Chocolate Pistachio Cake

Ingredients for Chocolate Pistachio Cake

• Flour: I use all purpose flour in most of my recipes BUT sometimes you just cannot beat the texture of cake flour. I highly recommend King Arthur’s Cake Flour. It is far superior to some alternatives in the grocery stores.
  • I have used the “homemade cake flour” trick by replacing 1 tablespoon of all-purpose flour with cornstarch. 
  • I HIGHLY recommend using a digital scale, as flour is so often over measured. 
• Baking Powder: to leaven the cake. I haven’t tested this with baking soda but it should work fine with ½ tsp. 
• Sugar: I used granulated sugar in the cake and I don’t recommend cutting any out as it contributes a lot to texture and it’s not overly sweet… it’s actually not very sweet at all (even though it seems like a lot).
  • I also used powdered sugar in the frosting and don’t recommend cutting any out. 
• Oil: I like oil in chocolate cake recipes – any neutral oil, like avocado, canola, etc. is fine. 
• Eggs: I use large eggs, make sure they’re room temperature. If not, then just place it in a cup of hot water for 10 minutes before using it.  
• Sour Cream: I’ve used greek yogurt and sour cream in this recipe and they both work well. You can also use plain yogurt. 
• Coffee: I use hot coffee in this recipe. I usually use Americanos but fresh brewed coffee is fine too. If you don’t want to use coffee, hot water will work as well, the flavor will just be a little less intense… The acid from the coffee also helps make it a little more tender and it’s not a noticeable coffee flavor so I do recommend the coffee.
  • I also used a double shot of espresso to make a soak for the cake. 
• Mascarpone: I like the Belgioioso brand and make sure it’s cold when you’re whipping it. 
• Whipped Cream: Make sure it’s whipping cream and use it cold when whipping. 
• Vanilla: I used a little vanilla bean paste in the mascarpone cream but extract works too. 
• Pistachio Paste/Butter: This can be tricky because I believe they all taste different and have different consistencies BUT most of them should be fine.
  • I used a commercial/wholesale brand from my mom but if there’s any pistachio butter or paste that you love, that will work fine. Mine had chunks in it but I didn’t want chunks mixed into my creams so I pressed it through a sieve (and used the chunks to make the cookies linked above). 
• Honey & Cinnamon: I used this to flavor the espresso for the soak. 

Expert tips on getting perfect chocolate pistachio cake

• Don’t swap ingredients unless I mentioned them in the ingredient section above.
• Don’t reduce the sugar. I know a lot of people do that for some recipes but not this one.
• Weigh your ingredients with a digital scale 
• Weigh the batter for each cake tin to get even layers (if you’re using two pans). 
• Get a pistachio butter or paste with good reviews. If it has chunks, I like to strain them out so I get a smooth cream. You could also make your own. 

What sizes can I make this pistachio chocolate cake 

Make sure to read my Black Cocoa Cake post for more details on how to adjust the cake to the different sizes but if you’re using just the recipe in the recipe card and not adjust that at all then you could get: 

• Three (taller) or four (shorter) 6 inch cakes 
• Two (average height) 8 inch cakes
• Two (short) 9 inch cakes
• One 10 inch cake
• One 9×13” cake
• 24 cupcakes 

If you’re making cupcakes, I put 50 grams in each cupcake tin and bake for about 18-20 minutes. You could fill the cupcakes with the pistachio butter/paste and top with the mascarpone cream. I do love the flavor of the syrup though so I would add it to my mascarpone cream if I did this. 

When baking, generally a thinner layer will get 20-25 minutes of baking and a thicker cake layer will get 30-40 minutes. 

Once it no longer looks wet, press on the center of the cake gently and it will spring back when it’s done baking. If it doesn’t spring back, give it another few minutes. 

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