Greek Style Honey and Pistachio Cake
By: Karen Vivers
Published: Tuesday, August 5, 2014 - 7:59am

Ingredients




For the Cake Batter
225gr / 8 oz. caster sugar
75gr / 2.5 oz. ground almonds
150gr / 5 oz.  plain flour
200gr / 7 oz. semolina
1 x tsp baking powder
A pinch of salt
Zest of one lemon
Zest of 2 oranges
225gr / 8 oz. Greek yogurt
5 x large eggs
200ml / 6.7 fl. oz. olive oil
For the Pistachio syrup
150gr / 5 oz. pistachios
100ml / 3.8 fl. oz. honey
Juice of one lemon
Juice of two oranges

Preparation

1 Pre-heat your oven to 180°C / 350°F. 2 Mix all the cake batter ingredients together until smooth.  This is quite a loose batter so it’s easy to do by hand. 3 Line your baking tin with greaseproof paper and pour the cake batter in.  Place in the oven and bake for up to 50 minutes.  Checking after 35.  I check by sliding a knife or a skewer into the middle of the cake and when it comes out clean, the cake is baked through. 4 Allow your cake to cool completely before making the syrup. 5 Smash or chop your pistachio’s roughly.  Heat a non-stick frying pan on the stove and roast the nuts for a couple of minutes, add the honey and the lemon and orange juice.  Stir around for a few seconds on a high heat. 6 Whilst your cake is still in the tin pierce it all over with a knife and pour over your syrup.  Allow the liquid to soak into the sponge before serving.

About

've said it before, I'm not a natural baker, but I am a natural cake eater.  So, when the urge hits, I turn to those who can do it much better for my recipes and inspiration.  There are some criteria upon which I insist in my cakes.  For eating they need to be moist (this one is oozing with honey), with a hit of flavour (in this case citrus), and, if possible a bit of crunch (cue the pistachio nut).  For making, the only criteria is that it is easy.  I found this Jamie Oliver recipe and have only tweaked it a tiny bit to make it my own.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.....