French pistachio cake is a European style dessert with an incredibly moist light texture and a fragrant vanilla pistachio flavor.
This French pistachio cake is a revelation! I’m super excited to share it with you. It’s a simple but distinctive dessert, which is exactly the kind of recipe I love to feature here. The texture is so light and fluffy ~ you’ll feel it the minute your fork hits the cake. This is so good I’m already planning variations. It’s definitely a new star in my cake collection.
The recipe is lightly adapted from Gateau: The Surprising Simplicity of French Cakes. And because it’s a French recipe it’s a little different from most US cakes, but maybe not in the way you thought. Not all French baking is fancy and elaborate ~ the flip side of elaborate French baking is straightforward preparation methods, natural flavors, and a rustic presentation. This one layer pistachio cake is a perfect example of that minimal baking style.
But don’t let the simplicity fool you, this is one of the best cakes I’ve ever made.
French pistachio cake ingredients
Notice there is no butter or oil in this cake, the richness comes from heavy cream. You’re going to love the effect that has on this cake!
- pistachios
- raw pistachios are called for, but they can be hard to find. I’ve used roasted pistachios with success.
- sugar
- eggs
- flour
- cream
- baking powder and salt
- vanilla bean paste
- you’ve heard me sing the praises of this before, it’s the perfect compromise between (overpriced) vanilla beans and extract. Nielsen-Massey is the brand I use and prefer.
the pan
For this cake I use a 9″ springform pan. This is important for two reasons:
- The pan has extra high sides to hold the batter for this tall cake. Do not try to use a regular 9″ cake pan, it will not have enough volume to hold this cake.
- The springform pan allows you to release the cake without having to flip it out for slicing and serving.
an unusual prep method for pistachio cake
- Chop your pistachios. I do this in my food processor, pulsing until they are evenly ground but not reduced to a meal.
- Whip the cream to firm peaks.
- Whisk eggs, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy (I do this in my stand mixer.)
- Fold in the dry ingredients, then the nuts.
- Gently fold the cream into the batter until there are no streaks left. Do this gently but thoroughly so you don’t deflate the air you’ve whipped into the cream.
- Turn into a prepared springform pan and bake.
The result is a tall cake with an even rise and a unique fluffy texture!
Serving your pistachio cake
This cake slices beautifully, and makes an elegant presentation whether you’re serving it in the morning for breakfast or brunch, at tea time, or after dinner. All it needs is a dusting of powdered sugar to brighten the top. I scatter a few more chopped pistachios over the surface. The author says:
Don’t even think of serving this with more cream ~ it would be too much. A fork is all that’s needed.
This type of single layer coffeecake/tea cake is a specialty of mine here in the Great Island kitchen. Here are just a few more examples to try:
- Authentic Irish Apple Cake
- Butter Pecan Peach Cake
- Swedish Visiting Cake
- Mixed Berry Cake
- Easy Rhubarb Cake
- Raspberry Coffee Cake
- Blueberry Lemon Breakfast Cake
- Almond Fig Cake
- Cardamom Crumb Cake
- Blackberry Sour Cream Coffee Cake
See all my cake recipes here
French Pistachio Cake
Equipment
- 9" springform pan
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup shelled pistachios, plus extra for topping, raw is preferred but you can use roasted.
- 2 cups heavy cream, cold
- 1 1/2 cups (minus one tablespoon) all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 3 large eggs
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 1 Tbsp vanilla paste
- powdered sugar for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Butter and flour your 9" springform pan.
- Finely chop your pistachios. I do this in my food processor, pulsing until they are finely ground but not reduced to a meal. Set aside.
- Whip the cold cream until it forms firm peaks. Refrigerate.
- Whisk together your flour, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
- Whisk eggs, sugar, and vanilla until really light and fluffy (I do this in my stand mixer.) Fold in the flour mixture, and the pistachios.
- Gently fold the cream into the batter until there are no streaks left. Do this gently but thoroughly so you don't deflate the air you've whipped into the cream. Turn into your prepared pan and spread out evenly.
- Bake for 50-60 minutes or until puffed and golden on top. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out without wet batter on it ~ but moist crumbs are fine. FYI my cake took closer to 60 minutes but your oven may bake differently.
- Let the cake cool for ten minutes, then release from the pan. Transfer to a cake stand or serving plate and dust with powdered sugar. Top with more crushed pistachios.
- The cake is wonderful warm or at room temperature. Store on the counter under a cake dome or loosely tented with foil. It will keep for several days.
I subbed Better Batter all purpose gluten free flour 1:1 to make this and it turned out wonderfully! It was a hit and I’ve been told I need to make it for every holiday going forward lol. No one could even tell it was gluten free. It also sank in the middle for me almost immediately while cooling. I baked for 54 minutes but did open the oven to check it at 50. Next time I will try 54 minutes before opening the oven and crack the oven when done for a slower cooling process like I do with cheesecake.
Nice recipe but when cake came out of oven, after 50mins, it was beautifully risen, and golden brown. I could tell by touch that it was very light and fluffy. However, after sitting on bench for a couple of hours, it did deflate in the middle and whist it was still delicious, it was more dense. Disappointed it had lost its airiness and I’d love to know how to prevent this. It was definitely fully cooked when I took it out
Thanks so much for the feedback, I’m glad you enjoyed the flavor! This cake should stay tall and airy. A few things that can cause a cake to deflate like that: overmixing the batter (which can deflate the whipped eggs), opening the oven door too early, or even just a slightly too-cool oven. If it was beautifully risen and light at first, I wonder if it cooled too quickly, which can sometimes cause a gentle collapse. Try letting it cool more gradually next time by cracking the oven door for a few minutes before bringing it to the counter. I hope you’ll give it another go ~ I really love this one, too!
Great recipe, makes a delicious cake
I loved it! It came out very airy, it has this japanese cheesecake texture but then with more open crumb. The bottom part is a bit more ‘wet’ so I probably need to tweak it. We don’t sell heavy cream in the Netherlands so I had to mix whipped cream with mascarpone to get the right consistency, also I reduced sugar, but perhaps this is what went wrong. On the second day, the cake lost its ‘fluffy and airy’ texture unfortunately, but nevertheless it was still very tasty!
I saw this recipe in Gateau by Aleksandra Crapanzano as well. I love the flavor and light texture, but I had the same issue as a couple of the other reviews – fell in towards the middle, with a compressed layer towards the bottom. The cake was fully baked, and quite brown. Perhaps because I used the convection setting (25 degrees lower than the bake setting which I use for most of my cakes)? Please advise which setting you recommend. Thank you
Hi Arlene, I don’t bake in a convection oven so I can’t say for sure. As you say, convection oven’s bake faster and hotter, so reduce temp by 25 degrees and watch baking time. If your oven has a fan setting set it to low, so the cake can bake more evenly. I think because this cake is so tall and fluffy the convection setting may not be the best for it.
I made this cake yesterday for company. It is delicious and I would definitely make it again. Because I can’t help myself, I did make some changes – I added orange zest from a small orange; I mixed 1 TBSP of the flour with the nuts before adding them to batter; and I sifted the flour directly into the batter before folding it in. I used honey roasted pistachios (because that’s what I had on hand) – and since they were lightly salted I reduced the salt in the cake by half.
The cake baked beautifully and evenly to the edge of the springform. Took about 53 minutes. Once out of the oven the cake did uniformly sink as it cooled. It was a uniform texture throughout. I did find that at the 50 minute mark the center of the cake was still not fully baked and at 52 minute mark I had wet crumbs on the test skewer and at 53 minutes skewer was clean.
Update:
By the second day, the cake was much denser and wetter on the bottom- much like what others have described. I refrigerated a couple of pieces from day 2 to try on day 3 and they were just ok. I’d absolutely make this cake again but I do think it’s best served room temperature the day it’s made.
That’s strange, I haven’t had that experience with this cake at all. I wonder if yours was a bit underbaked.
So an interesting tidbit about this recipe. Since I am certain underbaking wasn’t the cause of the texture change, I went back to the cited source recipe for clues. In the source recipe notes it mentions that refrigeration changes the texture of the cake. I’m pretty sure that explains it- lol.
I think most any cake changes texture in the fridge, so this makes sense.