Hi there!

Surprised to see me here? I did it! I finally bought my own website! I still can’t believe it. For many food bloggers, this is probably the first step they’d take. I mean, having your own website sounds pretty basic, I know I know. But in the past how many ever years of me ‘kinda blogging’, I never took the leap to go full on. This is it. I have done it and I’m over the moon about it! This finally feels so real.

I wasn’t sure if I should share the recipe on my old wordpress blog or should I just start posting here, but I guess, you gotta start somewhere right? Okay, enough of me talking, let’s talk cake! To put it in a nutshell: this pistachio pound cake is one of the simplest and the most comforting cake you’ll ever eat. A no-fuss recipe, that is quick to put together. Classic pound cake undergoes a makeover and is twice as delicious now! You get the gist? So, let’s address this pound cake situation.

What is a pound cake?

Well, I’m glad you asked. Simply put, a pound cake is a cake that traditionally has a pound of butter, sugar, eggs and flour each. You see the simplicity? While this is delicious, it is quite heavy and can be dry to eat. Not my kinda cake, you see. So, we have given it a makeover and made it sorta light, sorta moist and still totally delicious! Plus the additions of those pistachios really take it up a notch! Perfect with a cup of tea or your old mate joe. Or, you could totally dress it up in some cream and jam, and you’ve got yourself a winner winner! Now we’re talking.

And because I liked to nerd out, here’s a few tips to make sure your cake turns out EXACTLY like mine (or better! I won’t be jealous… or maybe I will but I’ll get over it. I’m good):

• First things first, room temperature is your friend. You want your ingredients at room temp for a good emulsification, especially butter and eggs.

• Make sure you cream that butter and sugar! A very crucial step in this cake because we are incorporating air into our batter at this stage. So we wanna get it really nice and fluffy. Plus, we are also dissolving our sugar which helps to keep the cake moist.

• Emulsify them eggs! This is such a common mistake people make. They don’t emulsify the eggs into the batter. This is important for two reasons: we’re incorporating air into our batter and also forming a strong base for our cake structure.

• Do not overmix your flour. Mix your flour low and slow until it’s just incorporated. We’re not making bread, we don’t want those gluten strands to start forming.

• Lastly, know your oven. This is a tough one if you’re just starting out. In which case, the best bet is to always bake your cakes on the middle racks.

If you want to know more about the science behind cakes, you can watch the full IGTV video here. Enjoy! x

Recipe

Serves: 6

Ingredients

For the pistachio pound cake:

• 100 g unsalted butter, at room temperature

• 25 g vegetable or light olive oil

• 25 g sour cream

• 125 g castor sugar

• 125 g eggs, at room temperature (about 3 eggs)

• 125 g plain flour

• 3/4 tsp baking powder

• zest of 1/4 lemon

• 50 g pistachios, chopped

For the sugar syrup:

• 40 g castor sugar

• 40 g water

Assembly toppings (optional but recommended)

• 125 g whipped cream

• fresh strawberries

• raspberry/ strawberry jam

• roasted pistachios, chopped

Method

For the pistachio pound cake:

• Preheat oven to 170 C (fan forced) or 180 C (conventional oven).

• Grease a 20 cm loaf tin with butter and line with parchment/baking paper. Alternatively, you can grease with butter and dust flour to prepare your tin.

• Sift the plain flour and baking powder together in a bowl. Keep aside.

• In the bowl of your stand mixer, using a paddle attachment, beat the butter and oil together for 2 mins or until smooth. You can also do this in a hand-held beater.

• Add the castor sugar to the butter and beat until pale in colour and fluffy (approx. 5 mins). Scrape down the sides of the bowl as you go.

• Add the eggs one at a time, let the first egg combine before adding another one. Beat until well emulsified and the batter is fluffy again. It might look split in the beginning but it will more or less come together.

• Once the egg is well emulsified, reduce the speed to low and add in your sifted dry ingredients, lemon zest and chopped pistachios. Mix until just combined.

• Lastly, add the sour cream and mix until combined. It will be a thick batter.

• Pour the batter into the prepared tin and even out the top using a spoon or a palette knife. Bake for 40-45 mins or until a wooden skewer inserted comes out clean.

For the sugar syrup:

• While the cake is baking, prepare your sugar syrup.

• In a small saucepan, heat the sugar and water together until the sugar has completely dissolved. Keep aside.

• Once the cake comes out the oven, poke holes all over the cake using a wooden skewer. Pour the warm sugar syrup over the cake and let it cool down completely before un-moulding.

Assembly:

• Once the cake has cooled down completely, spread a generous layer of whipped cream.

• Garnish with fresh strawberries, raspberry jam and roasted pistachios. Bon appetite!

If you enjoyed that and tried it at home, please tag me at @myyummyspatula on instagram so that I can see all your bakes! For more BTS stories, updates and fun, you can follow long here: