Hello there!
I hope January was fruitful for everyone. Can you believe it’s February ALREADY?! 2010 is shaping up to fly by fast.
Other than being busy, not much has changed over here… my pistachio kick is still holding strong. I just can’t get enough of their complex aroma, flavor, color… nom. I have been eating a little too much pistachio pudding and looking for other ways to incorporate them.
Funnily enough, I heard about the big PR campaign to revamp pistachios after the samonella scare last year… and they have some questionable people at the helm of that campaign.
Hmm…
So what is this supposed to say about pistachio eaters? We’re dumb and low-brow?
Thankfully for the pistachios they sell themselves, so these silly ads shouldn’t slow them down. And some pistachio cake doesn’t hurt any, either.
I’m on this simple cake kick lately- no layers or elaborate toppings, just good old cake with a flavorful accent. This cake is dense, moist and rich and the aroma… ah! I know some people think that dark chocolate is reserved for pre-holiday baking, but to heck with them! While this would certainly make a delicious holiday cake, I’ll eat some dark chocolate anytime!
Pistachio Cake with Chocolate Sauce
1 cup ground pistachios
1 3/4 cups flour
1 cup sugar
2 teas. baking powder
1/4 teas. salt
1- 8 oz. container soy cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/3 cups milk of choice (I used almond)
1/4 cup canola oil
1 teas. vanilla
1/2 cup chopped dark chocolate
3 tbsp. milk of choice
1 tbsp. margarine
pistachios for garnish
Preheat oven to 350. Prepare a 8 or 9 inch cake pan by greasing and flouring and/or lining the bottom with parchment.
In a small bowl combine ground pistachios, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a medium bowl, mix cream cheese and some of the milk using electric beaters. Incorporate the remaining milk in batches. Add oil and vanilla.
Combine dry ingredients with the wet ingredients in batches until batter is just mixed. Spread into pan and bake for 40-45 minutes, until a toothpick comes out with just some little crumbs clinging to it.
To prepare the sauce, combine dark chocolate, milk and margarine in a double boiler and melt until smooth. Serve cake with warm chocolate sauce drizzled on and some pistachio garnish.
nom nom nom...
14 Responses to cracked is a little whack…
Featured Friends of nom!
It’s here!
It is delish! Thanks for sharing!! The sauce is super chocolatey and came at a time of a much needed chocolate fix :). Love how moist the cake is. You have mastered moist vegan cakes!
If you’re grinding your own pistachios for the cake do you use raw nuts? This looks really good (as usual).
Hey Vaala!
In the US, I’ve never seen raw pistachios, so I’m guessing the ones that I use are toasted. I would recommend toasting them prior to grinding. I ground mine in my food processor easy as pie (or cake).
a beautiful thing!
The last pic makes that cake look so tempting! Yum!
I’ve never received the memo saying that baking with dark chocolate was a pre-holiday thing! I can hardly believe that people really make up and follow such silly rules… why would anyone deny oneself the pleasure of dark chocolate whenever the mood strikes, for no good reason? Oh well, now that I know, I’ll keep on blissfully ignoring that “rule”!
It’s it weird? I’ve read that before, things like cinnamon, dark chocolate, etc aren’t “supposed” to be baked with after New Year’s. Whatever. I’ve always been a rule breaker.
I love pistachios. Probably my favorite nut! And I dig simple cakes sometimes, sans icing. Yum!
Looks amazing! Love the chocolate on top “)
This is awesome! Pistachios have always felt so complex and grown-up to me. The cake looks delicious!
I love pistachios a lot! Thank you for the awesome cake recipe.
Wow, that looks wonderful.
Also I just realized that you have Hi-Res photos of your food if you click on the photo! It looks absolutely amazing.
Yes, they are hi-res… it’s not that I’m just too lazy to resize them when i download them off of my camera and would rather eat away at my storage space… hi-res… 😉
I made this cake and it was really dense, like a gel almost, nothing like the picture. It taste really good, but texture was strange. What did I do wrong?
That sounds like a classic case of an oven not keeping temp. I would suggest getting an internal thermometer.