A pistachio cake with rosewater buttercream is a unique twist on an old favorite!
We love cake. Who doesn’t right? More specifically, a beautifully decorated cake. Almost too pretty to eat. They are like a work of art. They belong in a museum! The type of museum where you get to eat the art afterwards.
We recently started dabbling in the art of cake decorating. Sure, we have made a lot of cakes in our lives. But, they were very standard. With some frosting just slapped on in no particular fashion. Who has time to elaborately decorate a cake when all you really want to do is eat it…and it will taste the same regardless of whether or not their are buttercream flowers on it?!?
There are a lot of things about this cake that are unique.
- It is pistachio flavored. HELLO. It is our first time making a pistachio cake! And now we know how annoying and horrible it is to un-shell pistachios. It’s slow torture.
- It has a rosewater buttercream! We know what you are thinking…gross. Why would I want to eat something that tastes like roses? We get it. It’s a little weird and to be honest an acquired taste. BUT, it can actually be really delicious as long as you don’t go overboard with the extract. Start with just a teaspoon as it is very potent.
- It’s like the Mona Lisa of cakes. Do you see those gold star sprinkles? Fancy.
It was almost too pretty to eat. Almost.
We went a little hard with the decoration but you do not have to. If you just wanna slap the frosting on and call it a day? You go Glen CoCo. Sometimes, its just fun to experiment with different things. We used a Wilton star tip for most of these flowers but any type of swirly, start type tip will work.
Keep in mind, if you are not quite ready to go all out with rosewater and prefer to keep roses on your coffee table in a vase, NO PROBLEM. You just swap out the rosewater extract for a tablespoon of vanilla or almond and then you will still have a delicious pistachio cake.
This is the perfect cake to try if you want to try new, exciting flavors that maybe you haven’t had before! We hope you will step out of your cake comfort zone and give this cake baby a whirl!
Pistachio Rosewater Cake
Ingredients
For the cake
- 1 1/2 Cups unshelled pistachios
- 2 1/3 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter softened
- 5 egg whites
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 cup whole milk
For the frosting
- 2 sticks unsalted butter softened
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 3-4 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon rosewater extract
Instructions
For the cake
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line two 6 inch cake pans with parchment paper. (You can also use 8 or 9 inch pans).
- Put your pistachios in a food processor and pulse until you get a fine crumb. Put the crumbs into a large bowl and whisk in flour, baking powder and baking soda. Reserve some of the crumbs if you wish to garnish with them later.
- With a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg whites until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Beat in sour cream, vanilla and almond. Slowly mix in dry ingredients until incorporated. Turn mixer to low and slowly pour in milk.
- Divide batter evenly between cake pans. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Baking time will depend on how much you fill you pans. More batter = longer bake time. Just keep an eye on them.
- Let cool in pans for 15 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.
For the frosting
- Beat butter in a stand mixer until smooth. Slowly add in powdered sugar. Once combined add in rosewater extract. Add in milk a tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is reached.
- Color your frosting with gel food coloring if desired.
- If you made larger cakes and plan to decorate with buttercream flowers, you may need to double this recipe.
Assembly
- Level you cakes so they are flat. You can either then cut your layers in half or leave them whole for larger layers.
- Alternate between cake layer and then frosting until all layers have been used. Then frost the cake completely. Depending on the amount of layers, you may have to double the frosting recipe. Garnish with remaining pistachio crumbs.