Light, airy and full of flavor this Vanilla Bean Pistachio Cake is a fun and tasty flavor combination perfect for absolutely any occasion.
So last-minute, my mom called me and asked if I had any plans for baking the next day. I did, but nothing that was in dire need of being made right away, just some stuff that I wanted to try. So I said not really. Well here last-minute she asks me to make my aunt a 70th (sorry Aunt Karen) birthday cake! So obviously since I love cake and I’m the nice daughter that I am I happily obliged.
Well my mom said anything but coconut, so she said to brainstorm some flavors and call her back within the hour. So I had come up with some flavor ideas and I had reverted to trusty old Facebook to ask some of my friends flavor ideas. So I put the ideas all together and gave my mom a call back. The first idea out of my mouth was this Vanilla Bean Pistachio Cake! Well needless to say, I didn’t have to name off any more and she was sold at the first option.
Vanilla bean and pistachios go together so well. Both flavors are light and subtle and don’t overpower each other one bit! Luckily vanilla beans are something that this girl keeps on hand thanks to my amazing friends over at Rodelle! The vanilla beans that I used for this luscious cake are the ever delicious Madagascar vanilla beans, and you guy’s if you’ve never had vanilla beans before, go pick yourself up some of these babies!
So this is actually one of my go-to vanilla cake recipes. It’s super simple and it whips up really nice. I like to switch between vanilla beans, vanilla paste and vanilla extract depending on what type of filing or frosting I was doing. Since I was going with the light flavor of pistachio for this one I figured that vanilla bean would pair super well with it and boy was I right.
I know I probably say this all the time, but this is one of my most favorite cakes to date. No joke. Some of my other absolute favorite cakes is this Banana Cream Cake, Peanut Butter Banana Cake and this Black Forest Cake. But I have so many different cakes on my blog that it’s seriously hard to just pick a handful, so go search “Cake” and you’ll see some of the other amazing flavors that I’ve played around with in the past.
So getting back to this delicious Vanilla Bean Pistachio Cake. So I’m sure you could totally make your own homemade pistachio buttercream using pistachios but I’m just not that dedicated into making my own, kinda too much work for an already kinda simple cake wouldn’t you say? So in this frosting is a packet of pistachio pudding! So easy! Plus, it gives it a nice little green color and the flavor is just right for me.
A little vanilla is added to give it a little more oomph and sweetness, but all in all you probably don’t even need to add that! So if you have actually seen some of my other cakes, this is a new one for me. Usually I don’t texture my cakes at all, but this one I decided to make a change and textured the sides. I love how it turned out. No special equipment needed to do it, all I did was use my offset spatula and pressed against the frosting gently and spun my cake on my turnstile.
So my friends, I urge you to give this Vanilla Bean Pistachio Cake a try, I can’t express how much I love the flavors of this puppy! I think this is my new favorite cake…until next week when I make another and rant and rave about that one too. But no, really…go make this! And if you do make ANY of my recipes head on over to Instagram and tag me or use the hashtag #bakingwithtornadoughalli I’d love to see your creations!
Vanilla Bean Pistachio Cake
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup butter softened
- 1 1/2 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 Rodelle Madagascar vanilla bean
- 1/2 tsp Rodelle vanilla paste or pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup milk
Frosting:
- 1 lb butter
- 1 pkg pistachio pudding 3.4 oz
- 1 tsp Rodelle pure vanilla extract
- 5-6 cups powdered sugar
- 4-6 Tbs milk
- Chopped pistachios optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- In bowl mix together your flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and whisk until combined, set aside.
- In another bowl beat together your butter and sugar until fluffy, add in your eggs 1 at a time until blended
- Mix in your vanilla bean and vanilla paste.
- Alternate adding your dry ingredients and milk into your wet ingredients.
- Place in 2 9" prepared cake pans and bake for about 25-30 minutes or until golden and they spring back.
- Remove from oven and turn onto cooling racks to fully cool.
- Meanwhile to make frosting, in large bowl beat your butter until light and fluffy.
- Blend in pudding and vanilla and then add in your powdered sugar 1 cup at a time.
- Once sugar is added add in your milk slowly until you reach your desired consistency and continue to beat on high for about 5 minutes to fluff up.
- On turnstyle or cake stand place one layer of your cake and then spread about 1 cup of your frosting in the center and spread to about 1/2" from sides.
- Top with second layer of cake and then spread frosting around the top and sides of your cake until covered, reserving about 1 cup of your frosting for decorating.
- To make a textured cake using a offset spatula place gently on the bottom of your cake and press into frosting and spin cake around, repeat in rows until you reach the top of your cake.
- Pipe remaining frosting into large roses on top of cake then sprinkle with pistachios.
Nutrition
Tornadough Alli is not a nutritionist or dietitian, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and nutritional value is important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and values can vary depending on which brands were used.
Cc
I just want to say how good this cake Is! I didn’t change anything. And it fits to 2x 6 inch pan ( 3 inch high). Thank you for sharing this recipe. ❤
Cc
Hi Alli. Thanks for that. I’ll do what you suggested. 3x 6inch pan. 😊
Cc
Thanks Alli. Have you tried baking this with a 6 inch pan? If yes can you please share the measurement? If not, not a big deal…it’ll just be more for me! 😊
Thank you
Tornadough Alli
Hey! I haven’t made it into a 6″ pan but here is some options – I would make it in 3 six inch pans and not reduce it. Or I would halve the recipe and have thinner 6inch layers. You could 1/3 the recipe of course, but that gets tricky and could change the integrity
Cc
Can I freeze this uniced? Thanks.
Tornadough Alli
Absolutely. I usually freeze,a lot of my cakes before serving.
Catherine
For the pistachio pudding pkg, I am completely clueless. Could I use the jello instant pudding pkg or what do you suggest?
Tornadough Alli
Hey Catherine, yes absolutely the jello instant pistachio is what we use. Just use the dry mix so do not prepare the pudding.
Katie
I assume this cake should be left out on the counter until served if I make it just a few hours before? And then no refridgeration even for left overs right?
Tornadough Alli
Hey Katie, yes this can remain on the counter. It won’t spoil or anything. I usually refrigerate all my cakes regardless just because sometimes temperature fluctuations can make the frosting melt. I’ll add that to my notes on the recipe for future reference.
Candice
Would it be possible to make this into a 6″ instead of 9″?
Tornadough Alli
Hi Candice, I’m sure you could unfortunately you would have to cut the measurements down and I don’t know what they would be at this time. I can try and figure them out for you.
FrugalHausfrau
Alli, happy birthday to your Aunt – I bet the whole family loved this gorgeous cake! You’ve outdone yourself!!
Mollie
Madeline
My dad loves Pistachio and Vanilla. Sent him the ingredients for this cake in the mail for his birthday (he lives in Chicago, my sister and I in Texas). We made the cake together on skype and both of our cakes came out great. Thanks for the recipe 🙂
Tornadough Alli
This is seriously the sweetest thing ever. Im so happy you liked the cake and you were able to do this with your dad!! ❤
Michelle
Made it for Easter and it was great! Everything turned out perfect, my family ate it all up. I will definitely make it again. The color was perfect for spring.
Tornadough Alli
I’m so happy it turned out Michelle and that you guys all loved it! It truly is a pretty green!! Thank you so much for leaving a comment and letting me know it turned out!!
Jen
Is there a reason you ise all purpose flour vs cake flour?
Tornadough Alli
I just have always used all-purpose for all my baking, no reason it’s just how I grew up baking.
Kaitlyn
I made this cake for my birthday and it was such a hit, here I am 5 days later making it for my mom. I’m going to try using the flour frosting you suggested in a previous comment. At what point would you add in the pistachio pudding to the frosting? Thanks!
Tornadough Alli
Hi Kaitlyn! I’m so happy you enjoyed it as much as I did! I would stir it in in the end probably for that frosting.
Patti
I have the madagascar powder how can I use that. No bean and ia the powser used as a paste?
Tornadough Alli
Hi Patti! Just submit with the powder for half the amount I have listed. So if it’s 1 tsp do 1/2.
Patt Campbell
Thanks:) so instead of one bean 1/2 t of powder and then make the paste with the powder and extract. Sorry making this for Easter.
Michelle
Is it instant pudding or cook & serve?
Tornadough Alli
Hey Michelle, in reality I don’t think it matters as the pudding isn’t prepared ahead of time. But I used instant 🙂
Michelle
Making it Easter! I’m so excited. 🤓
Jess
Concerns on the frosting… after following your instructions on the frosting, I tried and it was very grainy. Any way your recommend getting rid of the graininess from the pudding?
I tried beating extra long, I really love fluffy frosting, but even still grainy.
Advice would be great!
Thanks
Tornadough Alli
Hi Jess, I’m sorry yours turned out grainy that is unlike this frosting as its always turned out smooth and creamy for me. I would suggest adding more milk and beating beating for about 3 minutes to whip the frosting and see if that helps your issue 🙂
Annette
I have had that problem in the past also. What I discovered is that you need pure CANE sugar. Some powdered sugars are made from beet sugar, however, it is considered “sugar” and won’t be labeled as beet. Hope this helps.
Rashell
As with your frosting, mine was silky with the exception of the sugar granules from the pudding. I think I might try blending the pudding mix with the milk to try to dissolve the sugar prior to adding to the powdered sugar.
Elena walker
For the frosting, do you add the dry pistachio powder, or you prepare it before you add it? I have never made a frosting with any type of pudding. Thank you
Tornadough Alli
Hey Elena! You just add the dry powder right into it, no preparing the pudding ahead of time.
Erin
Hey, thanks for sharing this recipe. As far as the vanilla Bean goes are you grounding that? I see where it mentions adding the beans but nothing about removing it. Maybe this is a silly question, I’m totally not a baker! Thanks again!
Tornadough Alli
Hi Erin, I can totally see how you wouldn’t understand. With Vanilla beans you cut them open and scrape out the beans with a knife and directly add them to your recipe. You don’t use the pod they’re housed in, although it is amazing to place in some sugar to make vanilla sugar to reuse it after the beans are scraped out.
Carrie
Can you make these into cupcakes?
Tornadough Alli
I Carrie, you sure can. It most likely will make 24 usually this amount of batter does. I would bake for around 15-20 minutes and reduce the amount of frosting used. You can use the same amount of pudding but less butter.
Dee
My husband loves pistachio pudding (anything pistachio really), and I’m going to make this for his bday… he will sure be surprised!
Does the powdered sugar make the frosting too sweet? Any ideas for a creamier lighter frosting?
Tornadough Alli
Hi Dee, with any buttercream frosting powdered sugar is always added for flavor. Well for any frosting. You could always use the flour frosting in my Razorback Cake I have on my blog and just add the packet of pudding to that. That’s a really creamy frosting. One that they used in the olden days.
Melissa | Persnickety Plates
It turned out beautiful! I love the little flecks of vanilla =)