Pistachio and orange blossom cake with blood orange and mascarpone

Serves 8 to 10

Ingredients

• 220 g pistachio nuts
• 5 large eggs, separated
• 350 g caster sugar
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 1 teaspoon orange blossom water
• 8 blood oranges, peeled and sliced
• ½ orange, zest only
• 300 ml blood orange juice
• 250 g mascarpone
• 300 ml pouring cream
• 2 tablespoons icing sugar
  
  

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C.  Grease a 24cm spring form tin and line the base with baking paper.
2. Lightly toast the pistachios in a frying pan over medium heat.  Allow to cool, then coarsely chop the nuts until they are about the size of rock salt granules.   
3. Using an electric mixer, whisk the egg whites until you have firm peaks.  Put the egg whites in another bowl. 
4. Add the egg yolks and 200 grams of the caster sugar to the mixer bowl (no need to clean it from the egg whites) and whisk until fluffy and creamy.  Fold in half the chopped pistachios, then fold in the egg whites, the remaining pistachios, orange zest and orange blossom water.  Don’t overfold the mixture as you want to keep it as aerated as much as possible. 
5. Pour into the prepared cake tin and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the cake is lightly firm to the touch but cooked through.  Remove from the oven and set aside to cool in the tin. 
6. To make the syrup put the remaining 150g sugar and blood orange juice in a saucepan and bring to the boil, reduce for 15-20 minutes or until you have a glossy thick syrup.
7. Just before serving, whisk the mascarpone, cream and icing sugar until soft peaks form.
8. Remove the cake from the tin and spread the mascarpone cream over the top.  Add the oranges and drizzle with blood orange syrup.