Pistachio Cake

There’s something about pistachios that make them a bit fancier than other nuts, don’t you think? So this Pistachio Cake is special, worthy of serving at any occasion! Topped with a cloud of Cream Cheese Whip. Think – subtly tangy whipped cream. Dreamy!

Pistachio cake

This is a Pistachio Cake that has a beautiful soft crumb with lovely pistachio flavour. Which, as strange as that sounds, is rarer than you might think. And I’m speaking from experience here, having tried quite a few recipes over the years!

The reason is pretty simple – this recipe uses almost double the amount of pistachios of typical recipes. Also, I insist on toasting the pistachios first before blitzing into a powder which, as with all nuts, brings out the flavour. It’s a basic step that really makes a difference, especially because there’s a limit on how much pistachio powder can be added into the batter without weighing it down. Does it surprise anyone that we are hitting the limit in this recipe??😊

Plus, pistachios are more expensive than most nuts. So let’s get as much flavour as we can out of them!

Cream Cheese Whip frosting for Pistachio Cake

We’re finishing today’s cake with a generous cloud of what I’ve christened a Cream Cheese Whip. A bit of an invention that came about when I was thinking what to top it with. It’s already rich with pistachio nuttiness so I didn’t think it needed a frosting as sweet and buttery as buttercream. But I felt like plain whipped cream was a little too light and airy, and I wanted a bit of tang to balance out the earthiness of the pistachios.

Solution? Do a Cream Cheese Frosting whipped cream mash up!

Bonus: It’s essentially a stabilised whipped cream which means it will stay fluffy for days without weeping or deflating like regular whipped cream.

Ingredients in Pistachio Cake

Here’s what you need to make this Pistachio Cake. Freshly blitzed, freshly toasted pistachio nuts is key to ensure you can actually taste pistachio in this cake.

PISTACHIOs

I use pre-shelled pistachio kernels. Nice and convenient as someone has done the shelling for me!

I prefer unsalted pistachios so I can control the amount of salt in the cake. Saltiness of nuts always seems to vary depending on brand / source. But if your pistachios are salted, just skip the salt in the recipe.

To shell your own pistachios, use 225g / 7 oz (125g/4.4 oz once shelled) and reduce the toasting time to 7 minutes (because shelled kernels tend to be softer).

⚠️ Not all pistachios are created equal. The older they are, the less flavour they have. The better the quality, the better the flavour. I’ve tried this with regular grocery store ones, and better quality ones. I still got good pistachio flavour with the regular grocery store ones. This was my baseline for this recipe.

for the CAKE BATTER

Make sure your yogurt and egg are at room temperature before making the batter. If they are fridge cold, it will make the batter cold which means the cake won’t rise as well in the oven. Speaking from experience here! I tried to skip the step of bringing yogurt to room temperature – and was penalised for it.😝

• Flour – Just plain / all-purpose flour. This recipe will work with self raising flour but it probably won’t rise as well (common theme using self raising flour rather than flour + baking powder). If you use self raising flour, skip the baking soda and baking powder.

• Baking powder and baking soda (bi-carb soda) – These both make cakes, muffins etc rise but have different effects on different batters. As a general rule, baking soda is 3x stronger than baking powder.

  Dead baking powder – If you haven’t used your baking powder for a while (say, a month or so), check it’s still good. Baking powder can lose its rising powder even before the expiry date!

  Substitute – if you don’t have baking soda you can substitute with extra baking powder (see recipe notes for amount). However, expect the surface of the cake to dome and the crumb is a touch less soft. It’s mainly a visual thing though, so it’s not a big deal!

• Yogurt – Much loved baking trick to make cakes and muffins with a lovely moist crumb compared to using thinner liquids such as milk. The extra role it plays here is that the acidity in yogurt gives the baking soda a kick start to make the cake rise. This is why sometimes you see a tiny amount of vinegar in cakes, like Red Velvet Cake. Looks totally out of place, but serves a purpose to get the baking soda going.

• Egg – Use a “large egg” which weighs ~50-55g/2oz each, sold in cartons labelled “large eggs” weighing 600-660g / 1.2 lb for a dozen. This recipe is reasonably forgiving so don’t fret if your egg is a bit larger or smaller, just don’t use, say, an ostrich egg or quail egg. 😂 See here for how to scale if your egg is massively different in size.

• Butter AND oil – Butter adds lovely flavour but cakes are not as moist and don’t have as good a shelf life as cakes made with oil. But oil is not as tasty! In this recipe, I like to use both so I have the best of both worlds – lovely buttery flavour and moistness plus shelf life from oil. This trick doesn’t work with all cakes, it depends on the batter. Very happy it works here!

• Sugar – Not too much, just 3/4 cup (150g). Aside from my preference for cakes that are not overly sweet, I noticed that the sweeter the cake, the less pistachio flavour came through.

  Caster sugar / superfine sugar is my default for baking because it’s finer than regular sugar (granulated sugar) so you can ensure it dissolves easily into mixtures. However, for this recipe, regular / granulated white sugar is fine. (Don’t use brown sugar, it will likely make the batter too damp).

• Green colouring – The pistachios alone will not give the cake a pistachio green colour. Rather, it comes out brown. So it needs a helping hand from food colouring if you want your cake to have the colour pictured in this post.

  I use 4 small drops to achieve the colour pictured. Feel free to add more if you want a greener cake. Once baked, the cake is a touch darker than the uncooked batter. Here’s a comparison of the batter and the colour of the cooked cake:

Cream cheese WHIP

Here’s what you need for the Cream Cheese Whip frosting. It’s essentially Whipped Cream plus some cream cheese which stabilises and enriches it, as well as giving it a lovely touch of tang which works really well with the nutty pistachio flavour.

• Cream cheese – Softened to room temperature, so it’s easy to beat until fluffy and smooth.

• Whipping cream – Make sure the cream you get can be whipped because not all cream is made for whipping. Some are dolloping creams (ie thick cream you dollop onto cakes, like sour cream) or thin pouring creams that you stir into things like soup. If it’s a whipping cream, it will say on the carton.

• Lemon juice – For a smidge of extra tang which I think goes really well with the pistachio flavour. However, not critical. Consider it an enhancement rather than essential! (PS Doesn’t make it overly lemony. I originally tried a stronger lemon flavour and found it overwhelmed the pistachio flavour).

• Vanilla – For flavour. I tried without and missed it.

• Salt – Standard practice in sweet baking recipes these days as it brings out the other flavours. We only use a pinch so you won’t taste salt.

How to make Pistachio Cake

You won’t need an electric beater to make the cake part. Just mix it up with a wooden spoon! (See FAQ section for other cake-making methods I tried).

1. MAKE PISTACHIO POWDER

Please don’t skip toasting the pistachios. It not only brings out the pistachio flavour (especially imperative if you get pistachios from regular grocery stores like I do), it makes them crisper so they grind up more easily into a powder rather than turning into a paste.

1. Toast the pistachios in the oven for 12 minutes or until they smell nutty and they are crisp (eat to check).

2. Blitz – Let them cool completely then blitz into a powder. It’s very quick using a NutriBullet as I do – literally 2 x 2 second pulses. Some pistachios lumps are ok / welcome, but you want it to be at least 95% powder.

   ⚠️ Be careful not to let the pistachios turn into a paste which will happen if you blitz for too long.

2. MAKE THE PISTACHIO cake

1. Break up pistachio clumps – Whisk the pistachio powder with the flour. Then use your fingers to break up any obvious pistachio powder clumps into a powder ie where pistachio powder has gotten a bit pasty so they stick together. Adding flour makes this step easier because if you pinch the plain pistachio powder, it sticks together into a paste. Some small clumps remaining are fine, they will dissolve in the oven.

   Then whisk in remaining dry ingredients (baking powder, baking soda, salt).

2. Whisk wet – Put all the wet ingredients into a separate medium bowl. Then whisk until combined.

3. Combine wet and dry – Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Use a rubber spatula to mix them together but stop when the flour is just about mixed in. (Why? Because overmixed batter = tough cake, and we still have extra mixing to come when we add the food colouring).

4. Make it pistachio green! Add 4 small drops of green food colouring and mix it in. Goal – pistachio green colour. (Note: the cake becomes slightly darker in colour once baked, see above for raw batter vs cooked cake comparison.) Then mix until the batter is fully combined. You may have some small lumps from pistachio powder clumps (these will dissolve in the oven) and a few random whole bits of pistachio.

   ⚠️ If using gel rather than liquid colouring which is much more intense, use a tiny toothpick smear instead. See recipe card notes for directions.
   💡 We add the food colouring in this step because bizarrely, I found the colouring doesn’t work as well if mixed in with the wet ingredients, I needed double the amount of colouring. I can’t explain it, I just know what I experienced!

5. Pour the batter into a lined pan then spread it out in the pan. You don’t need to smooth the surface perfectly because the batter will spread in the oven.

   💡Tip : Because it’s a thickish batter, I prefer to grease the pan with butter rather than oil spray. This is because butter makes the paper stick more firmly to the pan so it won’t slide as you spread the batter.

6. Bake for 40 minutes at 180°C/350°F (160°C fan-forced), rotating at the 30 minute mark so the cake browns evenly on the surface. The cake is ready when a skewer inserted into the centre comes out without a batter smear (although it will be a bit wet because this is a damp cake).

   Cool completely before spreading on the Cream Cheese Whip, else it will melt! 10 minutes in the pan then about 1 hour on a rack.

3. MAKING THE CREAM CHEESE Whip

1. Cream cheese first – Beat the cream cheese until soft and fluffy. Take a good 2 minutes on medium high speed to do this so you cream it really well. This is important because the cream is cold so it won’t blend in easily with the cream cheese (ie when you whip the cream, it can cause cream cheese lumps). To avoid this problem, you want to beat the cream cheese until it is really soft and creamy so it mixes in seamlessly with the cream.

2. Whip cream – Then add the cream, sugar, lemon, vanilla and salt, and beat until the cream is whipped. This frosting will look and behave like regular whipped cream, but it is a little richer thanks to the cream cheese. (Which is why it will stay fluffy for days rather than weeping like regular cream).

3. Spread the frosting onto the cake, making lovely big swirl patterns. A small offset spatula (pictured) makes short work of this (handy tool for cake frosting).

4. Sprinkle with finely chopped pistachios. And now the moment has arrived – yes, let’s eat it!

I’m so happy with how this cake turned out. It’s one of those recipes where I’ve tried quite a number of other recipes over the years but never found what I was looking for. So I decided to come up with my own.

I really like that it’s not too sweet and it relies on the richness from the natural oil of pistachios rather than excessive amounts of butter or oil. And I love the soft texture of the crumb, and that it’s still like freshly made 3 – 4 days later. Can’t say that about many cakes!

I really hope you give it a go one day, and love it as much as I do! – Nagi x

Watch how to make it

Print

Pistachio Cake

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Recipe video above. Using freshly blitzed pistachios makes this cake really special, for both real pistachio flavour and a soft, moist cake texture. So don’t be tempted to buy pre-powdered (if such a thing even exists!). Finished with what I’ve christened a Cream Cheese Whip which is like a much lighter, less sweet version of Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting. Goes so well with the nuttiness of this cake.

Note: Every ingredient has a purpose, I never include things just for the sake of it! See Ingredients section for the reason for each.

Course Cake, Sweet Baking

Cuisine Western

Keyword pistachio cake

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 55 minutes minutes

Cooling (pistachios and cake 1 hour hour 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 2 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Servings 10 – 12

Calories 317cal

Author Nagi

Ingredients

• 125g/ 4.4oz (just shy 1 cup) pistachio kernels , unsalted (Note 1)

Dry ingredients for batter:

• 1 cup plain flour (all-purpose flour)
• 1 1/4 tsp baking powder (check yours still still good if it’s old)
• 1/4 tsp baking soda (bi-carb soda) (Note 2)
• 1/4 tsp cooking salt / kosher salt

Wet:

• 3/4 cup yogurt , plain, full-fat, at room temperature (Note 3)
• 60g/ 4 tbsp unsalted butter , melted and slightly cooled
• 1/4 cup plain oil (canola, vegetable, cottonseed etc)
• 3/4 cup caster sugar (superfine sugar)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 large egg (50-55g/2oz), at room temperature

Colouring (optional)

• 4 drops green food colouring , optional (Note 4)

Cream cheese whip:

• 100g/ 3.5oz cream cheese , at room temperature (block best, tub ok)
• 3/4 cup thickened cream (heavy cream) or whipping cream (Note 5)
• 3 tbsp caster sugar (superfine sugar)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp lemon juice (optional)
• Pinch of salt

Cups – Metric

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F (160° fan-forced). Grease and line a 20 cm / 8″ round cake pan with baking paper (parchment paper).

Pistachio powder:

• Toast – Spread the pistachios on a tray. Bake for 12 minutes, shaking once halfway, or until the pistachios smell nutty and are crisp (eat to check!). Fully cool on the tray (~15 minutes).
• Blitz – Measure out 3/4 cup pistachios (save the rest for decorating). Blitz into a powder using pulses, taking care not to turn it into a paste. I use a NutriBullet (2 x 2 sec bursts). Spice grinder or small food processor would also work. Some larger pistachio bits are fine, but aim for 98% powder. (Note 6)

Cake:

• Break up clumps – Put the pistachio powder in a large bowl with the flour. Briefly whisk to combine then use your fingers to rub pistachio powder clumps into a powder. No need to be meticulous here, just get the larger ones.
• Dry – Add the remaining Dry ingredients then whisk to combine.
• Wet – Put all the Wet ingredients in a separate bowl and whisk until combined.
• Combine wet & dry – Pour the Wet into the Dry ingredients bowl. Use a rubber spatula to mix until the flour is almost mixed in.
• Colour it! Add the food colouring. Then finish mixing the batter until mostly lump free (small lumps will dissolve when baked).
• Scrape the batter into the pan and spread out it out (no need to be meticulous, the surface will smooth out in the oven).
• Bake for 40 minutes, turning the pan at 30 minutes so the surface browns evenly, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out without batter on it.
• Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack and cool completely. (~1 hour)
• Chop the reserved pistachios (mix of finely chopped and larger chunks).
• Spread the cake with the Cream Cheese Whip (steps below). Sprinkle with chopped pistachios. Cut and eat!

Cream cheese whip:

• Beat the cream cheese for a good 2 minutes on medium high until it’s really light and creamy, scraping down the sides as needed. Do not shortcut this step, else you may end up with cream cheese lumps!
• Whip – Add the remaining ingredients then beat until the cream is softly whipped and spreadable, about 1 minute on medium high.

Notes

1. Pistachios – I use kernels already pre shelled which are typically unsalted. If you use the pistachios in the shells, use 225g / 7 oz pistachio in shells (125g/4.4 oz once shelled) and reduce toasting time to 7 minutes. If your pistachios are salted, skip the salt in the recipe.

2. Baking soda (bi-carb soda) – Substitute with 3/4 tsp extra baking powder, but expect the cake to dome a bit (rather than pictured flat surface).

3. Yogurt – Make sure it’s at room temperature else it makes the batter cold which inhibits the rise. Substitute with sour cream (give it a good mix to loosen before measuring out). Low fat is acceptable, it won’t ruin the recipe!

4. Green food colouring – Cake needs a helping hand to have a lovely green colour. If using colouring gel, which is much stronger than liquid, just dip the tip of a toothpick into the gel and smear it onto the batter. Add as much as needed to make the batter a pistachio green colour (note: colour fades as it bakes, see in post for before/after baking).

5. Cream – Make sure the cream you get can be whipped (not all cream is made for whipping). It will say on the carton.

6. Pistachios go from powder to paste fairly easily. Avoid this problem by using very short pulses and shake/scrape down the side of your appliance to blitz evenly. With a NutriBullet it takes me 3 x 1 second bursts, shaking in between. Some clumping of powder is ok because we break up clumps (mixing with flour makes this step easier).

7. Different in cup sizes in different counties – see FAQ above recipe card.

Storage – Keep leftover cake in the fridge for 4 days. Cream will not weep like regular whipped cream! Note that pistachio flavour is strongest when freshly made, but still a darn tasty cake even on day 4.

Nutrition per slice, assuming 12 slices.

Nutrition

Calories: 317cal | Carbohydrates: 28g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 22g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 49mg | Sodium: 92mg | Potassium: 208mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 18g | Vitamin A: 476IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 66mg | Iron: 1mg

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