by carrie
Conquering Intimidating Dishes, Dessert, Food + Entertaining, German, Italian
slicepistachiocake
Pistachio Cake
Pistachio Cake
PistachioCakeSlice
We celebrated my mother’s birthday over the weekend at a fun and festive Greek restaurant: Alexander The Great Greek.
It’s family owned and operated with great food, live music and a belly dancer!
I decided to make my mom’s birthday cake this year but wanted a Greek twist to it. I researched particular flavors and came up with pistachio and apricot.
This cake was super moist and had the exact flavor of a really good pistachio gelato!
Pan Notes: I used 3 round pans. Bottom pan was a 9 inch round and the 2 top pans where 8.5 inch round. I used the 9 inch round as the base of the cake.
Assembly Notes: If you want to stabilize your cake because you might be taking it somewhere you can take straws and cut them to the appropriate size and stick it in the center through the 3 layers. This will secure the cake. Since I wasn’t going anywhere I didn’t do this at all and the cake was fine. I just wanted to give you that option.
Icing the Cake: Once I put my layers on the cake stand I cut strips of parchment and stick it around the base of the cake so that when I am icing it doesn’t get on the stand. Once I am done I remove the parchment and it has a nice clean finish at the bottom.
Pistachio and Apricot Cake Recipe
Pans that I used
3 round pans, if you can I like using 9inch for the base then 8.5 for the top 2 layers.
Ingredients
Cake Batter
2 Cups of Sifted All Purpose Flour (I like to use Farino Tipo 00 – An Italian Flour, note: you can also use Cake Flour)
2 Cups of Sugar
1 Stick of Butter
3/4 Cup of dried apricots diced up (I used my food processor to make them tiny pieces)
1 Cup of chopped Pistachios + 3/4 cup to sprinkle on the iced cake and in between the iced layers
5 Egg Whites (beat until stiff peaks)
5 Egg Yolks
1/2 Cup of Olive Oil
1 Cup of Buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
1 teaspoon of baking soda (not powder but soda)
Cake Icing
Three 8 oz of Containers of White Chocolate Cream Cheese
1/2 cup of Whipping Cream
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/4 cup of Powdered Sugar
Preparation
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. If your oven browns quickly then take it down 15 to 20 degrees. Grease and flour 3 round cake pans.
1. Cream butter with sugar and add vanilla.
2. Next add 5 separated egg yolks and 1/2 cup of olive oil – mix and beat until fluffy.
3. In a separate bowl combine dry ingredients: Sifted flour and the baking soda.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the mixture a little at a time alternating with the buttermilk (about 1/4 cup at a time).
5. Next mix in 1 Cup of Pistachios and 3/4 cup of the Apricots.
6. In another bowl beat the egg whites until you have stiff peaks.
7. With a spatula gently fold in your egg whites into the batter by making the figure 8 pattern.
8. Spoon the batter into your 3 pans and make them as even as you can.
9. Bake until light brown and for about 30 minutes (use a toothpick in the center and make sure no batter is on the stick).
10. Once the cakes are done pull them out and let them cool.
11. After they cool place the cakes on parchment and use a brush to dust off the crumbs (easier to ice).
12. Now for the Icing: Cream with a hand blender the 3 containers of White Chocolate Cream Cheese + 1/4 of powdered sugar + 1/2 cup of whipping cream (a little at a time) until you have it all mixed together.
13. After the icing is mixed start to assemble the cake by taking one of the layers of cake and making it your base. Stick strips of parchment paper around the bottom of the cake. Ice the top of it and add the next layer of cake and ice the top of it adding your final layer of cake.
14. Now start to ice the sides and the top of the cake until covered. Use chopped pistachios to decorate the top and sides.
15. Refrigerate the cake until you are going to slice and serve!
Jeanette
Do you use dried apricots or fresh apricots? Thanks! This looks sooo good!
myfudo
I am gonna try this with dried apricots…So excited to try your recipe.
carrie
@Jeanette I used dried apricots, I added it to the recipe thanks for asking!
@myfudo Let me know how it goes. Everyone thought the cake was very moist and flavorful.
LInda
Hi – Do you use fresh, dried, or canned apricots? I didn’t see a note about that – sorry if I missed it.
carrie
@Llnda I used dried apricots.
Cindy
What s white chocolate cream cheese?
carrie
@Cindy, you can make your own White chocolate cream cheese by adding white chocolate flavoring to cream cheese or for a short cut you could use Philadelphia Indulgence White Chocolate Cream Cheese that is in the section where the cream cheese is. I used 3 containers of it to ice and layer this cake.
Heather Mulholland
…. This looks really delicious! I like how it’s different from your typical flavours in a cake.
carrie
@Heather – It is different. The flavor reminded me of a really nice pistachio gelato.
Renée
This sounds awesome! I bet it would be really delicious with some apricot jam between the layers, too.
carrie
@Renee, that’s a great idea! It would bring out more of the apricot flavor for sure.
cindy
Thank you for answering my question about the white chocolate cream cheese, Do you have the measurements if I were to add cream cheese to the chocolate? I’m wondering if that would cut the cost t make this cake. Thank You Cindy
carrie
@Cindy I don’t have measurements for that. BUT you might try taking the cream cheese and adding the white chocolate extract. 1 to 2 Tablespoons would probably be enough. I think that would cut down on cost for the frosting.
leah
Hi Carrie! This looks great. I do have one question–did you use salted or unsalted pistachios? Unsalted seem hard to come by. Thanks!
HoldTheGross
We made this a few times, and it was so delicious we had to make a post about it too! It’s our new go-to cake for special occasions. So unique and delicious! Thank you for the recipe