recipes

Pistachio Cake with Pistachio Cream

July 25

This pistachio cake is all about rich, nutty flavour with a light, tender crumb. The yogurt keeps it moist, while the pistachio paste adds depth in both the sponge and the cream cheese icing. Finished with a swirl of pistachio, fresh raspberries, and orange zest — it’s fresh, bold, and made to impress.

Serves 10
40 minutes, plus cook time

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and grease and line two x 24cm cake tins.
2. Blitz the pistachios in a food processor until fine and set aside.
3. In a bowl, sift together the flour, rice flour, bicarb and baking powder.
4. In another bowl, cream the butter, vegetable oil, pistachio paste and caster sugar together with an electric hand whisk for about two minutes until light and fluffy then add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well between each addition. Add the vanilla, lemon juice and milk and whisk again to combine.
5. Fold half of the flour mix into the batter then add the yoghurt, and fold in again. Finally, add the remaining half of the flour mix and the pistachios and fold everything together to combine. You should have a lovely, light mixture.
6. Divide between the two cake tins and bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean or with only a few crumbs on it. Once baked, allow the cake layers to cool in the cake tins for about 15-20 minutes, and then turn them out onto a wire rack to completely cool
7. For the icing, cream the butter with a hand whisk until completely softened. Slowly add the icing sugar, whisking in between each addition then add the cream cheese and whisk again. Finally add the pistachio paste and whisk in to combine - you should have a lovely, thick, smooth icing.
8. To ice the cake, place one of the cakes onto a serving plate and spoon just under half of the icing on top. Spread out to the edges with the back of a spoon and then sandwich with the second cake. Spoon the rest of the icing on top of the second cake and drizzle the icing with a little extra pistachio paste. With the back of a spoon, ripple the icing and the pistachio paste together to form lovely peaks in the icing.
9. Finally, sprinkle with some extra chopped pistachios, the raspberries and some orange zest and serve straight away.

1 1/4 cups shelled pistachios

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons rice flour

½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

scant 1/2 cup vegetable oil

3 tbsp pistachio paste

1 2/3 cups superfine sugar

3 large eggs

1 tbsp vanilla bean paste

1 tbsp lemon juice

scant 1/2 cup whole milk

3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons plain yogurt

For the Icing:

3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

14 ounces cream cheese (about 1 3/4 blocks if using U.S. 8 oz blocks)

1 2/3 cups powdered sugar

3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons pistachio paste

To Decorate:

A little extra pistachio paste

Handful of pistachios, roughly chopped

(about 3/4 cup fresh raspberries

1 orange, zested

175g pistachios

300g plain flour

25g rice flour

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp baking powder

110g butter, softened

100ml vegetable oil

3 tbsp pistachio paste

325g caster sugar

3 large eggs

1 tbsp vanilla bean paste

1 tbsp lemon juice

100ml whole milk

200g natural yoghurt

For the icing:

200g softened butter

400g cream cheese

200g icing sugar

200g pistachio paste

To decorate: