Pistachio Cake

I made this cake the other day. It's a pistachio and almond cake with an orangey zing. The recipe is mostly from Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries, minus a few things I didn't like the sound of (or couldn't afford. This is a pricey cake to make!) It's got an incredible flavour, it's heavy and moist and will last a good few days without a decline in quality - in fact I think it improves with age.

Butter - 250g
caster sugar - 250g
eggs x3
pistachio nuts - 120g
ground almonds - 100g
an orange
plain flour - 60g

Preheat the oven to 160C. Line a 22cm cake tin. Cream the butter and sugar in a mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating between each addition. Grind 100g of the pistachios into a fine powder (use a food processor), and then add them to the mix along with the ground almonds. Grate and squeeze the orange, stirring it in (Nigel Slater puts rosewater in at this point too. I couldn't afford rosewater, so left it out). Fold in the flour with a metal spoon (or in my case, whiz old Ken Wood on a low setting).
Scoop the mixture into the tin, and bake for just shy of an hour, covering the top with foil about 10 mins before the end of cooking. It's done when a skewer comes out pretty much clean. Leave it in the tin to cool.

Nigel Slater makes a lemon icing to put on top. Mr Kite dislikes lemon in puddings, and I don't really like icing. The cake is so moist it doesn't need it. Instead I crushed up the remaining 20g of pistachio nuts and sprinkled them on the top. I put some primrose flowers on top for an elegant flourish. Depending on the season you could use whatever edible flower is in season at the time.

I recommend checking out the original recipe, especially if you want the rosewater touch and the icing. Nigel Slater includes a recipe for an amazing sounding sorbet that goes nicely with the cake.

Delicious!

Recipe

Here's a recipe I made up yesterday.

The LAG funding group I'm a part of has just put a 'temporary freeze' on funding all new projects. The government are abolishing RDAs and centralising everything with DEFRA.

The Big Society is fast becoming an oxymoron.

Elderflower Cordial Recipe

You will need:

A hot summers day.

20-30 Elderflower heads

1kg sugar

Zest of 1 orange and 3 lemons

The juice of the lemon and oranges.

1tsp citric acid

Do this:

Day 1

1. Shake the flowers free of insects. A few will probably remain, but don’t be too concerned.

2. Zest the fruits and then juice them. Put the juice in an airtight container in the fridge and leave until tomorrow.

3. Put the flowers into a large bowl along with the citrus zest

4. Boil 1.5 litres of water and then add it to the bowl

5. Cover the mixture and leave it overnight

Day 2

6. Pop some bottles into the oven at about 120^oC or something. They stay there until the near end.

7. Strain the infusion through a jelly bag, bit of muslin or I guess a sieve would work if you don’t have the former. (Scald the bag/ muslin/ sieve to (sort of) sterilise.)

8. Pour the liquid into a preserving pan or large saucepan.

9. Add the citrus juice, citric acid and sugar. You don’t actually need the citric acid. I don’t know what difference it makes scientifically, but it seems to create a lighter taste and texture. That was the only difference I could tell.

10. Dissolve the sugar by heating the mix up slowly. It took me about 10-15 minutes to dissolve it.

11. Bring to a simmer, which for me took about 10 mins, but I’m sure you can do it faster if you are short on time.

12. Simmer for about 1-2 minutes.

13. Pour the cordial into sterilised bottles using a (sterilised/ scalded) funnel. Seal the bottles with sterilised lids/ corks/ swing tops/ whatever.

This batch is lighter and more subtle than ones I’ve made before. I think I prefer the lightness. It carries a bright taste of summer.

Technically it will keep for about a year. But this is not a winter drink. It’s too light, too gentle, too hazy a drink for the heavy full flavours of winter. I think it’s better to drink it all before the end of autumn, otherwise you might find that you’ll have some old fermenting bottles by the next season that you never got round to drinking. If you want the elderflower taste over winter, I’d say make some elderflower wine. It’s heavier texture and fuller taste is more suited to cold weather than the light haze of a summery cordial.

Uses include:

1. Dilute with some water/ fizzy water/ lemonade.

2. Dilute with water and pour into ice-lolly moulds. Freeze them. On a hot summers day lick ‘em.

3. Use to boost flavour to the elderflower biscuit recipe I will post up in the future.