Simply the zest!

This cake is the runner up #recipe from my #Instagram poll a few weeks back, and if I am completely honest, this is the winner for me. Although I love anything with chocolate in, the same can be said for #pistachio. It's a flavour I am always drawn to whether it is in baklava, sprinkled on salads, pistachio ice cream (my absolute favourite!) or just in a bowl on their own!! This cake is a very fresh and light sponge (as lemon cakes normally are) and the pistachios just add that extra richness and hint of #luxury!

This cake was made for one of my friends at work so, as usual, I had to make it look pretty....but don't let that put you off. Even if you are not a fan of decorating cakes, all the equipment you need for this is a piping bag (with one large and one small star nozzle) and a palette knife. A lot of people think decorating is very difficult but it is amazing what you can do with the most basic equipment so I recommend you give it a try!

Happy baking x

Time: 2 hours

Serves: 16-18 people

For the lemon and pistachio cake

100 g pistachio, roughly chopped

300 g flour

300 g butter

300 g sugar

Juice and zest of 2 large lemons (or 3 small)

2 tsp baking powder

To decorate/ice

1 jar of lemon curd

300 g butter (room temperature)

525 g icing sugar

Juice 1 lemon

100 g chopped pistachio nuts

100 g white chocolate, melted

3 food colourings of your choice (I used ivory, teal and pink)

Method:

1. Turn your oven to 180°C and grease and line 3 cake tins

2. Whisk together your butter, sugar, flour and eggs in a large mixing bowl.

3. Add the juice and zest of 2 large lemons and combine. Add your baking powder and pistachios and whisk until mixed through.

4. Spoon the cake evenly into your tins and bake for 18-20 mins until golden brown and coming away from the edges.

5. Turn out onto a cooling rack and set aside.

6. For the icing, whip up the butter until light and fluffy. Gradually add the icing sugar and lemon juice.

7. Take 2 large tablespoons out into smaller bowls (2 scoops in each bowl) and add your two chosen colours for the decoration icing. To the rest, add your base colour (in my case ivory).

8. When your cakes have cooled, spread a thin layer of icing over the cake and pipe a circle about 2 cm from the edge. Fill the middle in with lemon curd and crushed pistachios. Repeat for the next layer.

9. Once your final layer is on, put a crumb coat around the entire cake and leave in the fridge for about 15 mins.

10. Meanwhile, melt the white chocolate in the microwave then set aside to cool until your cake is out of the fridge.

11. Put a thicker layer of your base-colour icing around the cake. Put small dots of your other two colours around the top and sides of the cake and smooth in using a pallet knife or cake scraper.

12. Add the white chocolate to the sides of your cake so you have a drip effect.

13. Using a flower nozzle, pipe the base colour icing on top. Use the remaining icing from your other colours and pipe around the top using a small star nozzle.

14. Sprinkle with the chopped pistachios and your cake is ready to serve!

Whip all your sugar, flour, eggs and butter together into a light fluffy batter, adding the lemon juice, baking powder and pistachios last.

Bake your 3 individual layers until they are a light golden brown

Smooth on your butter icing between they layers so there is a dip in the middle to fill with lemon curd.

Pick the 3 colours you want to use for your cake. Here I use ivory as the base coat with pink and teal to decorate.

Make small blobs of your coloured icing onto your base coat

Smooth the colours in using a palette knife

Create a white chocolate drip and use your left over icing to pipe large and small stars on top. Top with crushed pistachios and a few sprinkles or silver balls if desired.