Thursday 17 September 2015

Pistachio, Praline and Vanilla Cake

I was asked to make a Pistachio, Praline and Vanilla Cake for a local coffee shop. They had had this cake in the past and it had proved popular so they wanted me to try it out.

I tried a few different recipes and adjusted them. In the end this is the recipe I came up with that has worked each time: 

Ingredients: 
125g Pistachios
250g Butter
250g Caster Sugar
5 Large Free Range Eggs
70g Plain Flour
285g Self Raising Flour

Preheat the oven at 140oC (this may vary from oven to oven so you may need to experiment). Line an 8" cake tin with greaseproof paper. 

Grind up the pistachio nuts in a food processor until they are small crumbs. Add in the sugar and whiz it up to combine everything. 

Place the butter and the sugar mixture into a mixer and mix until really light and fluffy. 

Add the eggs one egg at a time until fully combined. 

Sift in the flours and mix on a low speed until just combined, be careful not to over work the mixture as this results in a flat and fragile cake. 

Place the mixture in the tin and into the preheated oven. I initially check the cakes after 1 hour but they usually require closer to 2. My oven is very temperamental so this will vary depending on your oven. I cook on a low temperature, due to the oven, and for longer so use your usual cake settings if you are used to making cakes. 

Once a skewer comes out of the cake clean leave it to cool. 

For the vanilla butter icing I mix: 
250g Butter - I do find that the quality of the butter makes a difference and my preference is Anchor
500g Icing Sugar
Vanilla Essence

Mix together the butter and icing sugar until fully combined. Pour in the vanilla essence, depending on taste, but I usually start with 2 teaspoons. 

I then use this to spread between the layers of the cake and on the top. 

For the praline element I firstly caramelise some sugar in a saucepan. After experimenting I've found that a larger surface area at a high heat is the best way to achieve a caramel rather than crystals. Once this is ready I then add in chopped pistachios and leave it to cool. 

Once solid I crush it up in a pestle and mortar and sprinkle it on the top of the cake. 
Praline Sprinkling

I sell these cakes individually so if you'd like to order one then please just drop me an email. I usually have availability for these cakes.
Finished Cake

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