LEMON AND PISTACHIO YOGHURT CAKE

This isn't the the cake that I was trying to make last week. It isn't made with semolina, it isn't heavy with syrup, you wouldn't buy it from a Turkish or North African bakery. It isn't the type of cake that would be served with sweet mint tea and you don't need to eat it tiny square by tiny square.

But it is a cake that I have been meaning to make for some time.

A cake I would read about on blog after blog and think, yes, that sounds like my kind of cake, must make soon. And then time after time I would forget until the next blog rolled around. But this time, when I read about it for the, oh, millionth time, I was in the mood to bake. I read the recipe and I thought I want that cake but I want it with olive oil and lemons and pistachios and I thought yes, tonight, finally. So I got home from work and I made some dinner and I stirred some ingredients together in a bowl, this is a low effort high reward kind of a cake, I baked the cake, left it to cool, and have been enjoying slice after slice after slice since.

My top tip for the day? Don't wait.



Lemon and pistachio yoghurt cake (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

1 cup plain yogurt (I used 2% Greek yogurt because it's what I keep in the fridge for breakfast)
1/3 cup olive oil (or vegetable oil)
1 cup caster sugar
zest of one lemon
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 eggs
1 2/3 cups plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup pistachios, chopped roughly

Preheat the oven to 170ºC (350ºF). Grease the sides of a 20cm (9 inch) springform pan or cake tin with oil. If you aren't using a springform pan line the base of your cake tin with baking parchment.

Whisk the yogurt, oil, sugar, lemon zest and juice together in a large bowl and then add the eggs one by one, whisking well after each one. Sieve the flour, baking powder, soda and salt together, into the batter. Stir with a spoon until it is just combined and then gently stir in the pistachios.

Pour and scrape the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the top is golden brown and a knife or skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and let stand for 10 minutes in the tin. Then remove the cake from the tin and leave to cool on the rack. Serve slightly warm or once it has cooled. I prefer it cool but try both.

This cake will last happily for a few days. I made this one on Thursday and it is still good today, Sunday.