It’s funny how the word “moist” has become completely unusable in our family, with the only exception being a descriptive word for cake. If I mentioned that the insanely hot weather of late was making me feel moist, you’d probably be slightly put off this cake recipe. Do not let a simple word deter you from what is the most wonderfully moist cake I’ve ever eaten.
 
Adding salted caramel to anything is a good idea, right? So here you have it, moist cake, caramel and strawberries for my little niece Amelie who insisted I make a strawberry cake and who was quite satisfied by this humble substitute.
 
I think any Valentine who isn’t satisfied by this LOVE-ly cake is probably one to dump. What a fantastic method for testing the durability of a relationship.
 
Happy love day everyone.
 
Go forth and spread that stuff everywhere.
 
Pistachio Cake with Salted Caramel & Strawberries
 
For the pistachio cake:
• 250g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 250g caster sugar
• 4 large free range eggs
• Zest of one large lemon
• Seeds scraped from one vanilla pod
• 120g almond meal
• 50g ground pistachios
• 30g flour
• 50g pistachio paste
 
Preheat oven to 150°C.
Line a 9″ cake tin with baking paper.
Beat the butter and sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
Gradually beat the eggs into the mixture until incorporated, then mix in the vanilla, lemon zest and pistachio paste. Fold in the ground nuts and flour.
Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for 60 mins or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cover with foil if the cake starts to brown before it is completely cooked.
Cool in the tin before turning out onto a serving plate.
 
For the Salted Caramel:
• 150g double cream
• 1/2 vanilla pod
• 250g caster sugar
• 2 Tbsp golden syrup
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp sea salt flakes
• 65g unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 punnet strawberries
 
Scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod and place seeds, pod and the cream in a heavy bottomed sauce pan.
Place 4 Tbsp water, caster sugar and golden syrup into another heavy bottom sauce pan.
Heat the pot of cream on a low heat, keeping an eye on it. Heat the water, sugar and syrup over a medium heat at the same time. Do not stir the sugar syrup, only swirl the pan if necessary. As soon as the cream starts to bubble, turn off the heat.
Continue cooking the sugar syrup until it starts to colour and turn dark golden brown. Remove from the heat and whisk in the vanilla cream. Stir in the lemon juice, salt and butter, mixing until smooth. Remove the vanilla pod and leave the caramel to cool. Spread half the cooled caramel over the pistachio cake and top with freshly sliced strawberries.
 
Store the leftover caramel in the fridge and use it on top of ice cream or as your heart desires.
 
xxBlighStBistro.