These little pistachio and cherry cakes took a lot of work, whilst the finished recipe is very simple, it took three attempts to get them right. I wasn’t very impressed by the number of failed attempts because pistachios are really expensive, but at the same time I refused to be beaten by a cake! I knew these would be delicious once I managed to perfect the recipe.
The first attempt I made a layer cake, but the cake was too moist to withstand the icing. The icing I made was a huge failure, it looked like and had the consistency of wallpaper paste. The second attempt, I thought I’d make individual cakes, using mini cake rings. I underestimated how much the cake would rise, the batter spilled over the sides and the cakes were a failure.
My final attempt thankfully worked, because I don’t think any of my local shops could keep up with the supply of pistachios I needed!
The one part of these cakes that was easy though, was the jam. I made a cherry jam for this cake, but there are so many other flavours that would work well, like raspberry or blueberry. The beauty of the recipe is that you can keep the quantities of puree the same and use almost any fruit you want.
Pistachio and Cherry Cakes
Ingredients
- ***Cherry Confiture***
- 150 g Cherry Puree
- 50 g Caster Sugar
- 10 g Pectin
- 5 ml Lemon Juice
- ***Pistachio Cake***
- 175 g Unsalted Butter softened, plus extra for greasing
- 175 g Caster Sugar
- 2 Large Eggs
- 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
- 2 Tbsp Milk
- 140 g Pistachios ground
- 75 g Plain Flour sifted
- 1 Tsp Baking Powder
- ***Cream Cheese Icing***
- 100 g Unsalted butter at room temperature
- 90 g Icing sugar sifted
- 1/2 Tsp Vanilla extract
- 250 g Full-fat cream cheese
Instructions
- First make the cherry confiture, put the cherry puree in a saucepan and bring it to the boil.
- Mix the pectin with the sugar and add it to the puree, cook until the mixture reaches 104C. Add the lemon juice and cook for a few more minutes. Pour the jam into a bowl and leave it to cool.
- Grease and line the base of a 20cm square cake tin and preheat the oven to 160C fan/180C/Gas 4.
- To make the pistachio cakes, combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating between the addition of each egg. The mixture will become sloppy, but don't worry. Add the pistachios, flour and baking powder and beat until fully combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 35mins or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin.
- Make the icing by whisking the butter in a mixer, or with an electric whisk, until very pale and fluffy. Add the icing sugar and vanilla extract and whisk for a couple of minutes, then add the cream cheese and whisk briefly until smooth.
- Spread the cooled cake with a layer of cherry confiture and then top with a layer of the cream cheese icing. Trim the cake and cut it into 8 portions.
- You can leave the cakes as they are, or top them with cherries or pistachios.
If you want to have a go at making this cake yourself, you’ll need some of your own fruit puree. I have teamed up with Funkin Cocktails to give away a bundle of fruit purees, a cocktail shaker and stirrer, that is worth over £80.00.
Thanks for reading.
Angela
Jodie Dodd
Omg, I’m so far behind again! These little cakes look so good but sadly I don’t like pistachios. Although I could eat a whole bowl of that frosting! 🙂 I’m extremely impressed with how nicely you’ve cut those cherries in half, that had to take forever! xx
PatisserieMakesPerfect
You can change these to a different nut and I think it would work. Thank you for appreciating my cherry slicing skills! x
Angela Webster
We had successfully grown some beetroot in our garden one year and decided to boil it in the pressure cooker, we removed the lid before releasing the pressure and I bet you can imagine what happened next ! lets just say we had to redecorate the kitchen the following week.
cheryl hadfield
I have had many kitchen disasters in my time, most recently I was in a rush to get ready to go to work and had forgotten that I had put some cakes in the oven needless to say they were more like rock cakes by the time I realised.
DanielleGraves
I’m a walking kitchen disaster, I forget how long things have been in and burn them and allsorts
Shikha
Looks like such a good afternoon snack!
Georgina Clough
I have had plenty of baking mess ups. One was something really simply was a complete fail, as I used pinhead oatmeal in flapjacks and it never set just spread all over the oven….. Great on ice cream though as it never set…. Love the photos as always. Angela. Great blog.
nicole (thespicetrain.com)
Beautiful and delicious as always! I love pistachios and can imagine how wonderful these cakes tastes just by looking at them. Good for you to stick with it and show this cake who’s the boss! 🙂 I am the queen of overflowing batter, I have done that more times than I can count. Always so discouraging to look through the oven door and see the mess unfold without any way to stop it….
PatisserieMakesPerfect
Thank you so much!
Hayley F
A few cakes have gone in the bin as they tasted awful. Mainly ginger ones as i put to much in x
PatisserieMakesPerfect
I love ginger cake, but I agree, it’s really easy to overdo the ginger. I’m always wary of the recipes that have ginger and stem ginger in. I wonder if it’s too much. I’m glad it’s not just me! x