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Pistachio and elderflower cordial cake

MAKES 1 DEEP 20 CM CAKE


FOR THE CAKE
125g butter, at room temperature
125g Greek yoghurt
250g unrefined light brown sugar or coconut sugar
250g pistachio nuts
200g polenta
1 teaspoon of baking powder
grated zest and juice of 1 unwaxed lemon
3 organic or free-range eggs
150ml elderflower cordial
FOR THE ELDERFLOWER ICING
200g Greek yoghurt
3 tablespoons golden icing sugar or set honey
1 tablespoon elderflower cordial
a handful of pistachio nuts, crushed

I live in Hackney, where it can be a little rough around the edges, but I like it that way. Once a year the
elderflowers spring up all over Hackney in parks and marshes and no one seems to notice they are there. So I
head down with my blue stepladder to pick as many of the flowers as I can. I make the cordial, gallons of it, and I
always make this cake. Instead of flour I use pistachios and polenta, which gives the cake a dense baklava feeling.
You really need a food processor to grind the pistachios up, so if you dont have one, use ground almonds
instead.
One friend said she was going to name her firstborn after this cake. I am not sure there could be higher praise.
Preheat your oven to 200/fan 180/gas 6. Grease and line the base of a 20cm springfoam cake tin.

Put the butter, yoghurt and sugar into a bowl and cream together until light and fluffy.
Now blitz the pistachios to dust in a food processor dont blitz them too much, though, or they will turn to
butter. Add the blitzed pistachios, polenta, baking powder and lemon zest and juice to the butter mix and mix
well. Then crack the eggs, one by one, and mix in.
Pour into the cake tin and bake for 45-50 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Remove from the oven and
leave to cool in the tin. Make a few holes in the warm cake with a skewer, then gently pour the elderflower
cordial slowly over the cake, allowing it time to seep in. Leave the cake in the tin until cool enough to transfer to
a cooling rack.
For the icing, mix the yoghurt, icing sugar, or honey and elderflower cordial until smooth. Spread over the
cooled cake and top with a handful of crushed pistachios.

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