Pistachio cake with berries & scented cream

Name: Pistachio cake with berries & scented cream
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 8
Ingredients: 200 ml olive oil, plus extra for greasing; 150 g pistachio nut kernels; 50 g stale breadcrumbs; 200 g caster sugar; 2½ tsp baking powder; 1 unwaxed lemon, zest and juice; 4 medium free range eggs, lightly beaten

Diana Henry's luscious dessert is packed with pistachios, but feel free to use ground almonds to replace half of them.

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Vegetarian

Serves8
CourseDessert
Prepare15 mins
Cook45 mins
Total time1 hr
Pluscooling

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200ml olive oil, plus extra for greasing
150g pistachio nut kernels
50g stale breadcrumbs
200g caster sugar
2½ tsp baking powder
1 unwaxed lemon, zest and juice
4 medium free range eggs, lightly beaten

For the syrup

2 lemons, juice
90g granulated sugar

For the berries & cream

200ml double cream
100g Greek yogurt
3 tbsp icing sugar
1½ tbsp crème de cassis (or crème de framboise, if you have any)
3 tsp rose water, to taste
500g mixed berries (strawberries, raspberries and blueberries)

Preheat the oven to 190ºC, gas mark 5. Lightly oil a 21cm cake tin and line the base with baking parchment.
Put 115g pistachios into a spice or coffeegrinder and grind to a powder (you can use a food processor, but it won’t grind as finely). Tip into a mixing bowl.
Mix with the breadcrumbs, caster sugar, baking powder and lemon zest. In a separate jug, combine the lemon juice and oil with the eggs, beat lightly, then stir into the dry ingredients. Mix and scrape into the tin.
Bake for 40-45 minutes. It should come away slightly from the sides of the tin and a skewer inserted into the middle should come out clean. Leave for 10 minutes. Turn the cake out, peel off the paper and put onto a plate.
For the syrup, heat the lemon juice, sugar and 70ml water in a small pan, stirring, until dissolved. Simmer for 5 minutes. While the cake is still warm, make holes all over the top with a skewer and slowly pour the syrup in.
Chop the remaining pistachios. Lightly whip the double cream, then stir in the yogurt, icing sugar, crème de cassis and a little rose water. Taste to see how strong the rose water is – you might want to add less than 3 tsp, as flower waters vary in strength. Be careful. It shouldn’t be too perfumed.
Hull the strawberries – leave any pretty and small ones intact – then halve or quarter any large ones.
Serve each slice of cake with some cream and berries, then sprinkle over the reserved chopped pistachios.

Typical values per serving when made using specific products in recipe