Pistachio Pound Cake & Cran-Lavender

As you may have noticed, I have been really inspired by baking more. Even though I could not eat any sweets growing up, having such a diverse group of friends who are gluten-intolerant, meat lovers, vegans, and vegetarians has allowed me to experiment with my cooking and baking.

This warm recipe loaf of pistachio pound cake is a unique combination of foodie friendships—the delicate flavouring of lavender in the topping is balanced by the nutty, rich, and sweet companionship of honey and pistachios. I used cranberries to add bite to the sweetness of raw honey for a homemade compote. You can use Gold Bee, a good organic Fair-Trade honey that is rich and healthy. I had an abundance of lavender, and added it to the mixture. Here’s the results.

In the original recipe, a more traditional pound cake, there is refined white sugar and strawberries, but I am allergic to strawberries, so I modified the entire recipe. This has Stevia with golden rice malt, and suitable for anyone who loves tea cake, but wants an alternative to the conventional sweetness. I served this with tea and espresso for our dessert night, a film noir evening gathering we recently hosted.

Have you had pistachio cake before?

Ingredients:

Pistachio pound cake: 

130g (1 cup) pistachios (shelled)

2 teaspoons Stevia

1 teaspoon golden rice malt syrup 

195g (1 ½ cups) plain flour 

½ teaspoon baking powder 

¾ teaspoon kosher salt 

175g (¾ cup) unsalted quality butter (softened) 

3 large eggs (at room temperature) 

¼ teaspoon pure almond extract 

½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract 

120ml (½ cup) almond milk (unsweetened, at room temperature) 

Lavender-cranberry compote: 

(175g) 1 ¾ cup whole cranberries (washed) 

2 ½ tablespoons raw organic honey 

¾ teaspoon French blue lavender (or lavender) buds 

½ vanilla bean, split lengthwise and scrape seeds from the pod