Pistachio and orange cake

This cake was inspired by a trip to Rome I made two summers ago with my sister. The holiday had many ups and downs, but the food was beautiful and exotic. You think you know what Italian food is; pasta, pizza, fantastic cheese, flavoursome cured meats, and fresh, colourful vegetables. The Romans do eat all the foods we think of as Italian, but they also love meat cuts that we would never dream of. Intestine, testicle, brains. When I went I wasn't far out of vegetarianism, so didn't go for the more exotic meats on the menus, but I know that if I went back I wouldn't be able to resist trying something so unusual.


However, I've gone on a tangent. The cakes (and gelato) we ate were superb. I remembered a beautiful pistachio and lemon sponge, all layered up with whipped cream and probably laced with a liqueur. When I returned home, the first thing I did was attempt to recreate that cake. I did well, I think. I didn't go for the layers of whipped cream but instead made a buttercream topping with lemon juice through it. And I made the cake with orange zest, not lemon. The layers of whipped cream is beautiful, and I recommend that if you prefer the sound of that then to go for it. The buttercream is a nice twist though, with a squeeze of lemon juice through it.


100g raw pistachios
115g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cardamon
1/4 tsp salt
120ml milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
120g softened butter
100g caster sugar
3 large eggs
the zest of 3 oranges


Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4/350F and grease and line a 20cm round cake tin


1, In a food processor, pulse the pistachios until they resemble fine breadcrumbs. Be careful you don't go too far because you'll end up with pistachio nut butter (which sounds delicious, but not the aim here)
2, In a bowl mix the flour, pistachios, baking powder, cardamon and salt.
3, Combine the milk and vanilla extract.
4, Cream the butter and sugar together until it is light and fluffy - you can never over-cream!
5, Add the eggs to the sugar mixture one at a time, and then add the dry ingredients and milk alternately.
6, Finally, add the orange zest.
7, Bake on the middle shelf for approximately 30 mins, or until the cake has shrunk from the edges of the tin and the middle is springy to the touch.
8, Remove from the heat, leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then take out and place on a cooling rack.


300g icing sugar
100g softened butter
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp vanilla extract


Cream the butter and icing sugar until smooth, then slowly add the lemon juice and vanilla extract. Do this a little at a time to prevent curdling.


You could decorate with whole pistachios or just serve as is. The great thing about this cake is the little cardamon flavour, which leaves everyone guessing the secret ingredient :)