Raspberry & Pistachio Cake with Mascarpone frosting

My 100th post! I've been sitting on 99 posts for over a week, with recipes and photos ready to post, trying to think of a post which could be appropriate for the occasion. Anyway, what occasion doesn't call for a cake? And this one's pink inside...

Recipe from Camille Styles


Raspberry & Pistachio Cake with Mascarpone frosting

Serves 4

Ingredients:For the cake
360g (3 cups) plain flour

1 tbsp baking powder½ tsp salt
240ml (1 cup) milk
120ml (½ cup) raspberry jam
red food colouring
350g (1 ¾ cups) caster sugar
240ml (1 cup) canola oil
1tsp vanilla extract
3 eggsFor the frosting115g cream cheese
340g mascarpone
455g (4 cups) icing sugar, sifted
1 small punnet raspberries
60g (½ cup) shelled pistachios, chopped

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/mark 4 and butter and flour two 9-inch cake pans.

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, jam and food colouring.

4. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the sugar, oil, vanilla extract and eggs until pale and smooth. Alternating in thirds, mix in the dry ingredients mixture and the wet ingredients, starting with the dry ingredients.

5. Divide the batter between the two cake pans and bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cakes comes away clean. Transfer to a wire rack and cool for 15 minutes, then remove from the pan and leave to cool completely.

6. For the frosting, beat together the mascarpone and cream cheese until smooth and fluffy. Mix in the icing sugar and beat until smooth.

7. To assemble, slice each cake in half to produce four layers. Sandwich the cake layers together with some of the frosting and the raspberries and pistachios, reserving some for decoration. Cover the top and sides with the remaining frosting and top with raspberries and pistachios.