Thanks for the link Julie. I read the post and agree with others, don’t change a thing! I love the whole look of the cake. It is so amazingly elegant!

I am so amazed that you can take all the different components, put them together, and create such an amazing cake - look-wise and flavor-wise.

So do you Anne, for all these components that you are doing for your Pistachio cake. I can’t wait to see it and to hear the stories.

I want to be like you guys when I grow up!

For now, I will settle with tackling my genoise issue .

Jenn, your genoise issues have scared the bejesus out of me.  I have complete fear of genoise.  Which of course means that I’ll have to try it!!!

As a side noe, I—now, in advance, I admit that I have digressed, but I hope by the end to have redeemed myself—called the library and asked for the pistachio marzipan recipe.  I AM buying TCB, but I have to wait a couple of months.  And I wont’ get to the library before baking.  HOWEVER, the woman who was reading me the recipe asked me what I was making, so I raved on about Rose and how her cakes are marvellous, and how I have RHC and every cake is amazing, frosted or unfrosted, and how her meticulous testing and incredible recipe development skills make every cake come out amazingly delicous so that the baker is completely inspired—and owns the souls of whomever tastes the cake.  So SHE has checked out TCB and is has put RHC on hold for herself.

So at least I made a convert and I SWEAR I am buying TCB.

Please don’t boot me!!!!

—ak

p.s.  In this recipe, Rose comments how beautiful the thin layer of pistachi marzipan along with the gorgeous neoclassic buttercream can be, so I might put it there after all.  Only Sunday will tell!!!

I’m looking forward to finding out how it comes out. Good luck Anne!

Thanks, Missy, and ditto to your for your baking weekend!!!

Here’s my idea for the final top design (hopefully, my color estimations will be reasonably accurate):

The light color is the neoclassic buttercream (A)
The green is neoclassic buttercream with pistachio butter mixed in (B)
The sticks are either piped (B) or pistachio marzipan - TBD
The circles are piped (B) and will cover the sticks. The problem is that it’s easier to do the circles first, but you have to do the sticks first to cover the ends.
The lone circle is a pistachio marzipan candle (1st b-day)
The letters will kill me, and I am scared to death. If worst comes to worst, I can simply sprinkle pistachios.

I have a few questions (surprised?) if anyone has any thoughts:

Thoughts re Piped sticks vs marzipan?—I can probably run marzipan through my extruder for pasta-style ropes.  Added a pic showing stick placement.
Can you light a pistachio marzipan candle like a almond marzipan one?
Any hints on letters? ** desperation ** This is the preferred font. The guy who runs the site, who is a prince among men, is quite attached to it. ** desperation **
Any thoughts on the design, generally?

Sides will be chopped pistachios, might pipe some thingys around the bottom and maybe the edge of the top, but only if necessary—don’t want to make it too busy.

I swear, I really appreciate your thoughts, hints and comments. This is my first cake decorating. And if there’s one thing I know, it’s harder than it looks!

With extreme gratitude,

—ak

Anne, I’m no cake decorator, but approaching this as a novice…I would say that if you can get the marzipan to work using the extruder rather than piping, that might be the safest bet.  It’s hard to hold that piping bag steady with constant pressure to get even, straight lines, at least for me!  Any thought on using fondant instead of marzipan?  Wouldn’t taste as good, but certainly easier to cut and place and rearrange.

For the letters, I was wondering if fondant might work, too.  Buy some stencils and just cut them out?

Anyway, like I said, I have no idea what I’m talking about here, just bouncing ideas off you!!

Sorry I can’t be of help on the decorating, it’s beyond my humble experience!

I think what I might try is using the marzipan for the letters—roll some out, cut the letters out of paper, lay them on the marzipan and then cut around it.  Fridge that and when cold and stable, lay it on the cake and use it as a guide to frost over. 

Loopy—thanks for the info re straight lines.  That sounds reasonable, and I am not particularly steady-handed, so I will go that route!!!

So Anne, how is it going?  Any work in progress updates??

Today is the day!!!  Aside from buttercream thawing, and pistachios in jars arranged by color and skinlessness, I will begin at 10AM!!!!!  Thanks, everyone, for all of your extrememly helpful thoughts.  Results and pics to come…..with me luck and whatever else I need!

Now that I have excitedly skimmed thru this entire thread… I am anxiously waiting to hear how it all turned out Anne!!! You are too funny - asking the librarian for the recipe - I almost peed my pants laughing - that is so totally something I would do!!! I too have been covetting RHC for a year already and in the meantime - repeatedly taking it out and putting it on hold at the library (but dang - some other person keeps getting it out tooo!!!). Hilarious! So each time I do a couple of recipes, before surrendering it again. The amount of fines I have paid being overdue etc could almost have gottem me the book! Anyways my birthday has recently passed and sadly - the book wasn’t among my presents. So now I am finally just ordering the thing! Do let us know how your Pistachio cake turned out!

Hi, Kuchenbaaker!!!

The cake remains my fave to date!  Here’s the completed cake post from Show ‘n’ Tell:  http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/index_ee.php/forums/viewthread/2458/ 
I decorated it, scraped it, and redecorated it.

This is an amazingly delicious, incredible cake, and you will be sooooo happy if you make it!!!

Don’t you hate it when you have a book checked out and someone puts it on hold so you can’t renew it?  Beastly!  Oh, well, I guess we have to share!!!  Good to get your own copy of this one, that’s for sure!

Hi again all you lovely fellow-bakers! I finally got my copy of RHC for myself with birthday money - and then got TCB for Christmas from my daughter! WooHoo! So now I do not have to monopolize the library copy anymore! In March I finally did get to make the Sicilian Pistachio Cake (for St. Pat’s!). It turned out fabulous and all raved about it! Next time I will try it with a little lighter buttercream (I find the Golden Neoclassic a bit over sweet and rich for me), and possibly bump up the Pistachio quotient by adding paste to the buttercream. It definitely will be a regular for me!

kb, your pistachio cake looks perfect and sounds delicious!  Pistachio paste sounds like a divine way to bump it up