I love pistachios. I love almonds. And it’s only a matter of time before I incorporated my two favorite nuts into a single cake and the result exceeded my expectations! Full of flavor, nutty, a bit crunchy, dense but moist… And instead of a regular frosting, I opted for icing in this case. A thick, almond-flavored icing. The simplicity of the cake only adds to its appeal. The cake is so pretty it can be served for special occasions and dazzle your guests, or it can be a quick snack and/or breakfast. I chose to bake cupcakes but you can easily bake the batter in a loaf pan if you prefer it that way. In that case, bake for up to 50 minutes.
What I like about this recipe is that the quantities for the dry ingredients can vary depending on what’s available in your pantry. Ideally, you need a total of 2 cups of flour mixture (3/4 cup ground almonds, 3/4 cup ground pistachios and 1/2 cup flour). But, as it turned out, I did not have enough pistachios at the time I wanted to bake the cakes, and I really didn’t feel like going to the grocery store just to purchase that single item. So, I compensated with more ground almonds. The recipe below is the one I made when I didn’t have enough pistachios.
Even though I used less pistachios than almonds, the pistachios’ flavor is strong enough for it to stand out. It also helped that I did not grind the pistachios into a fine flour. Since I like a little bit of crunch, I coarsely ground them so that chunks are in the mix.
Pistachio/ almond cupcakes
Makes approx. 16
ingredients
For the cake:
1/2 cup flour
1 cup ground almonds
1/2 cup coarsely ground pistachios
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
Zest from 1 lemon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
3 tbsp milk
For the icing
1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
3 tbsp heavy cream
1 tsp almond extract
toasted sliced almond for garnish
Directions
Preheat oven at 350 and put cupcake liners in a muffin pan.
In a bowl, sift in the flour and baking powder. Mix in ground almonds, pistachios and salt.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, mix sugar and butter at medium speed, until light and fluffy, 2 minutes.
Add eggs and lemon zest. Mix well until smooth.
Mix in vanilla and almond extracts and milk. If the mixture looks a bit curdled, don’t worry.
With a spatula, fold in the flour mixture until well incorporated.
Scoop batter equally into cupcake liners and bake for 20 to 22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let the cakes rest in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.
While the cakes cool, prepare the icing.
In a bowl, mix together the sifted confectioners’ sugar, cream and almond extract until the mixture is smooth. The result should be thick but pourable.
Pour the icing on the cooled cakes with a spoon, until icing reaches the border of the liner, and decorate with sliced almonds on top.
And that’s it! The whole process did not take over an hour to prepare and that’s what I like about this recipe. You crave something, you make it in no time and then you eat it. Should not be any harder than that.
Little note : it goes without saying but you must wait until the cakes have cooled completely before pouring the icing on top. If the cakes are still warm, the sugar will melt and the icing will lose some of its texture.
Enjoy!
