honey and pistachio cake

The recent Jamie Does… series has thrown up some delicious recipes. This cornmeal cake, from his Athens trip, is light, fluffy and stuffed with gooey honey. If I had one criticism, there’s not quite enough honey. I’d up it to 150ml next time. The flavours are still there though, it’s great for sharing. It also lasts for days with no noticeable drying out. Result!

Honey and pistachio cake:

225g caster sugar

75g ground almonds

150g plain flour

200g semolina / cornmeal / fine polenta

1 teaspoon baking powder

Pinch of salt

Zest of 1 lemon

Zest of 1 orange

225g Greek yoghurt

5 eggs

200ml olive oil

150g pistachios

100ml honey

Juice of 1 lemon

Juice of 1 orange

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Combine the sugar, almonds, flour, cornmeal, baking powder in a bowl. Add the eggs, zest, yoghurt and oil and stir well until you have a thick, gloopy batter.

Pour this into a lined baking dish or cake tin (it will be quite large), or drizzle with oil and dust with cornmeal as an alternative lining. Bake for 30 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool for 1 hour.

In a dry frying pan toast the pistachios, lightly crushing them with a wooden spoon. Pour in the honey and juices and get everything fluid. Pierce the top of the cake many times with a knife and pour the honey nut mixture all over. Serve in wedges with more Greek yoghurt and some sliced strawberries.