Happy Birthday Leilah!
Speaking of spectacular cakes… the Hungarian proverb reminds me, “Not all that shines is gold”. I tend to follow my instincts… but not always. The first cake was a disaster, the second, a huge improvement, the next one will be even better.
The one thing l took away from the experiment, besides the concept, was how much pistachios I will need for the cake; 300g.
This is a delicately complex cake and l don’t think anything should compete with the pistachio and raspberry flavours! When icing this cake… less icing is more.
Pistachio Cake with Raspberry Filling
For this recipe you will need 1 1/2 cups of either raw shelled, or honey roasted pistachios. Honey roasted comes in 155g packets; two of those will cover all your pistachio needs. Do not use salted or spicy pistachios though. If you rather use commercial pistachio butter, it will be quite oily, so l would reduce the oil in the recipe at the very least by 2 Tbsp.
Cake:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup oil
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup homemade pistachio butter - you will need a food processor for this
3 eggs
1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp green food colouring
2 3/4 cups unbleached flour
1 1/4 cups
3.25% buttermilk
1/2 cup coarsely ground pistachios
Raspberry Filling:
1 1/2 cups frozen raspberries - frozen has more intensive flavour
1 1/4 cup - reduce sugar to taste if using fresh commercial berries
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/8 cup water
2 Tbsp cornstarch
Basic Vanilla Buttercream:
1 cup soft unsalted butter
4 cups icing sugar
1/3 cup whipping cream - do NOT substitute with lower than 33% fat content
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Decoration:
ground pistachios
fresh raspberries
First ground the pistachios
• Coarsely ground 3/4 cup of pistachio nuts in the food processor and set is aside. This will go into the cake.
• Coarsely ground another 1/2 cup of pistachio nuts in the food processor and set it aside. This will be used to decorate the cake.
Next make the pistachio butter.
• Add 1/2 to 3/4 cup of pistachios to the food processor.
• Process on high speed until smooth butter forms.
• The butter will be very dry. You could add a Tbsp of water if you are compelled, but it’s not necessary. Don’t add salt or oil though. Scrape out 1/2 cup and set it aside.
Next make the cake.
• Preheat the oven to 350F.
• Fully line with parchment paper two 9 inch spring form cake pans and set them aside.
• Add the butter, oil and sugar to the beater bowl and whip until fluffy.
• Add 1/2 cup of pistachio butter, eggs, vanilla extract, baking soda, baking powder, and green food colouring and beat until very fluffy on high speed.
• Reduce the speed to slow and bit by bit add from the flour and the buttermilk alternating until all the flour and buttermilk has been added.
• Lastly stir in the 1/2 cup coarsely ground pistachios you set aside earlier.
• Divide the cake batter between the prepared cake pans and place in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes.
In the meantime make the Raspberry Filling.
• NO jam! Jam would be overly sweet for this cake. You need the tartness only raspberry filling can provide.
• Crush the berries. If your raspberries are very seedy increase the amount the recipe calls for. Next crush the berries and force it through a fine sieve discarding the seeds.
• It will be smooth if you had to remove the seeds, otherwise the filling can remain chunky.
• Next combine the raspberries and sugar in a saucepan and bring them to a simmer.
• Simmer, stirring often to reduce the liquid.
• In a small bowl make a slurry from water and the cornstarch and add it to the raspberries.
• Give it a stir and bring it back to simmer and cook for a couple of more minutes. Don’t cook it too long; cornstarch looses its effectiveness if cooked too long.
• Remove from heat, and stir in the lemon juice and the zest.
• Pour it into a heatproof bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
Continue with the cakes.
• When the cakes are done, place them on a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes.
• Run a blunt knife around the perimeter to loosen the cakes and open up the spring mechanisms.
• Place both cakes on the wire rack to cool.
• When no longer warm to the touch, place both cakes in the fridge to chill for an hour. If you don’t assemble the cake the same day or perhaps freeze it for another day, make sure there is parchment paper on both top and bottom before fully wrapping both cakes.
While the cakes are chilling make the Vanilla Buttercream.
• Beat the soft butter until creamy.
• Gradually add the icing sugar and beat on low speed until the icing sugar is fully incorporated.
• Add the remaining ingredients, increase the speed and beat on high for 4 minutes until buttercream is very fluffy.
• Add more cream or icing sugar if needed.
Next assemble the cake.
• Gently remove the baked on parchment papers from the bottoms.
• Slice both cakes horizontally.
• Place one of the bottom layers on a cake round or on parchment with the cut side up. This is to stabilize the cake. Reserve the other bottom for the top. Place all the other layers with the baked sides on top for easier spreading.
• Spread 1/3 of raspberry filling on top first and then 1/5th of the buttercream over the filling. This will be a bit tricky, but it can be done.
• Add your next layer of cake and repeat the same process with layer two and three.
• Place the last layer on top and spread half of the remaining buttercream on top.
• Cover the sides thinly with the remaining buttercream. Rather than completely coating the entire cake, spread the frosting thin enough to leave the layers exposed, “naked”. As you see I didn’t. I made half an extra batch of icing to finish the cake and regretted it. Because we all left the icing from the sides on the plate.
• Chill the cake in the fridge for half an hour.
• Sprinkle the cake top with the remaining ground pistachios and arrange a few fresh or frozen raspberries on the top.
