Pistachio Cake With White Chocolate Buttercream
photo by aviya316
- Ready In:
- 1hr 20mins
- Ingredients:
- 23
- Serves:
-
12
ingredients
-
CAKE
- 1 2⁄3 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1⁄2 teaspoon baking soda
- 3⁄4 cup butter, softened (no substitutes)
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 cup buttermilk or 1 cup sour milk
- 6 egg whites
- 1 1⁄2 cups toasted chopped pistachio nuts
- 2 teaspoons finely shredded orange peel (can use other citrus peel or leave out)
-
WHITE CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM
- 1⁄2 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 6 egg yolks
- 1 1⁄2 cups milk
- 1 (6 ounce) package white baking bar
- 1 1⁄2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1⁄2 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 cup butter, softened (no substitutes)
-
CARAMELIZED PISTACHIO SHARDS
- nonstick cooking spray
- 1 tablespoon chopped pistachios
- 1⁄3 cup sugar
- 1⁄2 teaspoon hot water
directions
-
PREPARE PISTACHIO CAKE:
- Preheat oven to 350º F & grease and lightly flour three 8x1-1/2-inch round baking pans; set aside.
- Stir together flour, baking powder, and baking soda; set aside.
- Beat the 3/4 cup butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds.
- Add the 2 cups sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 1 teaspoon almond extract; beat until fluffy.
- Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk or sour milk, beating on low to medium speed just until combined.
- Thoroughly wash and dry beaters.
- In a medium mixing bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form (tips stand straight).
- Gently fold beaten egg whites into batte;.fold in the pistachio nuts and the orange peel.
- Pour batter into prepared pans.
- Bake in preheated oven 30 to 35 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center of each cake comes out clean.
- Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes.
- Remove cakes from pans and cool thoroughly on wire racks.
-
PREPARE BUTTERCREAM:
- Combine the 1/2 cup sugar and 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour in a medium mixing bowl; add egg yolks.
- Beat mixture with a wire whisk until combined; set aside.
- Heat the 1-1/2 cups milk in a heavy saucepan over medium heat just to boiling;.remove from heat.
- Gradually beat hot milk into egg mixture with the wire whisk; return entire mixture to saucepan.
- Cook over medium heat until bubbly, whisking constantly; cook 2 minutes more & remove from heat.
- Add white baking bars, 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla, and 1/2 teaspoon almond extract.
- Let stand for 1 minute; stir until smooth & transfer mixture to a bowl.
- Cover surface with plastic wrap to prevent skin from forming; cool to room temperature.
- Beat the 1 cup butter in a medium mixing bowl on medium to high speed until fluffy.
- Add cooled baking bar mixture, one-fourth at a time, beating on low speed after each addition until combined.
- Spread between layers and over cake.
- If desired, pipe decorative lines along the edges and down the sides of the cake, using a decorating bag fitted with a star tip.
- Serve immediately or cover and store cake in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
- Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving.
- Just before serving, if desired, top with Caramelized Pistachio Shards.
-
PREPARE CARAMELIZED PISTACHIO SHARDS::
- Preheat oven to 350ºF & line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil; coat foil with nonstick cooking spray.
- Sprinkle 1 tablespoon chopped pistachios onto prepared foil.
- Bake in preheated oven 6 to 8 minutes or until lightly toasted.
- Meanwhile, place 1/3 cup sugar in a heavy 10-inch skille & heat over medium-high heat until sugar begins to melt, shaking skillet occasionally to heat sugar evenly.
- Do not stir.
- When sugar begins to melt, reduce heat to low.
- Cook for 2 minutes more or until sugar is melted and lightly golden, stirring as needed with a wooden spoon.
- Remove pan from heat.
- Stir in 1/2 teaspoon hot water.
- Immediately pour over nuts on hot baking sheet; let cool for 1 minute.
- Using two forks, gently pull caramel mixture as thinly as possible, lifting slightly as you pull.
- Let cool thoroughly on foil.
- Break into pieces; store tightly covered.
- Enjoy!
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
<p>Hello all, thank you for visiting My Page but forgive me for it is a work in progress! :) As I am sure you have noticed I changed my Chef Name to Manami which means love & beauty. ;) Just thought I should get with the program - my geisha & my icon! :) Don't fret, I won't change it again! <br /><br />I am 70 years young and I live in a nursing home, which is out of this world, I am treated like a princess and the world is my oyster! I have a private room and during the season I do taxes for most of the staff, as well as my personal clients that have been following me since I left the business world about 25 years ago. I was rear-ended by a van and it turned my whole world upside down. Why dwell on that? <br /><br />I am an American Jew (from NYC) who moved to Havana, Cuba when I was 2 1/2 years old, lived there until a few days after Castro took over and vamoosed it out of that country as fast as my legs would carry me! I was on a forced hiatus from the UofM, due to illness. <br /><br />From there my sister, mother and I went to NYC to work and my father went to Haiti in Port-Au-Prince, where he and my uncle had purchased some tiny cocoa plantations & a chocolate factory - for the choccolate liquer - to make baking chocolate (the real bitter stuff). We joined my father about 2 months later where I spent 2 of the most carefree & wonderful years of my life! It is the stuff that movies are made of! (A la Grace Kelly - even my clothes were like hers)> </p>
<p>I then continued my studies in upstate NY and hated it because it was too, too cold!:( Went back to NYC to work and see what I wanted to do with my life - I was all of 20 years old and had to drop out of school because of illness and then because of the weather! Yuck - so I got a job in a Textile Buying Office as a receptionist and soon I found myself buying trimmings! Loved it and was very happy with the work I was doing. <br /><br />However, I got an offer from two young guys who had a factory in Cleveland, Ohio, where they made Maternity Clothes and they wanted me to be in charge of the shipping dept, keep inventory and in my spare time - help with the designing!! I couldn't pass it up - the offer sounded so great and the salary was twice what I was making in the NYC. So I went to Cleveland, got married, had both my children and got a divorce 15 years later. <br /><br />Then my children and I moved to South Florida and have been here since 1978, I can't count that far back :) <br /><br />Learned how to do taxes with H&R Block and worked simultaneously as a Supervisor in 2 offices for them for 15 years. Then after the accident everything went spiralling downwards until I could no longer walk alone even with a walker - so the next step was a wheelchair. Stayed at home with a lot of help (nurses, PT therapists) fixed the bathroom so I could bathe myself and fixed the kitchen so I could help warm-up meals (was taught how to cook in rehab) and so forth and so on. <br /><br />However, the fire department had other plans for me, I called them too often to pick me up off the floor - how embarassing! So they gave me a choice - either a home or they would have to call HRS! :( (very sad) <br /><br />It was there, in my home where I was robbed! <img title=Cry src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-cry.gif border=0 alt=Cry /> All my cookbooks (all my Julia Childs Cookbooks, my Settlement Cookbook which had been my mothers - published in 1939 - with all her notes) my mother's cookbooks from Cuba & Haiti, all my handwritten recipes. They also took all my Delft collection, some antiques that I had in the kitchen like my rolling pin, a beautiful old & used wooden bowl, a charcoal-iron that was brought north when my parents left Haiti, it was hand-painted & was gorgeous, as well as all the other things that are too numerous to mention! <br /><br />That proved to be the last straw & from there it was an ALF,<img title=Yell src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-yell.gif border=0 alt=Yell /> which was horrible, and then on to another home where the administrator of that home became the administrator here and voila, here I am. <img title=Smile src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif border=0 alt=Smile /></p>
<p>I have a beautiful large private room with a private bath, furnished to my liking: eclectic! <img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /> My room is large enough to house my office and all the other odds and ends with which I like to surround myself.<br /><br />During tax season, mostly, my room is always full (of course I love it that way)! I have a blanket my daughter bought for me in New Mexico and that is on my bed. You guessed it - that is where everbody sits or on my great grandfather's arm chair which is in great shape. <img title=Smile src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif border=0 alt=Smile /> Update 01/11/2008 that time is here again :) Have started doing taxes already and not just regular taxes but corporations, partnerships and 1040X - ammended returns! Whoopee! I love the feeling I get when this time comes around and I get into gear!!! I love it! :) <br /><br />The head chef, the kitchen supervisor & the dietician enjoy the recipes from Zaar; the ones that I post, as well as, the others. We are in the process of changing the menu right now - so we have been doing a lot of figuring. The administrator is so cute because every once in a while she asks for a recipe and then she gives me a pack of paper so I can print them. <img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /><br /><br />I am president of the resident council and most of the family members come to me to take care of their grievances - this way I do my part - and the staff can take care of the larger problems! It has been working for 10 years - why change if it ain't broke?<img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /></p>
<p>Well, it's time to say hasta luego folks. <img title=Laughing src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-laughing.gif border=0 alt=Laughing /><br /><br /></p>