Saturday, March 10, 2012

Weekend Cooking...Pistachio Cake

Wait a second, let me pull my soapbox over here for a minute or two.

OK, I am a little sensitive about Saint Patrick's Day.
I don't like the jokes, actually often ethically offensive jokes, about the Irish. Even if someone who is "Irish' tells it.
To me it is a religious day, a celebration of the patron saint of Ireland, the place of my father's birth and the birthplace of all my ancestors.
So to make it a 'silly' day, with drunkenness, and leprechauns and Four Leaf Clovers (Shamrocks, folks, have three leaves, like the Trinity) just grates on me something fierce.

But the worst of it all must be green beer!
Beer should not be green! It is an offense against one of the greatest, most ancient, beverages of all time. Do not dye your beer! Please.

 
But now cake...cake can be green.
So when the Niece made this cake a few weeks ago, and it was quite tasty, I thought..Saint Patrick's Day!!
A simple quick cake, using a box cake and a box of pistachio pudding. But while the cake was quite good, and a lovely shade of green due to a little dye, it was lacking in pistachio taste. So in order to up the pistachio flavor, I add some...pistachios!
I would have added some pistachio extract too, if I could have found it. You can buy it online..but that seemed a little extreme. Put if you have some, I would certainly replace the almond extract with it.
I also decreased the food color a bit from the original recipe when I made it, which I think was a mistake. If you are going green, go green!

It is a nice moist cake, very tasty. And Green!!

Pistachio Bundt Cake

Ingredients
1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
1 (3.4 ounce) package instant pistachio pudding mix
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
7 drops green food coloring
1 cup chopped pistachios, 3/4 for batter and 1/4 to top cake


Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 10 inch tube pan.
In a large bowl mix together cake mix and pudding mix. Make a well in the center and pour in eggs, water, oil, almond extract and green food coloring. Blend ingredients, then beat for 2 minutes at medium speed.
Pour into prepared 10 inch tube pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 50 to 55 minutes, or until cake springs back when lightly pressed. Cool in pan 15 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.


Meanwhile, make a glaze of confectionery sugar and a little milk and a tiny dash of vanilla. You could, id desired, make the icing green also, with a couple of drops of green dye. As soon as you pour the glaze over the cool cake, sprinkle with chopped pistachios and let harden a bit.

 




This is my contribution this to this week's Weekend Cooking.
"Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend."
Be sure to check out the other entries this week. As always, hosted by Beth Fish Reads.


22 comments:

  1. Love, love, love pistachios and this cake looks awesome. And easy.

    What's with green beer anyway? Never understood that. At.All.

    You're at the flower show??? Can't wait to see the photos. :)

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  2. Cake looks awesome! Not a fan of green beer, or the green bagels for that matter.

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  3. I am at the Flower Show as I send this from my iPad. Came yesterday and stayed overnight..because you know I live an hour away..but there was a reason...and yes I have a few photos....

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  4. Catie....This is my daughter's favorite cake. My mom use to make it. When I make it, I used (2) pistachio instant puddings and 5 eggs. It is a yummy recipe. (I gained wait thinking about the calories).

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  5. of course I meant "Gained weight - not wait" LOL

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  6. Seriously, how often would you use pistachio extract? Your idea of putting them in the mix was just right. It looks yummy too with the nuts and glaze on top.

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  7. Perfect! I am making this for the kids for St. Patrick's Day. And, I agree with you on the green beer...it doesn't even TASTE right for some reason, which is probably psychological...

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  8. I love pistachios!!! Your cake looks amazing! I'm sipping some coffee right now.. it would be a perfect mid morning snack. *reaches across the internet for a sliver* Haha!

    If you wanted to try to get even more pistachio flavor into your cake, you could try making a nut milk with pistachios and the 1 1/2 cups of water. There's really easy nut milk instructions HERE that I've been wanting to try.

    Hope you're having fun at the flower show!

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  9. I love pistachios too! I will definitely make this cake soon! thanks for the recipe! Here is my St. Pat's day tribute recipe too for Irish Boxty

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  10. I'm Irish too, and every year I make corned beef and cabbage, mashed potatoes with scallions and Cooking Light's Irish Bread Pudding with Caramel Whiskey Sauce. I love pistachios and this is a recipe I will bookmark and try. Thanks for sharing!

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  11. Must check out that bread pudding recipe...
    And Christine, that is an excellent idea. I will try that!

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  12. Yum! This looks totally delish and very doable.

    I'm not a fan of green beer or silly jokes, but I don't mind leprechauns at all, since I'm married to one, and quite enjoy all my Irish in-laws :).

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  13. I've heard that it is a much bigger deal in the US than in Ireland. Mostly I think it is an excuse to get as drunk as possible. :<)

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  14. Yum love pistachios! I need a bundt pan!

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  15. Your pistachio cake looks yummy. Hope the flower show is fun.

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  16. I have to side with you on that: beer is not supposed to be green! Why not all make up and have a slice of lovely green, pistachio (yum!!) cake? :)

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  17. No to the green beer here too! Your cake looks like a lovely way to go green for St Patrick's Day!

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  18. I had completely forgotten about this cake -- it is one of my favorites, and I don't often make cakes. In our family however, we amplified the pistachio flavor by mixing up another batch of the pudding and combining it with some Cool Whip (or whipped cream) then using it for frosting instead of the glaze. A sprinkling of the chopped nuts on the top completed the concoction. I'm thinking I 'll make one in honor of the great bishop.

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  19. i wish i could try some to compare the pistachio flavors!

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  20. i am soo making this!! thank you very much for this recipe...i wanted something a little different an this is it.
    thanks!

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  21. A favorite bakery makes pistachio muffins; I wonder if I can replicate the flavor with this recipe. And, yes ... if you're going green, GO GREEN!

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  22. Love this cake my beezie game me the recipe, and it is so yummy in my tummy!

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