Strawberry yoghurt cake

When strawberries smell good they are at optimum ripeness and perfect flavour. My favourite variety is Sweet Eve. A new trend is to use unripe strawberries to pickle; they make excellent garnishes for salads, soups or stews. Yoghurt keeps this cake moist, and the pistachio nuts add crunch and beautiful colour. Serves 10 approximately Preparation: 25 minutes Cooking: 50 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

200g pistachio nuts, shelled 250g golden caster sugar 200g unsalted butter 3 eggs 150g full-fat Greek yoghurt 275g self-raising flour

For the strawberry icing:

200g butter 300g icing sugar 4 strawberries

Garnish:

300g small, carefully hulled strawberries

METHOD:

Line and grease a square 20cm x 20cm tin with baking parchment paper.

Preheat the oven to 160°C fan.

Put 150g pistachio nuts into a food processor with half the sugar (125g) and whizz until finely chopped.

Tip into a large bowl, add the remaining sugar, and beat in butter until creamy.

Add eggs, yoghurt and flour and whisk until smooth.

Spoon into the prepared tin and bake for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Cool for 15 minutes before turning out and removing the baking parchment paper.

To make the icing, beat the butter until white and fluffy.

Add the icing sugar a little at a time, then when the mix feels stiff, beat in the 4 strawberries until well combined. Beat in the remaining sugar. Cover the top and sides of the cake with the icing.

Whizz the remaining pistachio nuts until finely chopped and then press them against the edge of the cake.

Just before serving, slice the remaining strawberries. Lay them neatly in rows on the top of the cake and scatter with a few chopped pistachios.