homemade pistachio cake

Pistachio Cake

  • Prep time: 3o min
  • Cook time: 25 min
  • Total time: 1 hr 30 min

Homemade pistachio cake without any pudding mix, artificial coloring, or food coloring?! SAY WHAT. This seriously moist pistachio cake is made with ground pistachios and a hint of almond extract for the perfect subtle pistachio flavor!

Cakes & Cupcakes
March 2, 2021
Pistachio Cake
  • Prep time: 3o min
  • Cook time: 25 min
  • Total time: 1 hr 30 min
homemade pistachio cake

Homemade pistachio cake without any pudding mix, artificial coloring, or food coloring?! SAY WHAT. This seriously moist pistachio cake is made with ground pistachios and a hint of almond extract for the perfect subtle pistachio flavor!

Pistachio Cake

You’ll love this homemade pistachio cake with no artificial flavors, food coloring, or pudding mix! This scrumptious pistachio layer cake with cream cheese frosting is the prefect spring cake for all occasions!

homemade pistachio cake

Homemade Pistachio Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

BEHOLD! The best pistachio cake you’ll ever have. In fact, this pistachio cake is *so* good that I’ve changed my birthday cake order this year to it. I mean… when I tell you this is the best cake I’ve made in years. It’s sweet, slightly salty, nutty, and boy, oh boy, is it MOIST. I don’t even know how to describe the texture of this cake. It’s soft, slightly dense, nutty, and nearly melts in your mouth.

Don’t take my word for it. Please make it for yourself.

Plus, she’s an au naturale beauty with no pudding mix, no food coloring, and no artificial flavoring. This homemade pistachio cake is made with freshly ground pistachios and a combination of vanilla and almond extract. The result is a delicately  flavored pistachio cake.

pistachio cake slice

How to make your pistachio cake green without food coloring?

Many pistachio cake recipes call for pistachio pudding mix or other artificial pistachio flavors. Pistachio flavoring doesn’t really taste much like pistachios at all. It’s usually quite sweet and slightly almond-y. Now, I’m certainly not knocking that flavor (it’s delicious), but we’ve always loved real pistachios and when we set out to make a pistachio cake we wanted it to taste nutty, salty-sweet, and like it was loaded up with real pistachios. So that’s exactly what we did.

But, how do you get the pistachio cake green without any green pudding mix or food dye? The answer might seem self explanatory, but… PISTACHIOS. Raw pistachios (not roasted and salted) tend to have a slightly more saturated, brighter green color than roasted pistachios and will give your cake a perfect pale green hue.

That being said, if you are looking for that bright green color (for St. Patrick’s Day perhaps!), you can absolutely add in green food coloring to give your cake a deeper color!

pistachio cake with cream cheese frosting

What do you need to make pistachio cake?

Like most homemade cakes, you’ll need a fair amount of ingredients to make this pistachio cake, but most of them are pantry staples that you probably already have on hand.

  • Pistachios
  • Flour
  • Granulated Sugar
  • Eggs
  • Butter
  • Vegetable Oil
  • Milk
  • Greek Yogurt
  • Baking Powder
  • Baking Soda
  • Salt
  • Vanilla Extract
  • Almond Extract

pistachio cake with cream cheese frosting

Ingredients for the honey cream cheese frosting

But wait. There’s more. Don’t forget about the homemade cream cheese frosting made with just a hint of honey to take your cake from tasty to gourmet. *Chef’s kiss*

  • Cream Cheese
  • Butter
  • Vanilla Extract
  • Powdered Sugar
  • Honey

pistachio cake with cream cheese frosting

What size cake does this recipe make?

The wonderful thing about homemade cake is that you can make it in a variety of different shapes and sizes. This recipe as stated will make the following size pistachio cakes:

  • 3 thinner 6 inch layers: This is what you see in the pictures of pistachio cake here. The layers are still substantially sized and the cake has a good height, but by keeping your layers slightly thinner you get a bigger frosting to cake ratio, which always makes me feel like I’m eating a posh slice of cake from a French bakery. A total win in my book.
  • 2 thicker 6 inch layers: If you don’t feel like dealing with 3 6 inch cakes and all that frosting, I totally get it. Luckily this recipe works perfectly in 2 pans as well. Simply increase your baking time by about 8 minutes for the slightly thicker cakes!
  • 1 9 x 9 inch sheet cake: This recipe would also make a perfectly 9 x 9 inch square sheet cake with a single layer of frosting on top. I love sheet cake because it’s easy to throw together, easy to share, and super snackable!

If you would like to make this pistachio cake in standard 8 or 9 inch rounds I would recommend doubling the recipe! You’ll get 2 substantially sized layers or 3 slightly thinner layers!

Any other questions about this delicious spring cake? Ask away in the comments below!

XXX

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homemade pistachio cake
  • Author: Sofi | Broma Bakery
  • Prep Time: 20 minutes
  • Cook Time: 30 minutes
  • Total Time: 2 hours
  • Yield: 8 servings
  • Category: dessert
  • Method: oven
  • Cuisine: american

Pistachio Cake

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.9 from 22 reviews

You’ll love this homemade pistachio cake with no artificial flavors, food coloring, or pudding mix! This scrumptious pistachio layer cake with cream cheese frosting is the prefect spring cake for all occasions!

  • Author: Sofi | Broma Bakery
  • Prep Time: 20 minutes
  • Cook Time: 30 minutes
  • Total Time: 2 hours
  • Yield: 8 servings
  • Category: dessert
  • Method: oven
  • Cuisine: american
Units:

Ingredients

for the pistachio cake

  • 3/4 cup pistachios, pulsed into fine crumbs
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 egg and 1 egg white
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
  • 6 Tablespoons sour cream or greek yogurt
  • 6 Tablespoons milk

for the cream cheese frostin

  • 6 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
  • 3/4 cup butter, softened
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 teaspoons honey
  • 4 cups powdered sugar

Instructions

    1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour three 6-inch cake pans. Set aside.
    2. In a food processor pulse the pistachios until they are broken down into fine pieces. It’s okay if it’s not completely powdery, but the pieces should be very small.
    3. Combine the pistachios, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Stir to combine. Set aside.
    4. In a stand mixer fit with the whisk attachment, combine the butter and oil and beaut until homogenous. Add the granulated sugar and beat until light and fluffy and pale in color. Add the egg and egg white, vanilla extract and almond extract and beat on medium high until light and fluffy and pale in color.
    5. Add the sour cream and milk and mix to incorporate slightly. Don’t over mix.
    6. Last, fold the dry ingredients into the wet until combined and no streaks of flour remain.
    7. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. Bake for 20-25 minutes  or until light golden brown and a knife inserted into the middle comes out mostly clean. Allow to cool completely.
    8. While the cakes are cooling, make the cream cheese frosting. In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add in the vanilla extract, salt, honey, and powdered sugar and whip to combine, about 1 minute more.
    9. Place the first cake on a plate, then top with a large dollop of frosting. Layer the second and third layer, frosting in between each layer. Finish by frosting the outside of the cake with the remaining frosting.
    10. Sprinkle pistachio pieces along the sides of the cake, pushing it into the frosting gently with your hands. If you’d like, decorate the top of your cake with fresh fruit, more pistachio crumbs or a drizzle of honey. Enjoy!
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Notes

  1. This recipe makes a 3 layer 6 inch cake. If you would like to make a 3 layer 8 or 9 inch cake x the recipe by 2.

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  1. Hi! Super excited to bake this cake. To confirm, the recipe calls for unsalted butter for the cake and salted butter for the frosting, is this right?

  2. Hi! Can’t find raw pistachios anywhere where I live. If I use salted and roasted pistachios do I have to change the recipe?

  3. Hi! I love this recipe!!

    Small thing I want to say is that in the recipes it says 3/4 cup pistachio which is 112g and NOT 219g.

    I’m not sure how it affects the recipe hahaa im tasting tomorrow