Our friend Nadia has been making this gorgeous pistachio cake for the one room café she runs, New Day Rising. Everything she bakes is incredible, but this cake is extra incredible: the crumb is alien green, it’s mouth wateringly damp, it’s covered in bejewelled pinky-green pistachios and it’s absolutely gluten free. Sarah and I entreated her for the recipe after swooning into a slice.
We decided to try our hand at baking it on a Friday afternoon, we wanted cake for the weekend. But Friday afternoon got away from us, filled with errands and meetings so we found ourselves at Sarah’s Fitzroy house-sit house, the one with the pretty wisteria covered (in the summer) courtyard, on Friday early evening late for drinks with friends. In a leap of inspiration we decided to still make the cake, pop it in the oven and let it cook while we had drinks. I was to ride back and take the cake out of the oven when it was time and because it’s Fitzroy and everything is only a moment away, especially by bicycle, we decided all would be well.
When I finally rode back to take the cake out of the oven it was about half an hour over time, and the edges were burnt. But the cake was still delicious. We sliced the burnt edges off with a very sharp knife. It was like it had never even burnt. Nadia says she regularly forgets cakes in the oven, and usually everything is okay. Casual and Relaxed baking with Sarah, Romy and Nadia.
Pistachio Cake
The beautiful Nadia Mizner of New Day Rising adapted this cake from The River Cafe Cook Book, by Rose Gray.
250g unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups Caster sugar
zest of 1 orange and 1 lemon
4 free-range eggs
1 cup almonds
1 cup pistachios
1/4 cup sugar
juice of an orange
1/2 cup pistachios
Preheat oven to 160C. Line a large loaf tin with baking paper.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add eggs one at a time then add vanilla and zests. Separately, finely grind almonds and pistachios in a food processor and then fold into butter mixture. Bake in loaf pan for about an hour and ten minutes or until springy.
For syrup, boil sugar and juice for about 5 mins and add nuts so they are coated in syrup. Pour over warm cake. Allow to cool in tin.
Tags: almond, cake, gluten free, pistachio
Category: baking, cakes, recipes
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Did this turn out to be slightly wet or greasy? This seem to be the case everytime I try a pistachio cake recipe. Thanks!
Hi Alison,
It’s definitely not greasy, but it is a very damp cake. Perhaps leave it in the oven for a good while longer (ours was still okay after half an hour extra!) if you are worried about it being too wet.
250 grams of butter equals ? Tablespoons?
Hi Stephany,
I think tbsp would be a labour intensive way to work out 250g. The stick of butter should say weight on its packet. Is that what you mean?
Could I use almond meal instead of ground almonds… I dont have a processor? Looks delish!
Hi Emily,
Almond meal would be fine - but will you be able to find pistachio meal also?
What sized loaf pan did you use to bake this in? I have three, each of them different sizes!
I just discovered this blog from a friend, of a friend, of a friend, of yours apparently who told me I would love it - They are were totally right, BEAUTIFUL RECIPES! and I nailed this cake for dinner tonight with compliments all around! Highly recommend it! (and try adding a small splash of orange blossom water, was subtle but just yum with the pistachios! )
i made this cake and whilst it was super delicious, it did turn out really greasy (not moist, either. just oily-ish). i did leave it in the oven for a bit longer to see if it would help, but sadly not. any suggestions? It was so delicious (and saved via use of toasting with a sandwhich press) that i’d love to get it right!
Oh wow! This cake was such a hit at our family Easter feast. Best cake I’ve ever had, better than chocolate cake. Made half the recipe and made a small round cake with half an egg shell in the centre- filled with chocolate and icing sugar over the top of the cake. Gorgeous!
I’d love to use this recipe to make cupcakes. Would I just need to distribute the batter into cupcake pan, or would the ingredient quantities need adjusting?
Hi Jessica, I think distributing to cup cake pans would work fine. Perhaps cut down the oven time, and remember they won’t be fluffy like a cupcake.
Hi Jessica,
I think this quantity best suits a cake size, but if you divided the cake up into cupcakes it should be fine but will cook for less time. Let us know how you go!
Sarah
So glad your cake was a hit! I need to cook it again, its been a while!
Hi Laura, This might be caused by the butter not creaming enough? But it is a very very moist cake. Ill have to test the recipe again in order to figure out what might have gone wrong! Thanks for your feeback, Sarah
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