Denise says:

When strawberries smell good they are at optimum ripeness and perfect flavour. My favourite variety is Sweet Eve. On a health note strawberries contain high levels of nitrate. This has been shown to increase blood and oxygen flow to the muscles. Research suggests that people who load up on strawberries before exercising have greater endurance and burn more calories.

The new trend is to use unripe strawberries to pickle; they make excellent garnishes for salads, soups or stews!

Preparation Time: 25 minutes
Cooking Time: 50 minutes
Makes 1 cake: Serving approx. 10 slices

Ingredients:

200g pistachio nuts - shelled
250g golden caster sugar
200g unsalted butter
3 eggs
150g full fat Greek Yoghurt
275g SR flour

Strawberry Icing
200g butter
300g icing sugar
4 strawberries

300g small, carefully hulled strawberries

Method

1) Line and grease a square tin about 20 cm x 20cm with baking parchment paper.
2) Preheat the oven to 160C Fan / Gas mark 4.
3) Put 150g pistachio nuts into a food processor with half the sugar (125g) and whizz until finely chopped.
4) Tip into a large bowl, add the remaining sugar, and beat in butter until creamy.
5) Add eggs, flour and yoghurt and whisk until smooth.
6) Spoon into the prepared tin and bake for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
7) Cool for 15 minutes before turning out and remove the baking parchment paper.
8) To make the icing, beat the butter until white and fluffy.
9) Add the icing sugar a little at a time then when the mix feels stiff add 4 strawberries and combine well.
10) Beat until in the remaining sugar.
11) Cover the top and sides of the cake with icing. Whizz the remaining pistachio nuts until finely chopped and press against the edge of the cake.
12) Just before serving, slice the remaining strawberries and lay them neatly in rows on the top of the cake.