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.
Patricia May
Looks delicious! What do you think about a pistachio cake with chocolate buttercream? (My husband’s request)
Tornadough Alli
I think pistachio goes well with anything!
Alok Mishra
wonderful recipe , I tried it and I loved it . thanks
Tornadough Alli
Yay, so happy that you loved it! This is one of our favorites!
Amanda
I made this for Easter Sunday 2018 and have some thoughts on it:
– I really enjoyed the concept of it, the color was perfect for Easter! The actual cake ingredients were really tasty and it had a nice consistency and just the right amount of sweetness to it
– I really was not prepared for how expensive a fresh vanilla bean was and how labor intensive getting the bean extracted would be! Maybe it was my inexperience, but as a non-professional approaching this– it did not work out well and was expensive for the yield. I feel like just the extract or paste would’ve worked
– The color was perfect, but my frosting came out grainy, too. Even when adding milk and whipping it very thoroughly. Maybe it was the brand of pudding mix (Kroger brand), but it just never got that nice buttercream flavor and instead tasted extremely sweet and again, grainy! Next time I’d reconsider cutting back on the 5c of powdered sugar and get a different brand of pudding mix.
Julie
I finally tried something from Pinterest! The cake, is ahhmazing! The frosting is a little grainy. I left the mixer going for about 10 minutes and it was still grainy. I am new to homemade frostings, so I may have not done something correct. I do love the flavor and the color is perfect for our Easter gathering tomorrow. All in all, a lovely recipe!! Thank you for sharing!
Tornadough Alli
I’m so happy you like it. I suppose just using pudding mix as a frosting ingredient does run the risk of it being grainy so it’s possible that’s the cause 🙂
Caity
This cake looks devine. I’m in Australia, has anyone attempted to make in Australia? Is the pistachio pudding jello? Also all purpose flour is this plain or self raising? Really hope i can give it a go.
Tornadough Alli
Jello and pudding here in the states are two different things, the Jello brand itself does make pistachio pudding so if thats what you are wondering than yes, it is the jello. It would be plain flour for the all-purpose and not self raising. I hope this helps!
Julie
Hello I want to make this cake for Easter this year, but I can’t find the pistachio pudding… I am desperate! Help me please, I am in Quebec, Canada
Tornadough Alli
I wish I could help! I don’t know what a good substitute would be for the pudding itself as I’ve never used anything besides it. Do you have Walmart in Canada? Thats usually where I find my pudding.
Sarah
Can you make a day in advance and still be good?
Tornadough Alli
Yes, just refrigerate and I would recommend glazing right before serving.
Teresa
Hi. I substituted the AP flour for GF AP flour and I’m starting to get worried watching these cakes in the oven. They do not look like they have risen at all and they look bumpy and jiggly. Has anyone used GF flour for this recipe before with success?
Karen Gonzalez
Do you have any high altitude directions? Making this for my daughters birthday this weekend and want it to turn out great!
Tornadough Alli
Hi Karen, I’ve never baked for high altitudes but here is a great link to show what needs to be changed https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/high-altitude-baking.html
Michoui
This cake looks so great ! I want to make it for Easter, but I was wondering can I subtitute de vanilla bean with something else ? Like with more vanilla extract ? If so, how much should I use to for the cake batter and the frosting ? And do you think it’s gonna taste as delicious than it is without the bean ?
Tornadough Alli
You can absolutely replace the vanilla bean with 1 tsp vanilla itself! Should taste the same 🙂
Iliana
Hi there.. I don’t have and can find a vainilla bean or paste. With what can i sustitute?
Tornadough Alli
Just regular vanilla is fine to substitute. It’s a 1:1 ratios.
Sab
Can I use less sugar powder for the frosting to make it less sweet???? Or do you have another frosting recipe to keep it fluffy creamy and less sweet? Thank you xo
crystal
Hi there- I’m making this cake for a birthday party this weekend and I can’t wait. Would you recommend chopped pistachios that are salted or unsalted for the garnish? Thanks 🙂
Tornadough Alli
I would unsalted personally but the contrast of the salted would also create a nice flavor contrast!
Victouria W.
Does this recipe for cupcakes as well??
Tornadough Alli
I myself have never made them into cupcakes but I wouldn’t see why it wouldn’t work.
Stacy
I made this for Christmas and my husband’s family loved it! I will try your other frosting mentioned in the comments next time because I found this buttercream a little too sweet for my liking. Great cake, thank you for the wonderful recipe!
Cake-delivery.in
Really nice
Fran
Hi Ali! tried it but it turned out for be about 1 inch thickness per pan. Is that how it should be?
Tornadough Alli
Hi Fran, I’m not sure of the measurements for the thickness but it seems the cake should be a lot taller than 2” total. The cakes themselves each should be closer to 2” each.
Jill Hudson
Hello! I used 1/2 cup less organic sugar, doubled the vanilla extract for the cake batter and baked it in two Fat Daddio’s 6″x3″ spring form pans for 35 mins. The cakes turned out moist and delicious so this is my new “go to” vanilla cake recipe; thank you! My only issue was the chopped pistacio pieces contained in the pudding mix kept clogging my piping tips. Since this became a little frustrating, I turned the cakes into cake pops and melted the frosting to coat. Will definitely make for Christmas!
Jacqueline
I’m going to be making this for a co worker and I’m so excited about these flavors together!!!
Tornadough Alli
These flavors are seriously one of my all time fave combos.
Len Alegado
Hello, I am doing this tonight for a co worker. I do not have the vanilla beans, is it ok to use the Madagascar vanilla paste? How much should I put?
I appreciate it if you could advise, thank you!
Tornadough Alli
Hi Len, I would use about 3 tsp of vanilla paste to sub for the bean 🙂