PEACH AND PISTACHIO CAKE RECIPE

My summer holiday is on the horizon and for some reason, warm sunny weather makes me want to each fresh peaches. Peaches are in season through July and August and this peach and pistachio cake recipe makes the most of their full and juicy flavour at this time of year.

INGREDIENTS

• 10oz Stork baking margarine

• 10oz caster sugar

• 5 eggs

• 10oz self raising flour

• 4 peaches

• 100g pistachio nuts (shells removed).

METHOD

Preheat an oven to gas 6/fan 180. Grease and line a 9”x13” cake pan (2” deep).

Roughly chop your pistachio nuts and put to one side. Take two peaches, cut in half and remove the stone. Slice them (top to bottom) so you have wedges of peach about 0.5cm thick as the widest edge. For the other two peaches, remove the stone and peel so you just have the peach flesh. Cut this into small pieces.

Beat together well the caster sugar and Stork baking margarine. If you have peach syrup, you could add a drizzle here too. The mixture should be light and fluffy.

Add in the eggs, one at a time and make sure the mixture is well beaten between each egg. Carefully stir in the flour and mix gently until well combined. Tip in the chopped peaches and stir.

Pour the cake mix into the cake pan and smooth out the mixture. Put the peach slices onto the top of the cake, roughly where you want to cut up the cake into pieces once baked (so there is a peach slice on top of each one). Then sprinkle liberally with the chopped pistachios.

Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes (less if you know your oven runs hot) until the top is golden brown and the cake is springy to the touch.

Leave to cool and then cut into pieces and enjoy! This would be lovely with a dollop of clotted cream!