We’re moving full swing into summer and with it an abundance of stone fruit. This cake is the perfect recipe to showcase plums in the peak of their season. It’s great for summer, too, as the use of rapeseed oil means it’s not overly heavy. It's a nice simple cake.
The rapeseed oil comes from Wignall’s Yallo in Standish. They are really good and it’s the one I always use. I rarely have olive oil at home. I’m a big fan of the flavour of this rapeseed. They've just got it right with what they produce - it's a lovely product and keep this cake nice and light and moist – perfect for the warmer weather.
This recipe is one of those that can serve a lot of people, it’s a nice way to use lavender up that you have sat in the garden, if you grow it and a flavour that is that little bit different and interesting - something you didn't come across too often. I think it’s one of those flavours that offers nostalgia for summers gone by too – the fragrance and flavour triggers those memories.
Little Town Dairy are great yogurts to have with it. They are a great Lancashire business that has gone from a tiny little producer, growing into a place that supplies supermarkets and retailers all over the UK. For honey, there are plenty of hyper local producers so it’s always worth asking around. For plums, if you don’t have your own in the garden, your local greengrocer is a great option – Strong’s in Lytham is the one for me.
When the fruit is young, it's nice to sort of to cook them to roast them off. The flavour of the roasted plums sits really well with the pistachios and pine nuts in the cake – they complement each other. Then you've got the earthiness of the rapeseed and a bit of orange and lemon going on in the background as well giving a zesty freshness coming to the cake. Once it’s cooked, all you need to do is turn the oven off at the end and leave it in there to cool down okay. This cake is easy to bring together and perfect for a garden party of gathering. Enjoy your baking.
MORE RECIPES FROM OLI
Oli Martin's ras el hanout roast leg of lamb recipe
Oli Martin's Treacle-cured barbecued bacon chop recipe
Pistachio, pine nut and rapeseed oil cake with whipped honey yogurt and lavender roast plums
Ingredients
100g pistachio nuts, pulsed.
100g pine nuts, pulsed
50g polenta
50g plain flour.
1tsp baking powder
200g eggs
200g caster sugar
100ml Yallo rapeseed oil
100g butter, melted
1 lemon, juice and zest
1orange, juice of
For the whipped honey yogurt
300ml double cream
50g runny honey
150g Greek yogurt
For the lavender roast plums
3 plums
Demerara sugar
3 sprigs of lavender
Method
In a mixer, whisk together the eggs and sugar until light, fluffy and pale. Pulse the nuts lightly in a food processor to crush being careful not to over mix. Mix the nuts with the polenta, plain flour, baking powder and lemon zest.
Lightly melt the butter and add in the oil, lemon juice and orange juice together. Add the oil and butter mixture to the egg mixture and whisk until combined. Fold through the dry mixture.
Add into a cake tin and bake at 140 degrees for 1 hour. Turn the oven off and allow the cake to finish cooking with the residual heat.
For the whipped honey yoghurt
Mix the cream and the honey together and lightly whip to soft peaks, fold through the yogurt.
For the lavender roast plums
Cut the plum in half and spring with the sugar and lavender. Allow the sugar to break down - about an hour. Then roast in the oven at 200 degrees until soft.
