M'hanncha (Moroccan Snake Cake recipe)

 If you're tired of making the same sort of cakes all the time, you should definitely give this Moroccan cake a try! I used brick pastry which is so thin you can pretty much see it! I bought it from my local gourmet delicatessen, but if you can't find any, filo pastry will make a great substitute. It crisped up beautifully, giving this cake the flaky texture which really compliments the moister, nutty filling.


Recipe

Ingredients:

300g almond meal
100g roughly chopped pistachios
250g icing sugar
2 tablespoons plain flour
Zest of 2 lemons
Zest of 2 oranges
2 tablespoons rose water
180g unsalted butter
14 layers of brick pastry (or you can substitute filo pastry)
2 eggs
icing sugar, crushed rose petals and crushed pistachios (I got mine from rose tea...) for presentation

You will need a 20cm cake tin (preferably springform), a pastry brush, and lots of bench space!

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees fan forced
2. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites. Put aside the egg yolks to brush over the cake before you put it in the oven. Whisk up the egg whites until frothy.
3. Stir in the almonds meal, pistachios, icing sugar, plain flour, lemon and orange zest and rose water with a wooden spoon until combined.
4. Melt the butter in the microwave. Use some of the butter to lightly grease the cake tin
5. Place one sheet of pastry down, as far as you can to your left. Butter the top, and place another layer on top. Butter the top again. Place another sheet of pastry next to it, slightly overlapping. Butter the top, and lie another layer on top. Butter the top again. Repeat until you have placed down all 14 layers like in the picture below (7 circles in length, double layered).

 

6. Grab large handfuls of the filling and roll into sausages. Place these sausages next to each other so they run all the way down the middle of the pastry sheets until you reach the end.
7. Working from your left, one. step. at. a. time. roll up the sausage. If you find your pastry is starting to dry, moisten again with more butter as you are rolling up.
8. You should now have a really long sausage in front of you. Now gently roll into a coil. Place the coil into the cake tin with the seam facing down (so it doesn't split open in the oven)
9. Brush over the egg yolk you put aside earlier and bake in the oven for around 30 minutes (or until it looks nice and golden)
10. Dust with icing sugar, rose petals and pistachios for presentation.