I made this almost all in one pistachio, courgette and lemon cake when I had a glut of courgettes. I do like courgettes. They are are very versatile and can be used in salads, roasted, stuffed, stir fried, frittered, battered and deep fried and finally made into cake. Courgettes tend to make cakes moist which is generally a good thing. This cake does go a little bit dry after a couple of days so is best eaten on the day or the day after it’s baked. This cake is substantial and will make 15 slices so is quite good for a party.
Ingredients
- 175g pistachios shelled and finely ground
- 200g butter
- 280g plain flour
- 1.25 teaspoons of baking powder
- 1.25 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
- 3 large eggs
- 140g greek full fat yoghurt
- 3 lemons – zest and juice
- 1 coarsely grated courgette
- 175g icing suar
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180/160 (fan) centigrade and grease and line the base of a a cake tin. Add the sugar, ground pistachios into a big mixing bowl along with the butter, flour, baking powder, sodium bicarbonate, eggs, yoghurt and the zest and juice of two of the lemons. Beat with an electric whisk until combined and smooth.
- Stir in the courgette until well combined then tip the batter into the prepared cake tin. Bake for 35-40 minutes until the cake is golden and risen. Check that it is cooked through using a skewer in the middle which will come out clean when it’s done. Leave to cool in the tin.
- When the cake is cool, remove from the tin and peel off the paper. Make the icing by sieving the icing sugar into a bowl and adding the juice from the third lemon. Add more water if the consistency is not runny enough.
- Pour the icing onto the cake and add the lemon rind in top along with some chopped pistachios. You can add rose petals and lemon curd drizzle if you want to go really bougie.
The pistachio, courgette and lemon cake should keep for a few days in a tin or wrapped in foil. Serve with greek yoghurt or cream if you like but I like it neat.