Citrus almond cinnamon cake with Chantilly cream, berries and pistachios

This weekend we cooked a huge brunch for a lovely gathering of 15 of our friends and five of their kids, including three very beautiful babies!  I made this whopping great cake which Matilda, pictured here, could barely wait to dive into. The cake itself was flavoured with orange and lemon zest, cinnamon, vanilla and ground almonds, then topped with apricot jam, Chantilly cream, raspberries, blackberries and pistachios.  You can see it was massive and for a smaller number of people you could halve the ingredients and make a one layered cake (and still it would be deep enough to slice it in half to sandwich with jam and cream).

Ingredients

1 lb butter

1 lb caster sugar

Grated zest of half an orange

Grated zest of 1 lemon

2 tsp vanilla extract

8 eggs

12 oz self-raising flour

4 oz ground almonds

1 ½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

3 tbsp Greek yoghurt

For the Chantilly cream

6 fl. oz double cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 oz icing sugar

To decorate

6 tbsp apricot jam

6 oz raspberries

3 oz blackberries

2 oz pistachios, chopped

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C and grease and line two 9 inch round cake tins.  
2. In a large mixing bowl cream the butter, sugar, citrus zests and vanilla together until pale and fluffy.
3. Measure out the flour and set aside.
4. Add the eggs to the butter and sugar mixture one at a time, followed by a large spoonful of flour between each egg.  Beat well after each addition.
5. Sift in the remaining flour, ground almonds, baking powder and cinnamon and fold together with a large metal spoon until well combined.
6. Finally, stir in the yoghurt.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tins and bake for about 30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean, then leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
8. Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, whisk the cream, vanilla and sifted icing sugar until just stiff enough to hold a peak.
9. Once the cakes are cool, place the jam in a small saucepan and warm gently until melted, then spread the jam over the bottom layer of cake.
10. Top with half the Chantilly cream, arrange raspberries on top and sprinkle with half the pistachios.
11. Sandwich the other cake on top and use a palette knife to spread with the remaining cream, then arrange raspberries and blackberries on top and sprinkle with the remaining pistachios.