pistachio & lemon cake

In my many-years-long search for the most perfect frosting, I have come across many contenders that seemed to be the one, the true, perfect frosting. But they all eventually disappointed me. American buttercream is usually way too sweet, and mostly just tastes like icing sugar (though there are appropriate uses - a confetti cake calls out for American buttercream) . Swiss and Italian meringue buttercreams both briefly enchanted me, as they are more butter than sugar based, and so they aren't quite so cloyingly sweet. But as I used them I eventually found both to sometimes be too buttery, and they don't hold much flavouring before splitting or doing strange things to their texture. So it was hard to get rich flavours using any of these methods that didn't taste like just sugar or butter.

Then I found ermine frosting, sometimes called boiled milk frosting. It's a strange technique, you start by making a strange cooked milk and flour paste that looks an awful lot like wallpaper paste. Then you cool that goop and mix it into creamed butter and sugar, which after extended mixing turns into a super fluffy, silky, not too sweet or fatty, basically perfect frosting.  Cooking the flour in milk gets rid of any chalky, flour flavour. It is so well balanced.  I think I may finally be ready to settle down and commit to a long-term relationship with just one frosting. I think this is the one.

I made this cake for my friend's birthday and I wanted something light and springy to go with Spring. The tangy lemon curd is perfect with the rich, nutty frosting. This is kinda a showstopper of a cake, perfect for a birthday or another proper celebration. Or maybe just because it's springtime?

pistachio & lemon cake

yellow cake:

adapted from smitten kitchen

• 4 cups plus 2 tablespoons cake flour

• 2 tsp baking powder

• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 cup butter, softened

• 2 cups sugar

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 4 large eggs, at room temperature

• 2 cups buttermilk (or two cups milk soured with a splash of lemon juice)

Heat oven to 350°F. Line the bottoms of two 6" cake pans with parchment paper.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Cream butter and sugar together until light in colour. Add vanilla and eggs and beat to combine. Scrape the sides of the bowl and eat again until well incorporated.

On the lowest speed, beat in buttermilk. Add flour mixture in three additions. Hand mix with a spatula a little to avoid flour explosions. Scrape down bowl to make sure there are no unmixed spots.

Reserve about ⅓ of the he batter for another use (pop it in the freezer for some emergency cupcakes). Divide remaining batter between two prepared 9" pans. Bake 25-30 minutes, or until cakes are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool cakes and run a knife around the edge so they come out of the pan cleanly. Trim off the outer edges and level the cakes, cutting off any domed top portion.

pistachio frosting

adapted from Martha Stewart

• 6 tbs unbleached all-purpose flour

• 1 ½   cups whole milk

• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

• Pinch of kosher salt

• 1 ½ cups butter room temperature

• 1 ½  cup sugar

• ⅓ cup pistachio paste

• 2-3 drops green food colouring (optional)

Cook milk and flour in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens to a gluey, pudding consistency. Cover pan and cool to room temperature. It needs to be completely cool before the next step or it will melt the butter. Also, if you chill this mixture in the fridge, do not proceed before bring back up to room temperature - a cold mix added to butter will seize and split the frosting.

In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, whip together butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy about 5 minutes. Add in room temperature milk mixture and increase speed to medium-high. Whip until the mixture is smooth and very fluffy, which can take more than 15 minutes sometimes. It may look split or grainy, but just keep on mixing until fluffy and velvety. This always takes way longer than I think it should, so I recommend that you walk away at this point and don’t look at the frosting more often than every 5 minutes. I like to use this time to do some of the dishes I have made or have a snack. Just don’t stare at your frosting getting stressed out.

When you have smoothness and fluffiness, add in the vanilla, salt, food colouring and pistachio paste and beat until fully incorporated.

If your frosting becomes a little soft and droopy after the pistachio paste is added chill in the fridge for about 10 minutes, and the beat again. Repeat until frosting is smooth and holds a peak.

Note on pistachio paste: if you can’t find pure pistachio paste (just ground pistachios, no sugar or anything else) you can make your own. Toast 1-2 cups pistachios until fragrant and puré until a smooth paste forms. Keep in the fridge in an airtight container.

lemon curd:

adapted from Martha Stewart 

• 6 egg yolks

• ¾ cup sugar

• ½ butter, cut into 1” cubes

• ½ cup lemon juice

• Zest from one lemon

• a pinch of salt

In a saucepan off heat, combine all ingredients, combining well. Set over medium heat and cook, stirring constantly. When the mixture is thickened remove from heat, cover, and refrigerate until cool.

Note on pistachio paste: if you can’t find pure pistachio paste (just ground pistachios, no sugar or anything else) you can make your own. Toast 1-2 cups pistachios until fragrant and puré until a smooth paste forms. Keep in the fridge in an airtight container.

lemon syrup:

• ½ cup sugar

• ½ cup lemon juice

Mix lemon juice and sugar in a small saucepan over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Cool and store in the fridge.

assembly:

Drizzle lemon syrup generously over the cake layers and let soak in for a couple minutes.

Place one cake layer on a 9" cake board if you have it, or a flat plate or cake stand. Cover cake with a very generous layer of curd, it should be quite thickly set so you can really pile it on without oozing over the edge. Leave a thin border of uncovered cake around the edge to make space for squishing when you add the next cake layer. Sandwich next cake layer on top and cool in the fridge around 15 minutes to set up, to help the curd not ooze out into your frosting. This is a good time to finish make the frosting.

Frost the chilled cake quickly all over with an offset spatula, making sure to cover all exposed cake. Adding more frosting as you go, use an offset spatula, or bench scraper to tidy up and give the cake some nice clean angles. Chill again for 15 minutes and add a generous second layer of frosting, using the bench scraper to make smooth, straight sides. Chill again about 10 minutes, and decorate as you like, I used a sprinkles and chopped pistachios sprinkled over a little micro-forest of piped poofs and rosettes. But you do whatever feels right.

blackberry & pistachio gateau basque

Gateau Basque is a traditional French pastry from the Basque region. Despite the gateau in the name, it isn't a cake,  it's more like a pie or tart. But the dough is really quite different from other pie doughs, and it is fantastic. It gets puffy and light from a hefty dose of baking powder, but has a lovely fatty, rich toothsomeness from enriching almonds and eggs. It seems like there will be way too much dough, if you made an American style pie with this kind of dough-filling ratio, it would be an overwhelming dough monster. It seems like it would be too dry. But this super enriched dough is not excessive or overwhelming. It melds together with the pastry cream to make an almost frangipane-like alchemy on the inside, and a crisp, caramelized outside. It's just sweet enough without being cloying.

Gateau Basque is traditionally made with vanilla pastry cream and cherries, which is fantastic and feel free to do that instead. But I had some blackberries left over from fall in my freezer, and I needed to clear them out to make way for the rhubarb that is on it's way.  You can also just use jam without any extra fruit, or just use pastry cream (double the recipe), swap out or remove the nuts...choose the flavours that you like best. 

Note: pistachio paste here means pure ground pistachios, which you can buy or grind yourself if you have powerful food processor and a lot of pistachios. Use 6 tbs finely ground pistachios if you can find any paste or don't want to grind it for ages. The tart dough makes twice as much as you need - the extra will last a few days in the fridge or a couple months in in the freezer.  

dough

adapted from Food and Wine 

• 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tbs baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tbs butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 large egg yolks
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla 
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• 1 cup almond flour

Combine flour, baking powder, salt and almond flour in a medium bowl. Beat butter and sugar in a stand mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Add eggs and yolks, vanilla and almond extracts and beat until well mixed. Reduce speed and add flour mixture gradually until thoroughly incorporated. Scrape dough out onto a work surface and divide into four equal portions. Form them into disks and wrap in cling wrap. Chill at least 4 hours. 

pastry cream

adapted from Martha Stewart 

• 1/4 cup sugar 
• 2 egg yolks 
• 2 tbs cornstarch 
• pinch salt 
• 6 tbs pistachio paste
• 1 cup whole milk 

Combine sugar, egg yolks, cornstarch, salt and pistachio paste in a small saucepan. Whisk in milk until smooth. Cook the mixture on medium heat, whisking constantly. When the mix comes to a boil, cook for 1 minute, continuing to whisk and scrape the bottom. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve. Chill, plastic wrap pressed directly on the surface of the cream to prevent a skin from forming. 

assembly

• 1/2 cup blackberry jam
• 1 cup fresh or frozen blackberries 
• 1 egg
• 1 tbs milk 

Roll out one disc of dough to 1 cm thick, drape over tart shell so the dough rises up the sides of the pan. Trim away excess. Spread jam in an even layer over the bottom of the tart. Sprinkle blackberries over jam and cover with pastry cream. 

Roll out second dough disc to 1 cm thick. Place over the top of the tart and press around the edges to trim off excess dough. Gently press around the edges to seal. Score a grid pattern into the tart with a paring knife. Beat milk and egg together and brush all over the top of the tart. 

Bake at 350° on the lowest shelf of your oven for 20 minutes. Wrap the top of the tart in tin foil and move the tart to the upper shelf. Bake around 40 more minutes, until dark gold on top. Transfer to a rack to cool. 

blueberry, white chocolate & pistachio cookies

There are a lot of mediocre cookies in the world. I'm thinking particularly of chocolate chip style cookies - there are a lot of ways to go wrong. I am not a fan of cakey cookies, that don't spread enough and stay high and puffy in the middle. I don't them totally crispy either, they should be thin, just crisp on the outside, but should definitely have chewy, nearly underdone middles. 

These ones, from cookie genius Dorrie Greenspan, really meet all my cookie requirements. They are thin and spready and have wonderfully wrinkly tops. They stay chewy in the middle and have perfectly crisp edges. You can go traditional and use chocolate chips and maybe some walnuts. Or you can try white chocolate, pistachios and blueberries like I did here. Both ways are great. 

You can use dried blueberries if you can't find the freeze dried ones, just don't use fresh or frozen, they'll make the cookies goopy. Freeze dried fruit is kind of hard to find, but you can order it online or check a camping supply store. Feel free to substitute another freeze dried fruit or dried fruit. I think raspberries would be great in these too. 

blueberry, white chocolate & pistachio cookies

adapted from Dorie Greenspan

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 tsp salt

• 3/4 tsp baking soda

• 1 cup butter, at room temperature

• 1 cup sugar

• 2/3 cup brown sugar

• 2 tsp vanilla extract

• 2 large eggs

• 2/3 cup white chocolate, chopped

• 1/2 cup pistachios, toasted and chopped

• 1/2 cup dried or freeze dried blueberries

Preheat oven to 375° and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Beat butter in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, until smooth and fluffy. Add sugars and continue to beat until well combined. Add vanilla, and eggs one at a time, mixing well between after each. On low speed, add in flour mixture, mixing until just combined. Stir in chocolate, pistachios and blueberries with a spatula.

Scoop 2 tbs mounds of dough onto baking sheets. They will spread a lot, leave 2 inches between cookies. Bake around 10 minutes, turning sheet halfway through baking.