Pine nut cake

You'll fall in love with this light and fragrant pine nut cake with a tender, melt-in-the-mouth crumb, soft orange notes, and a gorgeously nutty crust.

This recipe is from the beautiful pages of Kew's Global Kitchen Cookbook, which features 101 recipes using edible plants from around the world.

Rather than being adorned with photos, the cookbook is full of classic botanical illustrations from the Archives of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, along with stories of their history and discovery.

The recipes range from savoury treats to spiced sweet treats, each well explained with clear measurements. Some of the plants featured will be harder to source than others, but that's what makes the book such a delicious adventure.

I've been given permission to share an amazing recipe from Kew's Global Kitchen Cookbook for pine nut crusted orange cake. Here's how it's describes in the book.

Ancient Greeks and Romans savoured pine nuts preserved in honey, and legionaries brought them to Britain under Roman rule. Here several flavours of the Mediterranean – pine nuts, oranges and olive oil – blend in Jane Suthering’s delicious cake, to give a subtle taste and perfect texture.

Making the cake is really easy and involves whisking the egg whites separately to give a lovely light finish to the sponge. In a second bowl, you'll whisk the egg yolks with sugar, oil, orange juice and orange zest, sift in flour and baking powder and then carefully fold in the fluffy egg whites.

All this gives you a beautifully fluffy batter to pour into your baking tin and scatter with pine nuts, with toast to a gorgeous golden as the cake bakes. The resulting cake is aromatic and utterly delicious.

Here's the full recipe for pine nut cake.

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 180C (160C fan).

Grease and line the base and sides of a 20cm (8 inch) cake tin.

Separate the egg whites and yolks into two separate mixing bowls.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then leave to one side.

Put the sugar and yolks in a second bowl.

Whisk until well combined.

Add the oil.

Whisk.

Add the orange zest and juice.

Whisk.

Sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl with the yolks.

Fold together.

Add the egg whites.

Fold through gently. Try not to be too rough as this will knock out all the air you just introduced.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin.

Sprinkle the top of the cake with the pine nuts.

Bake for 40–45 mins until well risen and lightly springy to the touch.

Cool until you can touch the tin easily, then remove the cake and transfer it to a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

This cake is delicious served fresh from the tin on its own or with slices of orange or other fresh fruits. Store it in an airtight container if not eaten straight away.

Are you tempted to bake this orange cake at home?

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Recipe reproduced with the publisher's permission.

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