pistachio and orange cake
The air is filled with hope. This week, after a long lockdown restrictions have start to loosen and we can now meet friends and families outdoors.
Our calendars have started to fill up with picnics in the sun, and most exciting is being able to celebrate Easter with out families over the long weekend.
If you are in the UK you’ll know how excited people get when Cadbury’s Mini Eggs start appearing. Those little yellow bags full of addictive crunchy, chocolate-y balls.
For me they are akin to a class A drug.
And this orange and pistachio cake is my second favourite thing right now. I have made this recipe many, many times and tweaked to be now one of my go-to traybakes, delicious with buttercream or just runny icing.
This cake mirrors the speckled shell of the mini eggs, and apart from them this cake is totally dairy free. I made the icing using Flora 100% plant base butter and I will go as far as saying that it tasted better than actual buttery buttercream.
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Pistachio and orange cake (Serves 8-10 people)
6 oranges
6 medium eggs
375 caster sugar
1 tsp olive oil
250g plain flour
200g finely ground pistachios
100g almond flour
1 tbsp baking powder
For the icing:
900g icing sugar
450g Unsalted plant based butter
3 tbsp oat milk
A few drops of blue gel colouring
1 tbsp cocoa powder
300g Cadbury’s mini eggs
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1. Zest 3 of the oranges and set aside. Using a knife, peel the oranges removing the pith and any seeds. Cut them in quarters and place them in a pan. Cover with water and bring it to boil. Once the water has boiled let it simmer for 20 minutes.
2. Grease a 30cm baking tray with a little oil and baking parchment or greaseproof paper and preheat the oven to 180C
3. Drain the water and blend oranges until you get a smooth mixture. Leave it to cool completely.
4. Using an electric whisk beat eggs and sugar for 5 minutes until pale and fluffy. Beat in the oranges, zest and olive oil.
5. Fold in the remaining ingredients until they are all combined, pour into prepared tray and bake for 20-25 mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. If any wet mixture clings to the skewer, return to the oven for 5 mins, then check again. Leave to cool in the tray.
6. To make the buttercream, beat the plant butter for a couple of minutes. Slowly add the icing sugar and whisk until smooth. Lastly add the milk and give it a final whisk. Place half of the icing in a piping bag with a large piping nozzle.
7. Remove the cake from the tray and slice it in half, pipe the buttercream onto one half of the cake and sandwich the two parts together. This will ensure an equal spread of icing.
8. Use a spatula to spread a thin layer of buttercream frosting over your cake as a crumb layer, smooth the icing as best as you can and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Smooth remaining buttercream with spatula.
9. Mix the cocoa powder with 2 tbsp of cold water. Dip a fork into the mixture and flick it over the cake (I did this outside but if doing it inside make sure you cover any surfaces that may stain!). Decorate with mini eggs. The cake will keep for 5 days in the fridge.
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