Easter is just around the corner, so here is my recipe for a cake that not only tastes amazing but will look pretty on any coffee table and impress your nearest and dearest. You don’t have to tell them that it is really easy to make, that can be our little secret.
Of course you can serve it any time of year, just hide the Easter eggs!
Ingredients:
- 250g unsalted butter
- 250 g white sugar
- 1 pack or 2 heaped tea spoons vanilla sugar
- 1 pinch of salt
- 4 medium eggs
- 300g flour
- ½ teaspoon of baking powder
- 1 teaspoon of Dr. Oetker’s Backin with Saffron or ordinary baking powder and a pinch of saffron
- 100 ml Advocaat
- 100g pistachio nuts
- 200g white chocolate
- about 15 mini chocolate Easter eggs
Preheat the oven to 160C, 150C if it is a fan oven.
Grease a loaf baking tin.
Beat the butter with the sugar and vanilla sugar in a big bowl, add the salt, eggs, flour and baking powder and mix into a smooth dough.
Take out 1/3 of the dough and put it in a separate bowl, mix with the ½ teaspoon of baking powder. Chop the pistachio nuts in a food processor and add about 2/3 to the dough. Leave the rest for the decoration.
Add the Advocaat to the original bowl and mix with the dough. If you have, add Dr. Oetker Bakin with Saffron which I used, otherwise use ordinary baking powder and a pinch of saffron. Saffron is quite expensive, but a little goes a long way and it gives the cake a lovely yellow colour.
Now fill one half of the Advocaat cake mix (this mix will be a lot softer than the other one) in to the baking tin, then the pistachio mix and finally the second half of the Advocaat mix.
Bake for 70 minutes. I checked after 60 minutes and as the cake was still quite pale, I increased the heat to 180C for the last 10 minutes. As always, use a toothpick to check if the cake is cooked properly.
Leave to cool on a rack for 30 minutes before turning the cake out. Let the cake cool completely.
Melt the white chocolate in a bowl over hot water and spread on top of the cake. Sprinkle the chopped pistachio nuts along the length of the cake while the chocolate is still just about soft and decorate with mini chocolate Easter Eggs.
Put it in a cake tin and it will last a few days. I baked it last Saturday and we ate the last of it on Wednesday. It was still lovely!
London-Olios 