Hello from Puerto Rico. Planning on baking my daughter for her birthday a Pistachio Cake from scratch (recipes I have used are all with cake mixes) Can anyone help me with a recipe. Thanks Belmari

I’m with you Belmari - been searching for a good pistachio cake recipe for years.

Patrincia thanks very much on your reply. I also want to congratulate you on your new baby The 6 Qt. Kitchen Aid. I have an oldie K5S(1978) which has given me great service and I’m planning on buying a new mixer just to give my oldie a break every now and then. Probably I will buy the same as you, they are not just beautiful they are a great machine. I will be starting also the “bread adventure” just received the Bread Bible and I’m buying the equipment to start on this new pursuit.
I am looking in the web for the Pistachio Recipe if I finally find one I will write it in the forum. Regards , Belmari

The pistachio cake recipe I use is one of those strange abuses of a cake mix, involving pistachio instant pudding and 7up. Lots of people like it, but I don’t find it reliable.

Along the way, however, I discovered a substitute for pistachios. Well, not a substitute, a way to get them for baking. Sunkist Dry Roasted Pistachios, salted in the shell. You remove the shells, and soak the nuts and skins in water for a brief time (around an hour seems to work.) The brown skins will then be easy to squeeze or peel off, then dry the nutmeats (I just set them aside on a paper towel on a cookie sheet, and shake them every once in a while.) I then grind up a quarter-cup or so in my coffee/spice grinder and use them as an addition to the pudding cake.

I’d start by adding some ground pistachios (say a quarter of a cup) to Rose’s White Velvet Cake, and see how that turned out.

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Abuse-a-cake recipe (I think it’s from All Recipe, but I’m not sure.)

Recipe: (makes a large Bundt or 2 9” layers or a 9x13 or a 12” round.)

Preheat oven to 350 (325 for 12” round). Prepare pans, grease & flour or Baker’s Joy, paper liners if cake is to be removed, a rose nail or aluminum cone in center of 12” round.

1 box Duncan Hines Deluxe White Cake mix
1 box Jello Instant Pistachio pudding
3 eggs
3/4 cup oil
1 Cup 7up
2 tablespoons ground pistachio (take Sunkist Dry Roasted & salted pistachios, remove the shells, soak in water for a couple of hours, peel off the skins, dry, then grind in spice/coffee grinder.)

Put mix, pudding, and pistachio in the mixer and start on low. Add eggs, oil, and 7up and blend for thirty seconds. Increase speed to medium or “cake mix” and beat for two minutes. Pour into pan, level with spatula, bake about 40-45 minutes, (50-55 for the 12” round.) When done, cool in pan 10-15 minutes, invert, peel off paper, invert, and let cool.

Frosting:
2 sticks unsalted butter, 65 F, each cut into 8 slices
2 8 oz packages of cream cheese, 65 F, each cut into 8 cubes
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
large pinch salt.

Put sugar in bowl, start mixer on medium-low, cream in the butter by tossing slices in one at a time. When all of the butter has been added, increase speed to medium. The butter and sugar will eventually cream, the signal to start adding the cubes of cream cheese, one at a time. Add the salt and vanilla.

Thanks for the recipe. Sure I will try the pistachios on Rose’s White Velvet Cake to see how it turns out. Thanks again for your response. Regards, Belmari

Belmari, I found two recipes for pistachio cake. One on the Martha Stewart website and one on Epicurious. Here are the links:

http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.fc77a0dbc44dd1611e3bf410b5900aa0/?vgnextoid=3ccaab224190f010VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&autonomy_kw=pistachio cake&rsc=header_3

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/241050

You may have to adjust the quantity to suit your needs. I have not made any of these recipes but on Epicurious there is a review section where people rate the recipe.

Good luck.

Rozanne, thank you for the recipes. I have already printed them and will try the Epicurious one this week. Martha’s seem very yummy but I have to keep it simple because I will be mailing the cake to Florida . Regards, Belmari

Hey friends,found a recipe from http://www.recipezaar.com/25842, it seems is a good one made from scratch. Will have to bake al least 3 pistachio cake recipes before march 12. Patrincia have you tried this one? I will be trying it but here in Puerto Rico we can’t get the superfine sugar so I will be baking it with regular granulated one. Will let you know how it turns out. Regards, Belmari

Belmari, you can make your own superfine sugar. Just pulse regular granulated sugar in a food processor.

Belmari - you can easily make superfine sugar out of granular sugar in a food processor.  If you don’t have a processor, the granular sugar should work well.

Thank you both!!!!!!Everyday you have the chance to learn a new thing. I will do it that way. Patrincia how it has gone with your new baby mixer? Any name yet…  Regards, Belmari

The new mixer is less than 2 days and so far I’ve only managed to give it a whirl empty (I read you are supposed to break them in by mixing on low speed for 10 minutes or so, to get the gears lubed up).  I was wondering how long it would be before someone in the family would notice 2 mixers sitting on the counter - it was about 24 hours before one of the kids saw it.  My husband is oblivious to it’s existence, but then again, he’s pretty much oblivious to the 12 year old mixers existence too . 

Anyway, our oldest sons is coming home from college this weekend, so I plan to make him cheesecake - that will be the new mixer’s first project.  Then over the weekend Rozanne and I are going to be making the Golden Honey Oat Bread from the blog (we’ll be encouraging each other via email:) ).  Should be fun!

Btw, someone on another blog suggested naming the new mixer TJ - short for Thomas Jefferson (because the mixer is covered in Nickel).  I thought that was pretty clever, especially since we live in Virginia!  The smaller white mixer remains nameless.

Being a Kitchen Aid Fan I Know TJ will do great on his first job. Funny when I refer to a mixer in masculine form , you know in Spanish the word for mixer is “batidora” and that is femenine, I always think of mixers the femenine way. That comes because we don’t have a pronoun “it” in Spanish.We just have el (he) ella (she) . So my mixer is a girl!!!
I will be baking the pistachio cake in the weekend.
Have you been baking bread for long??? I just got my bread bible last week,still browsin through the pages. And I’m making my guts(and bying the equipment) to bake my first loaf . Do you suggest any of the bread recipes for a first timer. Thanks and Regards, Belmari
Good luck with your Golden Honey Oat bread.

Hi Belmari - I always thought of mixers as being more feminine too (“she’s a real beauty”).  A friend said the two mixers “look like a married couple sitting together on the counter”.  Naming ones mixer is kind of silly really, but kind of fun at the same time.

I know you’re in Puerto Rico - are you familiar with US history?  Thomas Jefferson was one of our presidents, and his face is imprited on our nickel (5 cent coin) - he was also a famous Virginian.  Since I live in Virginia, it seems fitting.  (forgive me if you already knew that info) 

I can’t wait to hear how your Pistachio Cake turns out.  How will you serve it?  Pllease keep us posted.

I have been baking for 20 years, everything but real bakery breads that is.  I can bake great dinner rolls, and I’ve baked a lot of bread machine breads, but I’ve never really tried my hand at Bread Bible style bread baking (kneading, using starters, etc).  I must have checked the BB out from the library 10 or 15 times before I got my own copy recently, but I’m still a bit intimidated and have been procrastinating.  There is so much information to gain, but I guess I felt the same way about baking cakes initially.  Rose deserves the credit for all my cake baking triumphs, so I know the BB is the best place to start my journey into bread baking (that and the little nudge from Rozanne, so now there’s no excuse not to).

I’ve only made the food processor version of the Ricotta Loaf (search for Ricotta Bliss Bread on the blog).  It’s a really easy recipe and my family loves it - it’s so simple it doesn’t really count in my mind as one of the artisan style loaves, but it sure tastes good!

Hi Patrincia-The mixers really look like a married couple. I usually name all objects that are like family , and a KA is more than family ,as well as Rose’s Bibles. I think is fun too!!!
We are familiar with US history and we use the US currency so our nickel is the same as yours.Do not worry most people think we have different currency and usually they do not know we are a territory. I have been visiting in Virginia it is a beautiful state. Last summer we visited Monticello a beautiful place , I loved the gardens. So your mixer has a great name!!!!!
My pistachio cake is for my daughters 30th birthday , I will be baking it and mailing it to her just sprinkled with Domino 10X Sugar . She lives in Florida for her training , she is a resident in Psychiatry in University of Florida Shands Hospital. As soon as I get to know if she liked it I will keep you posted.
OH!!!!You are really an experienced bread baker.  I am really a newbe on that. My first attempt was like 2 years ago and I killed the yeast (I boiled the water) so imagine how it turned out. But little by little and with the help of my friends and the bread bible I think I will make it. When I am ready I will need a lot of nudge from Rozanne and you(and all the forum) Intimidated and afraid that is what I am.Baking Cakes I have had experience since I was 13 ...and that was long ago I am 55 years old. I really enjoy baking. I have had the Cake Bible for three years and I read and go over it probably twice a week but have not baked any of the cakes in it. I’m planning on starting this project too! I bake for my family and friends. Done a couple of wedding cakes and lots of Birthdays. All 30 of my daughter and with the same mixer. (My mixer is called “caballita” it means little mare.) Will keep you posted on the Pistachio Cake, regards ,Belmari

Your cake baking will be transformed when you start using Rose’s recipes.  Have you made any of her buttercreams yet?