Pistachio, Cardamom and Lemon Drizzle Cake
The original recipe for this can be found on BBC Food and was written by food stylist and recipe writer Benjamina Ebuehi, a quarter finalist in the Great British Bake Off 2016.
Another nut based recipe, not so good for anyone with an epipen, but this twist on the traditional lemon drizzle is one of the best. I like oil based cakes when cooking with more nuts and less flour, because they tend to last longer as they don’t dry out as quickly. The cardamom really shines through in this and the rose petals make for a pretty picture – this was my mum’s birthday cake and it went down a treat.
Ingredients
100g shelled pistachios, plus extra to decorate (supermarkets normally sell 150g bags)
125ml of sunflower oil
125g of caster sugar
2 large free-range eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
8 green cardamom pods – deseed and grind to a powder in pestle and mortar
the zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
100g of plain flour
pinch of salt
1 tsp of baking powder
½ tsp of bicarbonate of soda
50g of soured cream
For the lemon icing
75g of icing sugar
1-2 tbsp of lemon juice
To decorate
dried rose petals
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Grease and line a 900g/2lb loaf tin.
2. In a food processor, pulse the pistachios to make a powder.
3. In a large bowl, mix together the sunflower oil and caster sugar. Add the eggs, vanilla paste, ground cardamom and lemon zest. Stir until combined.
4. In a separate bowl, add the flour, ground pistachios, ground almonds, salt, baking powder and bicarbonate soda. Stir until well combined then fold into the wet ingredients in the other bowl. Fold in the soured cream.
5. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
6. Meanwhile, prepare the syrup. Heat the lemon juice and sugar in a saucepan until the sugar is dissolved, then briefly bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and set aside.
7. As soon as the cake is cooked, poke holes all over the top using a skewer. Pour over two-thirds of the hot syrup and leave to cool in the tin for 5-10 minutes. Add half the extra pistachios (for decorating the cake) to the remaining syrup.
8. When the cake is cool, remove it from the tin.
9. For the lemon icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl and stir in the lemon juice until smooth. Drizzle over the cooled cake.
10. To finish, finely chop the remaining pistachios and scatter over the icing. Top with the syrup-coated pistachios and some dried rose petals.
Original recipe from BBC Food