Recipe: pistachio, lemon and coriander seed cake

There's a danger that the words "coriander seed" in the name of a cake will make it sound off-puttingly quirky, said Eleanor Ford. But this cake is heavenly. Coriander seeds have a bright, almost citrusy aroma, and that's why they work so well in this oh-so-easy recipe: they really make the flavours sing. The cake gets even better the day after you make it, as the subtle flavours become a little more pronounced and the texture even squidgier.

Ingredients

For the cake

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• 200g shelled pistachios
• 100g plain flour
• 175g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 175g caster sugar 
• 3 eggs, at room temperature
• 150g natural yoghurt
• 1tsp baking powder
• ¾tsp fine sea salt 
• finely grated zest of 2 lemons
• 2 tbsp coriander seeds, ground

For the icing:

• 150g icing sugar
• 25ml (2 tbsp) lemon juice

Method

• Grease and line a 20cm (8 inch) cake tin.
• Heat the oven to 160°C/140°C fan (315°F).
• In a food processor, grind the pistachios with the flour to a slightly sandy powder. Tip out and set to one side.
• Put the butter and sugar in the food processor and whiz to a paste. Add all the remaining ingredients, including the pistachio flour, and whiz again.
• Scrape the batter into the tin and rap on the work surface a few times to level.
• Bake for up to an hour, until the top is golden and springy and a skewer in the middle comes out clean. Leave in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a rack to cool completely before icing.
• For the icing, mix the icing sugar and lemon juice to make a slick of glossy white. Pile into the middle of the cake and encourage it to ooze languidly towards the edges. This cake keeps well in a tin for a few days and the flavour only gets better, but the icing looks at its sleekest when fresh.
• Alternatives: instead of the coriander seeds, you can use the ground seeds of 8 green cardamom pods. You can also add a splash of rose water to the icing, if you like.

Taken from A Whisper of Cardamom: Sweetly spiced recipes to fall in love with by Eleanor Ford, published by Murdoch Books at £26. Photography by Ola O. Smit. To buy from The Week Bookshop for £20.99, call 020-3176 3835 or visit theweekbookshop.co.uk.

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