Baking Advent Calendar day 4

For day four of my Baking Advent Calendar I’m sharing cured sausage, pistachio and prune cake. I’m doing this as I thought it was perhaps time to prove that I don’t only bake sweet things. This recipe comes from Rachel Khoo’s Little Paris Kitchen ,for the bilingual amongst you, or any French readers, Rachel lists the bake’s French name as cake au saucisson sec avec pistaches et prunes.

Rachel’s book holds a special place for me as it was the first cookbook that I bought. How ever extensive my cookbook library might get I’ll always go back to The Little Paris Kitchen. Up until about seven years ago I’d never baked anything and to be honest I’d never really cooked either. Then along came Rachel with her book and TV show of the same name and things changed. It was watching her make croque madame muffins that made me want to have a go. They looked so good that I just had to try them. So the following morning I got the ingredients together and told my somewhat surprised partner that I wanted the kitchen for the next hour. It all felt a bit tentative at first but I baked, it worked and with that I was off. Now here we are seven years later and I’ve never stopped. 

It may have been the muffins that got me started but the recipe from the book that has been my ‘go to’ so many times is this cake. It’s another of those recipes where once you are used to it the ingredients can be chopped and changed to fit whatever you have to hand. One addition I often make is to add some diced feta. You can also add chopped olives and it adds a bit of spice if you switch the cured sausage for chorizo.

Ingredients

• 250g plain flour
• 15g baking powder
• 150g cured sausage or salami- finely chopped
• 80g pistachios – roughly chopped
• 100g prunes – roughly chopped
• 4 eggs
• 100ml milk
• 150ml olive oil
• 50g plain yoghurt
• 1tsp salt
• black pepper

Method

• Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 and line a 500g loaf tin with baking paper
• In a bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, sausage, pistachios and prunes.
• In a separate bowl whisk the eggs until thick and pale. Gradually whisk in the milk, oil and yogurt. Then add salt and pepper.
• Fold the flour mixture into the egg mixture bit by bit. Try not to over beat.
• Pour the batter into the tin and bake for 30 to 40 minutes. The cake is ready when a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.