Sicilian Pistachio Cake

Yes, I’m still alive, despite all evidence to the contrary as far as this blog is concerned. I do still bake regularly, I just haven’t baked anything all that new or exciting in the last little while. Mostly, I’ve been baking carrot cakes to use up the funny shaped carrots we dug out of my garden over the last couple of months.

That changed this weekend. I’ve never been able to find blanched, shelled pistachios locally, so this weekend, when Jay decided we needed to make a trip to Toronto for some toys for his wood shop, I decided we were also going to make a trip to Tavazo, which claimed on its website (which somehow, I can’t get to right now) to carry exactly what I wanted.

This is a fairly normal butter and sour cream cake, though this time, it has pistachios ground up with the sugar, to give the cake itself a nice green tinge.

Mix the dry ingredients, along with the ground nuts, then add in the butter and most of the sour cream.

Beat that well, and add the egg/sour cream/extract(s) mixture in two additions.

After that’s thoroughly incorporated, spread the (really thick) batter evenly in a prepared pan.

Bake!

Then make the frosting. This cake uses a golden neoclassic buttercream with a hint of pistachio essence (I think I added too much). I didn’t get pictures of that process (I never do) because there really is no good stopping point to set down the spatula and grab a camera, once you get going, so you just get a picture of the frosted cake, instead.

Next, sprinkle the top with blanched slivered pistachios, and throw some at the sides, while you’re at it. I like how the nuts cover up all manner of imperfections in the frosting layer.

I really liked the flavour on this one. The almond extract in the batter complimented the pistachios nicely. My team at work seemed to enjoy it for the most part, though one wasn’t a big fan of the frosting. As I said, I think I may have over done the pistachio essence in the frosting, so I can’t blame Rose for that. I’ve now got a bag of pistachios vacuum sealed in the freezer, so at some point, I’m going to have to try my hand at baklava!