Pistachio & Orange Cake

Whenever Will’s parents come over for a visit from Australia I ask them to please pack some unsalted pistachios for cooking and baking for me. They are just so much harder to find here and also incredibly pricey. Pistachios can add some magic to some dishes with their nice flavour and this cake is one of my favourites for that reason as well.

This is a slightly altered version from a Rose Bakery recipe. I like to add some form of citrus juice to it to make it even more moist.

Recipe:

• 200g unsalted butter

• 180g brown sugar

• 1 grated zest of orange (I also like blood orange which gives the icing a wonderful pink colour)

• Juice of one orange

• 100g ground almonds

• 100g ground pistachios

• 50g spelt flour

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• pinch of salt

For icing:

50g of roughly chopped or whole pistachios

100g icing sugar & some spoons from the orange juice

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Beat the butter and sugar until they are very light and creamy. Mix in the zest and juice of your choice of citrus fruit. Add the eggs one at a time, making sure to beat well.

Fold in the ground almonds, ground pistachios, flour, baking powder and salt.

Pour the mixture into your prepared tin and bake for around 40 minutes, just until a knife inserted comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and let the cake cool until you start with the icing.

Add icing sugar into a bowl and add slowly a spoon of juice. Mix with a fork until it creates a smooth cream, if you need more liquid add a bit more juice but be careful to not use too much otherwise your icing sugar will dissolve too quickly and you will have to add a bit more of the icing sugar. Once you get a nice not to runny consistency pour over your cake and throw your roughly or whole pistachios over the cake.

Enjoy :)