Pistachio Cake with Pistachio Butter Cream Frosting

Ingredients:

Cake ingredients:

135 grams pistachios

100 grams brown sugar

200 grams melted butter

2 eggs

250mls milk

350 grams plain flour

4 tsp baking powder

3 tbsp honey

2 tsp vanilla extract

Icing Ingredients:

315 grams icing sugar

225 grams butter, melted

1 tsp vanilla extract

⅔ cup pistachio paste

3 tbsp thickened cream

Method:

Preheat your oven to 170°C fan forced. Grease and line a round cake tin.

Blitz the pistachios in a food processor until finely ground (not a paste). In a large bowl, mix together the ground pistachios, flour and baking powder.

In another bowl, whisk the melted butter, brown sugar, eggs, milk, honey and vanilla until smooth. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry. Manually mix or use a hand beater to combine.

Pour into the cake tin and bake for 40–45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the icing, beat the butter until pale and fluffy. Gradually add the icing sugar, then mix in the vanilla, cream and pistachio paste. Beat until smooth. Spread or pipe onto the cooled cake and garnish with chopped pistachios and some freeze-dried strawberries for a bit of extra pizazz.