Pistachio Cake and Cherry Whipped Cream

I’m all about a simple, easy, single-layer cake in the summer. Who needs all the stacking and layering, and trying to keep frosting at the right temp in your hot house right now, amirite? This is a super simple, super tasty, summer cake. Plus, if you’ve never tried a traditional sponge cake, now’s the time!

This cake is filled with finely chopped pistachios, and topped with a cherry-swirled-whipped cream that I’m obsessed with. Let’s get to it!

How to Make Pistachio Cake

This is a pretty simple sponge cake recipe- it’s based on my vanilla sponge cake recipe, but we’re folding in some finely chopped pistachios for flavor. It starts with eggs, sugar, salt, and vanilla extract. This is best done with a stand mixer, and we’re going to whip these ingredients into a super fluffy, pale, thick mixture that is more than doubled in size.

This recipe uses a little bit of instant vanilla pudding mix- it’s optional, but I think it makes the cake a bit more moist, and adds a little more flavor. I always keep some instant vanilla pudding mix in a jar in my pantry because it’s an excellent stabilizer for whipped cream, and you’ll notice I use it here for that as well!

The next few steps are super important- you have to be extremely gentle with your cake batter after the eggs have been beaten to make sure they don’t deflate- it’s definitely a place for patience! We are sifting half of the cake flour and instant pudding mix into the batter, and gently folding until there are no streaks of dry flour left. Then, repeat with the remaining flour, and finally, add in the pistachios and fold in.

Make sure those pistachios are chopped really finely- I actually did this in a small food processor to get them finely and evenly chopped- you want them to almost resemble a rough nut flour, which will take some time by hand.

Gently pour your batter into a greased, parchment lined cake pan, and bake for about 30-35 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. The cake may dome a little while it bakes, but as it cools it typically will flatten the top out.

For the whipped cream, it comes together really easily. I’m using cherry jam for mine, but you can use any fruit jam that you prefer here. Basically we are just whipping up the heavy cream, sugar, and instant vanilla pudding mix until it’s got stiff peaks. Then, dollop in some of the jam, and fold it in, leaving swirls of jam running throughout.

Pile it high on the cake, and enjoy!

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Pistachio Cake and Cherry Whipped Cream

Ingredients

For the pistachio sponge cake:

• 5 eggs
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 1/4 cups cake flour
• 2 tbs. instant vanilla pudding mix
• 1/3 cup finely chopped or ground pistachios

For the cherry whipped cream:

• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 3 tbs. sugar
• 2 tbs. instant vanilla pudding mix
• 1/4 cup cherry jam (or jam of your choice)

Instructions

For the pistachio sponge cake:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and generously grease an 8-inch cake pan, and line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper. Set aside.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the eggs, sugar, salt, and vanilla extract. Using the whisk attachment, beat the mixture for 8-10 minutes, until it is fluffy, pale, thick, and has more than doubled in size.

3. Sift about half of the cake flour, along with the instant pudding mix, into the beaten eggs and fold it in very gently. This will take a few minutes if you are being extremely gently, which you should be! Then, repeat with the remaining flour mixture. Finally, add in your very finely chopped pistachios and fold together.

4. Pour the batter into your prepared pan, and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. It should be golden brown on top! Cool completely before adding the whipped cream.

For the cherry whipped cream:

1. In a medium bowl, beat together the heavy cream, sugar, and instant vanilla pudding mix until it has reached stiff peaks. You want to go all the way to stiff peaks because the jam will soften it a bit.

2. Dollop jam onto the whipped cream, and fold it in, leaving streaks of jam running throughout the mixture. Top the cake with a tall pile of whipped cream, slice, and enjoy!

Dough-Eyed

Hello and welcome! My name is Nicole, and Dough-eyed is a food blog for people who want to bake for their family and friends in high-altitude areas. Think of me as a friendly voice there with you in the kitchen, here to give you confidence when you’re baking, and to help you with the struggles of baking at high-altitude. Come back every week for new recipes, tips, and advice on high-altitude baking!