Pistachio Cake

This moist, soft Pistachio Cake has such a wonderful combination of flavors, with crushed pistachios, vanilla and almond extracts, and classic cream cheese frosting. Keep this delicious dessert in mind for your next special occasion!

Why we Love It

There are many reasons to love this Pistachio Cake recipe. Here are a few!

• Flavorful scratch recipe
• Finely crushed pistachios are baked into the cake layers.
• Buttermilk and cake flour make for a moist, tender crumb.
• Perfect birthday cake recipe, holiday cake, potluck dessert, and more!

Ingredients for Pistachio Cake

Here's a quick look at the main ingredients used for the cake layers! See the recipe card for the full recipe.

• Shelled Pistachios, finely crushed: We used dry roasted, salted pistachios. If using unsalted pistachios, you can add ½ teaspoon of salt when mixing the dry ingredients. To crush, use a blender, food processor, or ziplock bag & rolling pin! :0)
• Unsalted butter, softened. The butter shouldn't be overly soft, but should easily dent when pressed.
• Sugar
• 4 large eggs, room temperature (If in a hurry, place in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes.)
• Cake Flour contains less protein, which makes for a softer, more tender cake.
• Leavening; Baking powder, Baking Soda
• Buttermilk's boost of acidity softens the strands of gluten, which makes a softer crumb.
• Vegetable oil (We use canola oil.)
• Flavorings: Vanilla Extract and Almond extract. Almond lends a nutty flavor that pairs perfectly with the pistachios.

How to Make a Pistachio Cake

You can find the full, printable recipe at the bottom of this post. Here is a quick rundown of how to make a pistachio cake! This recipe was based in part on our Almond Cake recipe.

• First, finely chop the shelled pistachios in a blender. (We used a small bullet blender for this). You could also place the pistachios in a ziplock bag and finely crush with a rolling pin. Measure out one cup, set aside.
• Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease and flour three 8 inch round pans. We also add a circle or parchment paper to the bottom of each pan.
• In a medium bowl, whisk the dry ingredients: cake flour, baking powder, and baking soda for 30 seconds. Set aside.
• In another small bowl or measuring cup, add these wet ingredients: buttermilk, vegetable oil, vanilla extract and almond extract.  Set aside.

• In the bowl of your mixer, add the softened butter and mix at medium speed until smooth.
• Gradually add the sugar and continue to mix on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy.
• Add the eggs one at a time mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears.

• With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of liquid). Mix just until incorporated.
• Fold in the finely chopped pistachios.

• Divide the pistachio cake batter between the three prepared cake pans.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 22 - 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just few crumbs attached. Baking times may vary. Let the cakes cool in their pans on a cooling rack for ten minutes before turning out.

Assembling the Cake

Today, we chose a simple cream cheese frosting for our pistachio cake. This delicious frosting consists of softened cream cheese, softened unsalted butter, vanilla extract, a pinch of salt, and a splash of milk (if needed).

Place the first cooled pistachio cake layer on the cake base or pedestal and spread the top with a layer of frosting. Top with the second cake layer and repeat. Top with the third cake layer.

Fill in any gaps between layers with frosting, and then apply a thin coat (crumb coat) of frosting on top and around the sides of the cake. At this point, we like to chill the cake for 15 minutes in the freezer (or longer in the refrigerator) to firm things up for the final coat of frosting.

Decorate the cake however you like! We added texture to our final layer of frosting using a small offset spatula.

We sprinkled a bit more finely crushed pistachios on top of the cake, and piped a chunky shell border using a 1M piping tip.

Here is a peek inside! We love the look of the pistachio-speckled layers. Enjoy the recipe!

Recipe FAQs

More Nutty Cakes

In addition to today's recipe, we have many more nutty cake flavors to share with you! Some of our most popular are our Almond Cake, Italian Cream Cake, Hummingbird Cake, and German Chocolate Cake.

Thanks so much for stopping by! We would love for you to check out our full collection of hundreds of cake recipes and free cake decorating tutorials.

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Pistachio Cake

BY Melissa and Bebe

This moist, soft Pistachio Cake is flavored with finely crushed pistachios, vanilla and almond extracts, and cream cheese frosting. It is such a delicious combination of flavors, and would be perfect for any special occasion.

Prep Time: 30 minutes mins

Cook Time: 25 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Servings: 15 servings

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Ingredients

• ▢ 1 cup (48g) shelled pistachios, finely crushed (We used dry roasted, salted pistachios. If using unsalted pistachios, you can add ½ teaspoon of salt when mixing the dry ingredients.)
• ▢ 1 ½ sticks (170g) unsalted butter, softened. (holds it shape but dents when pressed)
• ▢ 2 cups (400g) sugar
• ▢ 4 large eggs, room temperature (If in a hurry, place in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes.)
• ▢ 3 cups (342g) cake flour See notes for substitution if needed. (If not using a scale, lightly spoon flour into measuring cup and level off).
• ▢ 2 teaspoons (8g) baking powder
• ▢ ½ teaspoon (3g) baking soda
• ▢ 1 ½ cups (352g) buttermilk See notes for substitution if needed.
• ▢ ⅓ cup (68g) vegetable oil (We use canola oil.)
• ▢ 2 teaspoons (8g) almond extract
• ▢ 1 teaspoon (4g) vanilla extract

For the Cream Cheese Frosting

• ▢ 3 sticks (339g) unsalted butter, slightly softened
• ▢ 16 oz cream cheese (total weight 452g),softened. (We use two 8 oz packages) Full fat is best.
• ▢ 6 ½-7 cups (747g-805g) powdered sugar (We like Dominos or US Sugar (Costco))
• ▢ 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (8g)
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt (2g)

Assembly Cake Decoration

• ▢ More crushed pistachios to sprinkle on top (optional)

Instructions

• Finely chop the shelled pistachios in a blender. (We used a small bullet blender for this). Measure out one cup, set aside.
• Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease and flour three 8 inch round pans, add a circle or parchment paper or waxed paper to the bottom of each pan.
• In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and baking soda for 30 seconds. Set aside
• In another small bowl or measuring cup, add the buttermilk, vegetable oil, vanilla and almond extract.  Set aside.
• In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and mix at medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and continue to mix on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy.
• Add the eggs one at a time mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears.
• With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of liquid). Mix just until incorporated.
• Fold in the finely chopped pistachios.
• Divide batter between the three cake pans.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 22 - 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just few crumbs attached. Let cool 10 minutes and turn out.

For the Cream Cheese Frosting

• Add the softened butter to the bowl of your mixer. Beat on low to medium speed until the butter is softened and smooth.
• Cut the softened cream cheese into pieces and add to the butter, beating at low to medium speed until incorporated. If you are using a hand mixer you may need to soften the cream cheese a bit more.
• Add the vanilla extract and a pinch of salt. Gradually add the powdered sugar beating on low speed until blended.
• Increase mixing speed slightly and mix until fluffy and well combined.(Don't mix above medium speed.) If the mixture is a bit too thick, add milk in small amounts (1 tablespoon at a time).
• This frosting will pipe best if used while still chilled. You can make it in advance, refrigerate and when ready to use, allow it soften slightly, then remix.

Assembling and Decorating

• Place the first cake layer on the pedestal or cake base and spread with cream cheese. Top with the second cake layer and repeat. Top with the third cake layer. Apply a thin coat (crumb coat) of frosting around the sides and on top. Chill for 15 minutes in the freezer (or longer in the refrigerator), and apply the second layer of frosting.
• We added texture with our offset spatula. We also sprinkled the top with more crushed pistachios and smoothed over with a spatula. Then, we added a chunky shell border with a 1M piping tip.

Refrigeration

• Because of the cream cheese frosting, this cake should be refrigerated. Store in an airtight container or under a cake dome. For the best flavor and texture, remove the cake 2-3 hours before serving so that the cake has time to warm and soften.

Notes

Substitute for Buttermilk: No Buttermilk? Here is a substitution: To a measuring cup, add 1 Tablespoons vinegar or lemon juice. Add milk to the 1 ½mark, stir. Wait 5 minutes and it is ready to use.

Substitution for Cake Flour: Using all purpose flour (plain in UK) to make Cake Flour: For each cup of flour in a recipe, remove 2 Tablespoons of flour and replace with 2 Tablespoons cornstarch (cornflour in the UK). This recipe has 3 cups of flour so you will measure out 3 cups of all purpose flour, remove 6 Tablespoons and replace with 6 Tablespoons cornstarch, whisk to blend

Recipe makes 7 ½ cups batter

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