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!
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 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.
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!
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
Buttermilk
Greek Yogurt
Baking Powder
Baking Soda
Salt
Vanilla Extract
Almond Extract
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
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!
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!
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!
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour three 6-inch cake pans. Set aside.
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.
Combine the pistachios, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Stir to combine. Set aside.
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.
Add the sour cream and milk and mix to incorporate slightly. Don’t over mix.
Last, fold the dry ingredients into the wet until combined and no streaks of flour remain.
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.
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.
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.
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!
Keywords: pistachio cake, natural pistachio cake
Notes
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.
OMG! That’s all I can say because this cake turned out amazing! the measurements were perfect and I loved that you used such simple and clean ingredients. Everyone loved it and I can’t wait to try more of your recipes!!
Hi Sarah! They should not separate, but if they do the dry ingredients should bring them back together. If your batter did split it’s probably because something wasn’t at true room temperature! I often find this happens if my eggs or butter too cold, but I’m not sure what the culprit is for you!
I followed your recipe exactly & since I didn’t have or want a 3 layer cake, I did what you suggested & doubled the recipe & used two 8 inch pans. Sorry to say it turned out a disaster. It’s too much batter for 8 inch pans. I baked it for 32 minutes & the cake went over the edge of the pans & the middle never did get done. If I would have kept them in the oven any longer, it would have burned. Have you actually tried this recipe yourself with 8 inch pans & doubling the recipe? I was so excited for this recipe & made it for my brother’s birthday, now @ the last minute I have to come up with something else. So disappointed!
Hi Sarah! I am SO sorry to hear that–how deep are your 8 inch pans? I will clarify in the notes that you must use 8 x 3 inch pans because I’ve baked this cake many times in ours. Again, I am so so sorry that happened. That must have been so frustrating and I wish I could have prevented it!
Hey! Tried making this cake for the first time! Loved it 🙂 quick question should I use buttermilk or normal milk. For this I used buttermilk but I just want your clarification.
Leave a comment and rate this recipe!
OMG! That’s all I can say because this cake turned out amazing! the measurements were perfect and I loved that you used such simple and clean ingredients. Everyone loved it and I can’t wait to try more of your recipes!!
Question, are the wet ingredients supposed to separate? I made it twice and it happened both times.
Hi Sarah! They should not separate, but if they do the dry ingredients should bring them back together. If your batter did split it’s probably because something wasn’t at true room temperature! I often find this happens if my eggs or butter too cold, but I’m not sure what the culprit is for you!
I followed your recipe exactly & since I didn’t have or want a 3 layer cake, I did what you suggested & doubled the recipe & used two 8 inch pans. Sorry to say it turned out a disaster. It’s too much batter for 8 inch pans. I baked it for 32 minutes & the cake went over the edge of the pans & the middle never did get done. If I would have kept them in the oven any longer, it would have burned. Have you actually tried this recipe yourself with 8 inch pans & doubling the recipe? I was so excited for this recipe & made it for my brother’s birthday, now @ the last minute I have to come up with something else. So disappointed!
Hi Sarah! I am SO sorry to hear that–how deep are your 8 inch pans? I will clarify in the notes that you must use 8 x 3 inch pans because I’ve baked this cake many times in ours. Again, I am so so sorry that happened. That must have been so frustrating and I wish I could have prevented it!
Hey! Tried making this cake for the first time! Loved it 🙂 quick question should I use buttermilk or normal milk. For this I used buttermilk but I just want your clarification.
We use buttermilk when we make this!
This looks delicious and I can’t wait to try it! Question – Is the oven at 350F fan forced?
Our oven is!