This deeply moist and soft cake is scented with pistachios and sweetened with honey. A nutty cake needs something to offset its deepness, and a smothering of mascarpone and lemon curd does the trick quite nicely.
PISTACHIO CAKE WITH MASCARPONE LEMON CURD
Cake
3 large lemons
1 cup pistachios
1 cup ground almonds
¼ cup honey
½ cup coconut, rapadura or light muscovado sugar
5 free-range eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
Lemon Curd
1/3 cup melted coconut oil or unsalted butter
¼ cup honey
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
4 free-range eggs
½ cup lemon juice
To serve
½ cup mascarpone
Fresh fruit, nuts or spray-free flowers of your choice
- Place the whole lemons in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil and then lower heat and simmer for 1 hour. Drain and then allow to cool. Preheat the oven to 160C and grease a 23cm cake tin with butter or coconut oil.
- Cut the lemons in half, remove and discard the pips, and place lemons into the bowl of a food processor (skin, pith, flesh and all). Process until smooth. Add the remaining cake ingredients and process again until smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and use a spatula to smooth out evenly.
- Bake for 35–40 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin.
- To make the lemon curd, put the coconut oil or butter, honey and vanilla into a small saucepan and melt together over a medium heat. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for a minute or so. Once cooled, carefully whisk in the eggs and lemon juice.
- Place back over a low heat, then continue to whisk for 2–3 minutes or until the curd becomes lovely and thick. Remove from the heat. Leave to cool before using.
- Once the cake has cooled completely, carefully transfer to a plate.
- Put the lemon curd and mascarpone in a bowl, and mix until smooth. Top the cake with the lemon curd mascarpone icing, and decorations of your choice. Will keep for 2–3 days stored in the fridge.
Note: To make a double layered cake as pictured, double the cake recipe, and divide the batter between two cake tins before baking.
