Cherry and pistachio cake

150g caster sugar (plus a little extra)

150g soft light brown sugar

300g ground almonds

100g fine polenta

100g desiccated coconut

100g pistachio nuts (shelled)

300ml Oil (British rapeseed or a neutral olive oil)

6 medium free-range eggs

350g cherries in halves and quarters (sour cherries are good too)

1 tsp sea salt

Beat the oil and sugar in a mixer. Then add the eggs and beat on high speed for a few minutes until the mixture looks glossy. If you’re doing this by hand then just give it some elbow grease.

Coarsely chop your pistachio nuts or put in a food processor. Set aside half for sprinkling on top of the finished cake and chop the remaining half as fine as possible.

Then add to your mixing bowl the finely chopped pistachios, ground almonds, polenta coconut and salt. Combine into a nice cake batter.

Pour batter into a lined tin. We use a tray-bake tin, which is roughly 20 x 30cm. But you can use a large round tin too.

Now the fun bit! Removing the pits from the cherries. Do this with a cherry pitter or by ripping them open with your fingers. Do this over a bowl so you can catch the juice. Add a sprinkling of sugar (20g) to the bowl of pitted cherries and give it a mix. Then scatter on top of the cake batter, the juice too.

Bake in the middle of a preheated oven at 170◦C for 50 to 60 minutes, turning the cake halfway to ensure it’s cooked evenly.

Remove from the oven when the visible parts of cake batter on the top have turned golden. If there are some pale yellow parts it might need a bit more time.

Take the roughly chopped pistachios that you set aside and sprinkle them all over the top of the cake and allow it to fully cool before cutting.

Tip: Eat on its own or with a cream of your choosing. Keep it in the fridge and it will last for about a week.