PISTACHIO AND LEMON (LITTLE) LOAF CAKES

PISTACHIO AND LEMON (LITTLE) LOAF CAKES

 One morning I was leafing through a copy of River Café Easy when I discovered this recipe. The combination of beautiful photography and the memory of eating a slice of the most incredible pistachio cake at The River Café for my Dad’s birthday back in June convinced me that I had to make it. Having no scales in Italy, I jotted the instructions down in the inside of a book I was reading and resolved to give this recipe a go once I got back to my little London kitchen.
 This is the result and I absolutely urge you to give it a go. The combination of two types of ground nuts gives this cake an unusual, wonderfully moist, almost damp crumb, bright with the green of the pistachios and lifted by the sharp citrus sweetness of lemon juice and zest. A glaze of more pistachios and sugar syrup on top has a gorgeous, almost caramel-like flavour and the overall experience of eating this cake is as close to perfection as I’ve tasted in a long time.

- http://thelittleloaf.wordpress.com/2012/08/06/pistachio-lemon-little-loaf-cakes/

Ingredients:

For the cakes
250g unsalted butter, room temperature
250g golden caster sugar
4 large free range eggs, whisked
Zest of one large unwaxed lemon
Seeds scraped from one vanilla pod
120g pistachios, ground
100g almonds, ground
40g plain flour, sieved

For the syrup topping
Juice and zest of one large unwaxed lemon
50g golden caster sugar
60g pistachios, coarsely chopped

Method

For the cakes
Preheat the oven to 150 degrees C. Grease and line two 9 x 18cm loaf tins*.
Beat the butter and sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
Gradually beat the eggs into the mixture until incorporated, then add the vanilla and lemon zest. Fold in the ground nuts and flour.
Divide the batter between your two tins and bake for between 30 – 40 mins, testing to see if the cakes are done by inserting a skewer into the middle.
When baked, remove from the oven and leave in the tins for about five minutes before removing and allowing to cool completely on a wire rack.

For the syrup topping
Mix together the lemon juice and sugar. Bring to the boil, then simmer until slightly thickened and syrupy. Stir in the pistachios then pour evenly over the two loaf cakes.
Serve in thick slices. You could add a little natural yoghurt or chocolate ice cream, but this cake was so delicious I was happy to eat it on its own.

*You can also bake this in one large 30 x 9cm loaf tin. If doing so, increase baking time to between 45 minutes and one hour.