Pistachio Cake

[Insert nutty joke here.]
I just don't have an appropriate joke to start off this post with. Then again, there's no reason as to why I have to lighten the mood with laughter. Pistachio cake is very serious business. But if you want to know what is funny, it's that I can't trim cakes. Did I plan on making tiny little cakelettes? No. I wanted to make a loaf-sized cake glazed in chocolate and cut into pieces like a pound cake. It turns out that cutting three identical straight edged layers was beyond my talent. So I kept trimming and trimming until what became tiny towers of cake.

Pistachio Cake
(Makes enough to fill one loaf pan and a 8 x 8 square pan)

3/4 cups of shelled pistachio nuts
1 1/3 cup of granulated sugar
2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 sticks of unsalted butter
1/2 cup of milk
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
5 eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 350F and spread the shelled pistachio nuts on a baking pan. Toast in the oven for 7-9 minutes. When finished, let it cool completely.
2. Line the bottom of your cake pans with parchment paper.
3. Using food processor or blender with a chopping blade, grind the toasted pistachio until it becomes a flour.
4. In a mixing bowl, combine the pistachio flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. Give it a good whisk, about 30 seconds.
5. Add in the milk, vanilla extract, and eggs. Mix until combined and the batter is nice and smooth.
6. Divide the batter into your parchment-lined baking pans and bake for about 30-40 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean from the center.
7. Peel off the parchment paper and allow the cakes to cool on wire racks.

When you're ready to assemble the cake (cakes in my case), trim them to size. Spread raspberry jam (or strawberry jam, but the tartness of the raspberry is just fantastic here) on the top of the cake. Sandwich the jam with another cake layer.

Using a double boiler, make chocolate ganache (chocolate chips and heavy cream) to glaze the cakes. A spatula helps spread the chocolate over the edges. This part gets a little messy. Don't worry if they don't look perfect. I'm not sure who would resist a chocolate covered pistachio cake.

Chop up some pistachios and crumble on top as decoration.

Let the glaze cool and set.

Or just eat it. Why wait? It makes a lovely breakfast, healthy in my opinion! The cake itself isn't too sweet (hence the chocolate) and the raspberry jam really brightens up the flavours.

Disclaimer: We received product samples from Diamond of California. The shelled pistachios are new to their line and we also received chopped walnuts and chopped pecans. There was no requirement to produce a positive review of their products. All opinions are our own.

Baked NYC

Last week, Howard and I went to visit New York for some sightseeing, food, and shopping. I'm warning you now, I will probably be doing a post everyday this week. I need to SHARE.

We had such a good time walking around the city and eating. We hope that you'll get to visit some of these spots one day!

First up, we visited Baked on Sunday, August 15th:

Baked NYC
359 Van Brunt Street
Brooklyn, New York 11231
(718) 222-0345

They're on facebook and twitter too!

Baked. With all your accolades and press, we just had to try it for ourselves. Howard was skeptical. I was worried walking in because I had such high expectations.

Now that we have visited, what can we say? We're impressed. I am so happy that I have their cookbook and I'm looking forward to the next one (also check out the trailer). But first, let's look around the bakery:

Jars full of brownies! Your experience isn't complete unless you reach in and try one.

Busy, busy! But don't worry, they have excellent customer service. I spent quite some time deciding on which one cupcake to get. Then added another cupcake. Then Howard picked a treat. Finally, I knew I couldn't leave without trying the brownie. Yet, she was patience as we kept adding last minute picks. She didn't even rush us (and luckily there wasn't a line behind me yet). I think she understood that we were making some serious decisions.

Mmmm look at the grasshopper bars. Are those lemon lime bars?

Over on the wall is their little gift shop. I just love the look of their boxed candies! They sell malted milk balls that top their famous Malted Cake.

After browsing, Howard and I bought a few treats to go:

The classic whoopie pie! Chocolate and vanilla, this goes great with a glass of milk.

One big bite from Howard. He said it was so good, so I took the next bite, and then he finished it! It was kind of sad when there was no more whoopie pie.

Our pistachio cupcake, vanilla base with pistachio sprinkled on top of the frosting.

I also wanted to try their chocolate frosting, so I got the chocolate and vanilla cupcake. Now that I thought about it, I should have went full chocolate since the pistachio had a vanilla base.

I was given the honour of first bite. I ate the chocolate and vanilla cupcake first. I was jumping up and down to wave Howard over - he went to get a drink. I told him that he had to try the cupcake, especially the frosting. I was going to save the pistachio for later, but didn't. We ate the cupcakes back-to-back because of the frosting.

Seriously, the frosting is just amazing. It is light and fluffy and isn't too sweet.

Howard thinks it is the best frosting he's ever tried yet!!!

Finally, the treat that received raves from Oprah and Food Network, the sweet and salty brownie! Nom nom nom!

Another sure sign that we couldn't stop? Well, we generally try 1 or 2 items from each bakery we visit. Here, we found ourselves getting 4 delicious items! So hats off to Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. Please visit Toronto for your next book tour?