Pistachio Cake Bbc Good Food Recipes

PISTACHIO, COURGETTE & LEMON CAKE

Steps:

• Put 150g of the pistachios and the sugar in a food processor and whizz until the nuts are very finely ground.
• Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4, grease a 20 x 30cm cake tin and line the base with baking parchment. Tip the pistachio sugar into a big mixing bowl with the butter, flour, baking powder and bicarb, eggs, yogurt and the zest and juice from 2 of the lemons. Beat with an electric whisk until smooth and combined.
• Stir in the courgette until everything is well mixed, then scrape into the prepared tin. Bake for 35-40 mins until the cake is risen and golden, and a skewer poked into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool.
• When the cake has fully cooled, remove from the tin and peel off the baking parchment. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl, and gradually stir in enough lemon juice to get a runny-ish consistency. If you run out of juice, carry on mixing with water. Drizzle thickly over the cake, and repeat with lemon curd, if you like. Roughly chop the remaining pistachios and scatter over the icing, along with the remaining lemon zest. Leave to set for 10 mins, then cut into squares and serving with Greek yogurt. Will keep for 3 days in an airtight tin.

PISTACHIO, CARDAMOM AND LEMON DRIZZLE CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Grease and line a 900g/2lb loaf tin.
• In a food processor, pulse the pistachios to make a powder.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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. Add half the extra pistachios (for decorating the cake) to the remaining syrup.
• When the cake is cool, remove it from the tin.
• For the lemon icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl and stir in the lemon juice until smooth. Drizzle over the cooled cake.
• To finish, finely chop the remaining pistachios and scatter over the icing. Top with the syrup-coated pistachios and some dried rose petals.

PISTACHIO PRALINE & VANILLA CAKE

Steps:

• Heat oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. Butter two 20cm sandwich tins and line with non-stick baking paper. In a large bowl, beat all the cake ingredients together until you have a smooth, soft batter.
• Blitz the pistachios in a food processor until very fine. Add the self-raising flour and caster sugar to the nuts and blitz until completely combined. Add eggs, baking powder and milk and mix together.
• Divide the mixture between the tins, smooth the surface with a spatula or the back of a spoon, then bake for about 20 mins until golden and the cake springs back when pressed. Turn onto a cooling rack and leave to cool completely.
• For the filling mix the soft cheese with the caster sugar and a few drops of vanilla essence.
• Sandwich the sponges with the filling. For the topping, stir 2 tbsp water with 100g caster sugar in a microwaveable bowl and microwave on High for 3-4 mins until bubbling and starting to caramelise. Stir in a handful of roughly chopped pistachios then quickly spoon onto the cake. Keep in an airtight container and eat within 2 days.

PISTACHIO CUPCAKES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3 and line a 12-hole muffin tin with cases. Put 85g pistachios into a food processor with about half the sugar, then whizz until very finely chopped. Tip into a large mixing bowl with the remaining sugar, butter, eggs, flour and milk and beat until smooth. Divide between cases, then bake on a low shelf for 22-25 mins until a skewer poked in comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.
• For the icing, mix just enough water into the icing sugar to get a very thick but still runny icing - just add 1 tbsp of water at a time. Stir in enough food colouring to give a pretty, pale green colour. If any cakes poke above the top of the cases, trim with a small knife, or scoop out with a teaspoon - being very careful not to release any of the case from the sides of the cake. Put a generous spoonful of icing on each cake and let it gently spread to cover. Chop the remaining pistachios and scatter these over with a pinch of edible glitter. Set, then serve.

PISTACHIO & MILK CHOCOLATE SQUARES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Line a 20cm square cake tin with baking parchment. Whizz 125g of the pistachios, 75g of the chocolate and about half the sugar in a food processor until very finely chopped. Tip into a bowl with remaining sugar, butter, eggs, flour and milk, plus a pinch of salt, and beat. Scrape into the tin and bake for 35-45 mins until a skewer poked in comes out clean. Cool.
• Melt the remaining milk chocolate, stir in the soured cream and cool until spreadable. Trim the edges off the cake, then split in half. Spread a little icing over the base, sandwich the top of sponge back on. Spread remaining icing over the top, roughly chop the remaining pistachios and scatter them over. Cut into 16 squares to serve.