Wonderful Seedless Lemon & Pistachio Cake

Overview Video Ingredients Instructions Optional Tips Variations

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Desserts

Wonderful Seedless Lemon & Pistachio Cake

A dense, moist Mediterranean cake with fresh lemon zest and ground pistachios.

Difficulty: Intermediate — The batter comes together without a stand mixer, but the one technique that determines the outcome is processing the pistachios in controlled pulses. Stop before their oils release and the meal turns to paste.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 30–35 minutes

Total Time: Approximately 1 hour, plus cooling

Difficulty:

Intermediate

Serves:

Yield:

One 9-inch single-layer round cake

Overview

This lemon pistachio cake is built around freshly ground pistachios and the bright zest of Wonderful® Seedless Lemons. It is a Mediterranean-inspired cake that is richly nutty, moist, and unmistakably lemony.

Ingredients

Lemon Curd:

2 Wonderful Seedless Lemons, zested and juiced
¾ cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
4 extra-large eggs
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed

Cake:

9 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup + 1 tablespoon flour
1 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon kosher salt
2 extra-large eggs
½ cup Wonderful Pistachios No Shells Lightly Salted, ground
Wonderful Pistachios No Shells Lightly Salted for garnish

Whipped Cream:

½ cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla extract

Instructions

For the lemon curd: In a heat-proof bowl, combine the lemon zest, lemon juice, sugar, and eggs, and beat well. Add the butter and place the bowl over a simmering double boiler on medium heat.
Cook, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, until the mixture thickens into curd, about 5 minutes.
Pour the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl and refrigerate until cool, at least 1½ hours.
For the cake: Heat the oven to 350ºF. Grease a 9" spring-form pan with 1 tablespoon of butter and dust with 1 tablespoon of flour, shaking out the excess.
In an electric mixer, cream the remaining butter and 1 cup of sugar together until light and fluffy. Sift in the remaining flour, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs until they start to foam. Do not overbeat, or the cake will be tough. Add the eggs and ground pistachios to the batter and mix well.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and place 8 individual tablespoons of lemon curd around the perimeter of the pan, leaving a 1" border and taking care to space the dollops evenly.
Place 3–4 tablespoons of lemon curd into the center of the cake. Sprinkle the cake with toasted pistachios and 1–2 tablespoons of sugar.
Bake until the cake is fully cooked, about 40 minutes. Let cool on a rack for 10 minutes, then remove the sides of the pan.
For the whipped cream: In a mixing bowl with a whisk attachment, beat the cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla until peaks form.
Serve the cake with the whipped cream, additional lemon curd, pistachios, and powdered sugar.

Optional Tips

Do not over-process the pistachios into paste. Pulse in short, controlled bursts and stop to check the texture every few seconds. The moment the pistachios look like a fine, dry meal, similar to sand, stop the machine. If the oils have fully released and the meal begins clumping into a paste, the fat distribution in the batter will be off and the crumb will be greasy rather than moist.
Use raw, unsalted pistachios, not roasted and salted. Raw pistachios retain their natural green pigment, which is what gives this cake its distinctive sage-green crumb. Roasted pistachios lose that pigment during roasting and turn brown, taking the color with them.
Choose your oil based on the flavor profile you want. Extra-virgin olive oil adds a subtle savory, fruity undertone that leans into the Mediterranean character of the cake. A neutral oil such as grapeseed or sunflower produces a more neutral background. Both are correct choices.
Expect a dense, thick batter. This batter will look and feel much stiffer and darker than a standard cake batter. That is exactly right. Do not be tempted to thin it or add liquid.
Cool completely before you apply the frosting. Whipped cream has a very low melting point. Applied to a warm or even slightly warm cake, it will slide, pool, and thin out rather than hold its shape.
This cake is intentionally dense and moist. It is not a light sponge. The texture is closer to a good flourless chocolate cake or an almond financier than to a birthday layer cake.
Store the frosted cake in the refrigerator. Because the whipped cream contains fresh dairy, the finished cake should be kept covered in the refrigerator and will keep well for up to four days.

Variations

Lemon Pistachio Loaf. Bake the batter in a greased and parchment-lined 9"x5" loaf pan at 350°F for 45–55 minutes. Finish with a simple lemon glaze rather than whipped cream frosting.
Lemon Pistachio Olive Oil Cake. Omit the Greek yogurt and increase the olive oil to ⅔ cup. Add an extra tablespoon of fresh seedless lemon juice to compensate for the lost moisture.
Lemon Pistachio Layer Cake. Double the full recipe and divide the batter evenly between two greased and lined 9" round pans. Bake at 350°F for 28–32 minutes. Double the whipped cream frosting and stack the two layers.
Lemon Pistachio Bundt Cake. Pour the batter into a well-greased and floured standard bundt pan. Bake at 350°F for 45–50 minutes. Drizzle with a thick lemon glaze while the cake is still slightly warm.
Orange Pistachio Cake. Replace the Wonderful Seedless Lemons zest and juice with the same quantities of fresh orange zest and juice. Orange and pistachio is a classic Italian flavor pairing.

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