Grated apple tenderizes what might otherwise be a heavy cake.
The cool syrup plumps the hot cake and infuses it with additional flavor and sweetness.
This Sephardic cake is an ideal Passover dessert, as it contains no flour or leavening.
Tishpishti is a traditional Sephardic cake, in the spirit of nutty, sweet, syrupy North African and Middle Eastern desserts like baklava. Though it’s commonly served at Passover, when flour and leavening action are forbidden, I like it any time I need a gluten-free dessert. This is my Americanized version: a heady mix of spices and citrus, with grated apple added to the traditional nut-based cake. Rather than rose blossom syrup, I opt for a ginger-infused syrup that’s boozy with Applejack, America’s own apple brandy.
For the Syrup:
1 cup sugar (7 ounces; 200g)
1 1/2 cups unsweetened apple juice (12 ounces; 340g)
2-inch piece ginger (2 ounces; 60g), unpeeled, cut in half lengthwise and smashed
Zest from 1 medium lemon
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (1/2 ounce; 14g), from about 1 lemon
4 tablespoons Applejack brandy (2 ounces; 60g)
For the Cake:
4 large eggs (6.8 ounces; 190g)
3/4 cup sugar (5 3/4 ounces; 160g)
1 teaspoon (4g) Diamond Crystal kosher salt; for table salt, use about half as much by volume or the same by weight
1 cup vegetable oil (8 ounces; 220g), or any other neutral oil
2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger (1 ounce; 30g)
2 1/2 cups almond flour (8 ounces; 230g)
1 1/2 cups finely chopped walnuts (6.2 ounces; 175g)
2 teaspoons (6g) ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
2 cups grated unpeeled Fuji apple (12 ounces; 340g), from about 2 medium apples
