A high altitude chocolate pistachio cake, made with moist chocolate cake studded with chopped pistachios, fluffy chocolate buttercream, and covered in salted pistachios. This salty sweet chocolate cake with pistachios is the perfect combination of soft cake and creamy chocolate with a nutty crunch.
You might also love these recipes for lemon pistachio tea cake, pistachio coconut cake, and strawberry lemon pistachio cake.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Soft and Crunchy. This chocolate pistachio cake combines the best textures of soft, fluffy chocolate cake with crunchy, nutty pistachios.
Salty and Sweet. The best desserts have a hint of salt in them, and the extra salt in the salted pistachios really brings out the flavor of the chocolate.
High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- Cocoa Powder. For all of my chocolate cakes, I always use a good quality Dutch processed cocoa powder (not natural cocoa powder). This will give your cake a rich flavor, as well as affects the way the cake rises.
- Pistachios. You can buy shelled or unshelled pistachios, but to keep things easy, I used salted, shelled pistachios for my cake.
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Lightly spray the bottoms of two or three 8-inch round cake pans with non-stick baking spray. If making half the recipe, you can use two or three 6-inch cake pans. For today’s photographed cake, I made half the recipe, baked in two 6-inch cake pans.
- Finely chop the pistachios with a small food processor or Ninja. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt and pistachios.
- Separately, whisk together the eggs, milk, sour cream, oil and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and whisk until combined, about 15 seconds.
- Divide the batter between the pans. Bake on the center oven rack for about 22-28 minutes (for 3 pans) or 28-32 minutes (for 2 pans), until the tops of the cakes spring back when lightly touched, or a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Set the pans on a cooling rack, cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel, and cool completely before frosting.
Buttercream
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the butter on medium speed for 1 minute until smooth.
- With the mixer on low, gradually add the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, meringue powder and salt, mixing to combine.
- Add the vanilla, and increase the speed to medium (#4-6 on a Kitchen Aid mixer); whip for 4-5 minutes until very light and fluffy, scraping the bowl down occasionally, and only adding the milk if needed for desired consistency. Turn the speed down to “stir” and mix for 2 minutes to eliminate big air bubbles.
- Remove the cooled cakes from the pans. Place one cake layer on a cake board, and frost with a layer of buttercream. Sprinkle with some of the chopped pistachios. Repeat stacking and filling the cake layers, then frost all over with the buttercream.
- Press the chopped pistachios all over the cake. If you have any extra buttercream leftover, fit a piping bag with tip 1M, fill with the buttercream, and pipe a few swirls on top of the cake. Decorate with chocolate macarons.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common questions with cake making, so that you can be successful in your own baking! I also suggest reading these comprehensive posts on making Perfect American Buttercream, How to Stack, Fill, Crumb Coat and Frost Layer Cakes and How to Use Piping Bags.
Frequently Asked Questions
Leftover cake should be stored in an airtight container or cake carrier for 3 days.
Although I do have a recipe on my site for chocolate macarons, I bought these at Costco.
You Might Also Like
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Did you love today’s recipe? Please rate the recipe and let me know in the comments what you thought! Also, be sure to follow Curly Girl Kitchen on Instagram, and tag me when you try one of my recipes so I can see all your delicious creations!
High Altitude Chocolate Pistachio Cake
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment
- 8-inch cake pans (2 or 3 pans)
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
- ¾ cup unsweetened, Dutch-processed cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ½ cup shelled salted pistachios, finely chopped
- 4 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup whole milk, room temperature
- 1 cup sour cream, room temperature
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
Buttercream
- 2 cups unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 cup unsweetened, Dutch-processed cocoa powder, sifted to break up lumps
- 1 tbsp meringue powder, optional
- ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2-4 tbsp milk, if needed
- ½ cup shelled salted pistachios, finely chopped
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Lightly spray the bottoms of two or three 8-inch round cake pans with non-stick baking spray. If making half the recipe, you can use two or three 6-inch cake pans. For today's photographed cake, I made half the recipe, baked in two 6-inch cake pans.
- Finely chop the pistachios with a small food processor or Ninja. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt and pistachios.
- Separately, whisk together the eggs, milk, sour cream, oil and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and whisk until combined, about 15 seconds.
- Divide the batter between the pans. Bake on the center oven rack for about 22-28 minutes (for 3 pans) or 28-32 minutes (for 2 pans), until the tops of the cakes spring back when lightly touched, or a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Set the pans on a cooling rack, cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel, and cool completely before frosting.
Buttercream
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the butter on medium speed for 1 minute until smooth.
- With the mixer on low, gradually add the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, meringue powder and salt, mixing to combine.
- Add the vanilla, and increase the speed to medium (#4-6 on a Kitchen Aid mixer); whip for 4-5 minutes until very light and fluffy, scraping the bowl down occasionally, and only adding the milk if needed for desired consistency. Turn the speed down to "stir" and mix for 2 minutes to eliminate big air bubbles.
- Remove the cooled cakes from the pans. Place one cake layer on a cake board, and frost with a layer of buttercream. Sprinkle with some of the chopped pistachios. Repeat stacking and filling the cake layers, then frost all over with the buttercream.
- Press the chopped pistachios all over the cake. If you have any extra buttercream leftover, fit a piping bag with tip 1M, fill with the buttercream, and pipe a few swirls on top of the cake. Decorate with chocolate macarons.
My husband really has quite an affinity for pistachios. since it’s nearly been a month past the holidays, I naturally, I had to make this cake. My goodness, but it is so moist, with that wonderful taste and crunch that pistachios offer to stand up to the sinfully richness of the chocolate. Really a lovely recipe, Heather. Thanks so much!