Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day 2021
A very different day of celebration this year. Most of you will have had a birthday in lockdown, we spent Easter, Eid, Diwali, our summer holidays and Christmas in lockdown and now it's the turn of lockdown Valentine's Day.
But despite the restaurants being closed, there is no reason not to celebrate. Even if you are, through choice or circumstance, on your own, there is still no reason not to celebrate.. As RuPaul says "If you don't love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love somebody else?".
We have created these delicious little cakes, which can be served as the final course of an at home celebratory dinner or, even more decadently, with a glass of Buck's Fizz for breakfast in bed; especially as Valentine's day falls conveniently on a Sunday, so there's no rush to your working-from-home workstation. And with the weather, here in the UK at least, forecast to remain bitterly cold, just snuggle up and enjoy the day.
To make 2 cakes, you will need
50g pistachio butter (we bought ours from SousChef)
75g sugar
150g Ricotta cheese
50g plain flour (use ground almonds if you want a gluten free version)
2 eggs
1 peach
Dissolve a dessertspoon full of sugar in around 100ml water - add a dash of rosewater if it takes your fancy - over a low heat. Add the peach halves and poach for 10 minutes. Set aside while you make the cake mix.
Heat the oven to 180ºC
Beat the pistachio better, suggar and Ricotta together until light and fluffy, then add the eggs and beat again.
Fold in the flour.
Divide the mixture between two greased blini pans or similar and then nestle a peach half in the centre of each pan. Make sure you keep the poaching liquid.
Bake for 15 - 20 minutes until risen and golden. While the cakes are baking, bring the poaching liquid up to the boil and then simmer until syrupy.
Drizzle the syrup over the cakes and sprinkle with chopped pistachio nuts.
Serve with a glass of something pink and fizzy!
Netherton Foundry, Shropshire, England. A family business crafting traditional cookware in Highley, Shropshire from iron, oak and copper,using materials predominantly sourced in our own and neighbouring counties. Copyright 2021.
