Pistachio cake with strawberry mousse

Strawberry mousse is a must during strawberry season! This time, I’ve paired it with a pistachio cake. This pistachio cake with strawberry mousse is a wonderful dessert combining strawberries and pistachios: a pistachio cake enveloped in strawberry mousse, finished with ground pistachios, chopped pistachios and, of course, fresh strawberries. Highly recommended!

Ingredients for the pistachio cake:

• 70 g butter
• 90 g caster sugar
• 1 large egg
• 80 g plain flour
• 60 g ground pistachios
• ¾ tsp baking powder
• 70 ml milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

All the ingredients should be at room temperature.

Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until thoroughly combined (the mixture may look curdled at this stage, but this will not affect the finished cake). Sift the flour and baking powder directly into the mixture, add the ground pistachios and milk. Mix with a spatula just until combined, no longer.

Line an 18 cm round cake tin with baking paper. Transfer the batter to the tin and smooth the surface.

Bake at 170°C for about 30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely.

Ingredients for the strawberry mousse:

• 550 g strawberries, fresh or frozen
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 80 g sugar
• 4 tsp (12 g) powdered gelatine + 50 ml cold water
• 100 g natural yoghurt
• 400 ml double cream, chilled

Pour the cold water over the gelatine, stir and set aside for 10 minutes to swell.

Place the strawberries, lemon juice and sugar in a saucepan. Heat and bring to the boil until the sugar has dissolved, then remove from the heat. Blend until smooth. Add the bloomed gelatine to the hot strawberry purée and stir until completely dissolved. Leave to cool to room temperature, then add the yoghurt and mix well.

Place the chilled double cream in the bowl of a stand mixer and whip until thick. Add the strawberry purée and gently fold together with a spatula until combined.

Additionally:

• 300 g strawberries
• ½ cup ground pistachios
• a handful of chopped pistachios, for sprinkling

Assembly:

Line a 23 cm round cake tin with baking paper. Place the pistachio cake layer in the centre of the base of the tin. Pour the strawberry mousse around and over the cake, filling the tin, and smooth the surface. Refrigerate until the mousse has set, preferably overnight.

The following day, remove the cake from the tin and place it on a serving plate. Coat the sides of the cake with the ground pistachios. Decorate the top with fresh strawberries cut into slices and sprinkle with chopped pistachios.

Pistachio cake with strawberry mousse should be stored in the fridge.

Enjoy!