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pistachio and olive oil cake pistachio & olive oil cake

The theme for this month’s Cake Club was savouries due to the idea of everyone trying to be good in January after an indulgent Christmas. I joined cake club this time last year and there were some delicious savoury cakes as well as a few sweetish ones such as courgette cake. I do like my savoury but have a huge sweet tooth and therefore wanted to think about a sweet cake that could fit in with a savoury theme which hadn’t been done before.
It just so happened that the week before Cake Club I went for dinner at Ask and they had a new dessert option which was Pistachio and Olive Oil Cake. A huge lover of pistachios, especially pistachio ice cream, I was straight away curious to see what it would be like. Turns out I didn’t actually end up getting Pistachio Cake but at least I now had a cake to find a recipe for for Cake Club!

There are a few recipes for Pistachio and Olive Oil Cake on the web. As the theme was savoury I wanted to avoid using sugar so looked around at a couple of different recipes and in the end I actually mixed two recipes together and adapted them, these were from Naturally Ella and The Franco Irish Kitchen. It was quite a task to make the pistachio flour, I enjoyed it but wouldn’t want to do it every time and if you don’t have a lot of time on your hands it’s probably not the best cake to make. However that is only due to the fact I could not find ground pistachios anywhere (Do we have this in London? I’m sure we must do but I have never seen it.) If you can find ground pistachios then this cake is simple. Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients
  • 130g plain flour
  • 50g polenta
  • 200g ground pistachios or 200g pistachios (unshelled)
  • 2 tablespoons lemon zest
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • 120ml olive oil
  • 60ml  honey
  • 60ml whole milk
  • 3 large eggs
pistachiospistachio flour
Method
1. Line a 20cm round baking tin with butter and parchment paper and set oven to Gas Mark 4, 180 F.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, ground pistachios/pistachio flour, lemon zest, baking soda, and salt.
3. In another bowl, whisk together the olive oil, honey, milk, and eggs.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until combined.
5. Scoop the batter into the baking tin and smooth out evenly. Bake for 25 minutes, until the cake it has turned golden. Leave to cool for 10 minutes.
If you are unable to find ground pistachios or only can get shelled pistachios here is how to make pistachio flour:
1. Fill a small saucepan halfway with boiling water and place the pistachios in for 2 minutes (This makes it easier to remove the shells and the skin of the pistachios).
2. Place pistachios on kitchen roll and rub the nuts to remove shells and skins
3. Roast on a baking tray in oven at 180 degrees F for 3 to 5 minutes
4. Place the nuts in a food processor or blender and grind finely. Tip: Do not over grind because they will turn into butter! (Very tasty but not great for the cake!)
5. Press the grounded pistachios through a sieve to make flour. (If it is not going through sieve easily put back in processor and grind again)
pistachio & olive oil cake
pistachio and olive oil cake
As always we had a lovely night at Cake Club and unfortunately it will be my last one in the UK for some time but I will carry on baking and hope there’s one in Vancouver I can go to. To read more about our savoury (ditch the sugar) themed night and see the other cakes that were made you can read about it here.
Hope you enjoy x