When strawberries smell good they are at optimum ripeness and perfect flavour. My favourite variety is Sweet Eve. A new trend is to use unripe strawberries to pickle; they make excellent garnishes for salads, soups or stews.
Yoghurt keeps this cake moist, and the pistachio nuts add crunch and beautiful colour.
Serves: 10 approximately
Preparation: 25 minutes
Cooking: 50 minutes
Ingredients
● 200g pistachio nuts, shelled
● 250g golden caster sugar
● 200g unsalted butter
● 3 eggs
● 150g full-fat Greek yoghurt
● 275g self-raising flour
For the strawberry icing
● 200g butter
● 300g icing sugar
● 4 strawberries
Garnish
● 300g small, carefully hulled strawberries
Method
● Line and grease a square 20cm x 20cm tin with baking parchment paper.
● Preheat the oven to 160°C fan.
● Put 150g pistachio nuts into a food processor with half the sugar (125g) and whizz until finely chopped.
● Tip into a large bowl, add the remaining sugar, and beat in butter until creamy.
● Add eggs, yoghurt and flour and whisk until smooth.
● Spoon into the prepared tin and bake for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
● Cool for 15 minutes before turning out and removing the baking parchment paper.
● To make the icing, beat the butter until white and fluffy.
● Add the icing sugar a little at a time, then when the mix feels stiff, beat in the 4 strawberries until well combined.
● Beat in the remaining sugar.
● Cover the top and sides of the cake with the icing.
● Whizz the remaining pistachio nuts until finely chopped and then press them against the edge of the cake.
● Just before serving, slice the remaining strawberries. Lay them neatly in rows on the top of the cake and scatter with a few chopped pistachios.
