Almond & Pistachio Cake

By Grazor

Ingredients

• 250 g butter, softened (I think you can cut back on the butter a bit ... maybe to 200 to 220g?)
• 200 g caster sugar
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 120 g ground almonds
• 100 g ground pistachio nuts
• 50 g plain flour
• 1 - 1 tsp baking powder
• - Grated zest of 2 unwaxed lemons
• For the pistachio topping
• 1 or 2 tbsp honey, basically enough to coat the pistachios
• - A pinch of cinnamon
• A drop or 2 of rosewater
• 60 - 60g pistachio nuts (or more, if you like), roughly chopped

Preparation

Step 1

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.


2. Beat the butter and sugar together until smooth. Add the eggs, a little at a time, and beat until firmly incorporated.


3. Stir in the ground almonds and pistachios, the flour and baking powder*, and the lemon zest.
* It's better to first mix the flour and baking powder together (in a separate bowl), before adding them into the batter.


4. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 45 minutes (if you halved the measurements like me, then 30 minutes or so)*, until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven.
* Do note that this cake browns quite quickly, you might want to tent with a foil halfway through.

For the topping
5a. (What the original recipe says)
Meanwhile, make the topping. Heat the caster sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan. Stir in the pistachios. When the sugar has completely dissolved, pour the mixture evenly over the cake. Leave to cool in the tin, then turn out and serve cut into slices.

Allow cake to cool in pan for about 10mins before turning it out onto a wire rack. Meanwhile, mix the cinnamon, rosewater and honey in a bowl. Throw in chopped pistachios (I lightly toasted them first) and stir to coat well (see above). Place the cooled cake onto a serving plate, then spoon the honeyed nut topping on. Slice and devour.