Chocolate pistachio cake
This is a rich and gooey chocolate cake topped with a sweet and salty pistachio butter and whipped cream. I think it is one of the best things i’ve ever baked.
I hope you like it if you try it.
Time: 1,5-2 hours active time
Servings: 12 large pieces
Notes:
It’s baked in a 22 cm baking tin. You can use a larger tin but I don't recommend using anything smaller.
The cake stores REALLY well in the fridge and i think it’s even better the next day.
I’ve explained how to make the pistachio butter two ways in the method part: the traditional and the shortcut way.
I’ve posted this chocolate cake before, but with a different topping. This is the more sophisticated version.
Ingredients
for the cake
300 g sugar
75 g butter, melted
75 g oil
2 eggs
175 g flour
100 g cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp instant coffee
1 tsp salt
250 g water (hot)
for the pistachio butter
250 g shelled pistachios (125 g after removing the shells)
25 g powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt if your pistachio is not already pre-salted
for the whipped cream
250 g heavy cream
25 g powdered sugar
Method
to make the cake
Preheat your oven to 160 C (320 F).
Combine the sugar, melted butter, oil and eggs in a large bowl. Whisk for about 30 seconds or until slightly lighter in color.
Add the flour, cocoa powder and baking soda and whisk as well as you can for a few seconds. This will be very thick and quite lumpy, but that is okay, just whisk as well as you can until just combined.
Now add the instant coffee, salt and the hot water, whisk until smooth. The hot water “blooms” the cocoa powder and leads to a more intense chocolate flavor.
Pour into a buttered and parchment lined baking dish (22 cm) and bake until a toothpick comes out almost clean, should take about 30 minutes. I like to take it out of the oven before it’s completely set so it’s extra delicious. The baking time might vary depending on your oven, so keep an eye on it.
Let the cake cool while making the pistachio butter.
to make the pistachio butter
Start out by removing the shells of your pistachios
Add to a baking sheet and roast at 125 C (250 F) for 5-7 minutes. Make sure to keep an eye on them and remove them from the oven as soon as you start smelling pistachios and before the color starts darkening. Roasting the nuts is optional but recommended because it does two things
makes it easy to remove the skins and
releases the oils so it’s easier to turn the pistachios into butter
Let them cool for a minute or two and add to a clean kitchen towel and rub them until some of the skin comes off. All the skins won’t come off and that is okay.
Add the pistachios to a blender or food processor and blend.
You have to stop blending and scrape the sides and bottom about 7-8 times but it will eventually turn into a smooth and runny butter. This process takes about 15-20 minutes.
Add the powdered sugar (and salt if you’re adding it) and blend one final time.
At this point the cake should not be very hot, so go ahead and add the pistachio butter in an even layer on top.
Let the cake cool completely. If you’re short on time or impatient (like me) you can chill it in the fridge.
If you don’t want to make the pistachio butter this way, there is a short-cut version. It will be chunkier and the pistachio flavor will be more “diluted”, but there is a way. You blend the pistachios until a powder, then add the powdered sugar and a tablespoon of water at the time and mix until a paste forms! You will end up with “more” of pistachio butter because of the water, so that’s a bonus.
to make the whipped cream
Whisk heavy cream until soft peaks, then add the sugar and vanilla and whisk until medium-stiff peaks.
I also added a powder called sahnesteif (I think it’s a german thing?) to my whipped cream to stabilize it but it is optional. If you also want to stabilize your whipped cream but don’t have access to sahnesteif, you can start out by whisking 2 tbsp mascarpone until smooth, then add in the heavy cream and whisk it together until smooth.
Add on top of the cake and smooth out. Refrigerate for an hour or two, add a tiny bit of cocoa powder on top and serve.
The cake stores REALLY well in the fridge and i think it’s even better the next day.
Here are some photos of whole process - enjoy :)
