopped
- Icing sugar for dusting
- 6-7 mandarin segments for garnish
- 2 cake rings, 3 inches in diameter, 3 inches high
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven
Preheat the oven to 190 degree Celsius, line 2 cake rings with parchment paper and aluminum foil on one end of the rings so that the batter doesn’t flow out.
2. Mix dry ingredients
In a medium sized bowl, combine all the dry ingredients: ground almonds, baking soda, cardamom, salt and orange zest.
3. Mix wet ingredients
In another bowl whisk together egg, honey, yogurt and orange juice until well blended.
4. Combine wet and dry ingredients
Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix well.
5. Divide it
Fold in crystalline ginger and pour the batter into cake rings, dividing equally.
6. Baking time
Bake in the middle rack for about 20 minutes, add mandarins and then bake for another 10 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
7. Cool down
Remove from the oven, leave the cakes to cool for 10 minutes and then take them out running a clean knife along the edges.
8. Ready to serve
Sprinkle icing sugar before serving.
Pro Tips
- Instead of pouring the batter into a cake ring, you can add all of it into one pan. This amount of batter can fit a 6 inch circular cake pan. Or you can use muffin molds.
- The cakes don’t rise much so you can adjust the height of the cake by changing the size of the pan you bake in.
- A good way to know if your cake is baked is to poke it with a knife or tooth pick and if it comes out clean that means it’s done.
Shalvi has studied Diplome de Patisserie at Le Cordon Bleu, New Zealand and now specialises as a chocolatier. She had previously worked as a Chef de Partie for airline catering, creating desserts for first class and business class passengers, and is now working with as a Head chocolatier at Cocoa Wilds, where all the products are freshly made using no preservatives or artificial flavours.
When it comes to current and new recipes, Shalvi is always looking for healthier options, because desserts can still be indulgent and delicious without negatively impacting our health.
This is why Shalvi’s passion is to find and use only the best natural ingredients; an approach and philosophy she also incorporates in her everyday cooking by using fresh, whole foods and avoiding processed foods.
