Where my white chocolate lovers at?! This one’s for you. Personally, I LOVE the way this cake looks covered in white chocolate. It’s so crisp and elegant looking, which is why I started out with the white chocolate coating concept. The colors of the green pistachios and pink petals against the white chocolate is so swoon worthy. I could look at the white chocolate covered cake all day.
And because it looks so pretty, I think I want to eat it until I take a bite and remember why I despise the cloying, sweetness of white chocolate. Ugh. I just can’t get into the stuff. But there are people out in this world that love it! So really, the white chocolate version of this cake is for you–wherever you are.
And rose petals? Can we talk about these beauties for a minute? I stumbled across a bag randomly at Whole Foods and thought, I have to do something with these! The problem? I hate the sweet taste of rose almost as much as I hate white chocolate. So really, this cake is not made for me. Aren’t I selfless and angelic?
To my wonderful dark chocolate lovers, I’ve also made a version of this cake for you. It’s not as beautiful but it tastes delightful. And a word of warning, be careful when tempering dark chocolate, it’s a little trickier, so you might need a thermometer (88F-90F).
Hope you enjoy it, whichever chocolate camp you belong to. And if you’re a milk chocolate fan–really?!? really?!? Just choose one.
White (or Dark) Chocolate Pistachio Cake
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup ground toasted pistachios
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup buttermilk (I make my own by adding 1 tbsp of white vinegar to whole milk)
1 tsp vanilla
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
For White Chocolate Topping
8 oz white chocolate
1/8 cup rose petals (I got these from Whole Foods)
1/4 cup chopped toasted pistachios
For Dark Chocolate Topping
8 oz dark chocolate
1/4 cup chopped toasted pistachios
Preheat oven to 350.
Line a loaf pan with wax paper, allowing paper to hang over the sides. Butter the wax paper.
Cream butter and sugar for 4-5 minutes until light and fluffy.
Toast 1/2 cup pistachios until fragrant (make sure they don’t burn). Let cool and pulse in the food processor until well ground.
Add pistachios, flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt to a small bowl. Whisk well.
Add eggs one at a time to creamed butter and sugar on medium speed, allowing to mix well in between. Add vanilla.
Add 1/3 of flour mixture, then half buttermilk, then 1/3 flour mixture, then last half buttermilk, mixing between. Make sure to add the remaining 1/3 of flour last.
Add mixture to loaf pan, spreading evenly. Bake for 55 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 5-10 minutes and then move to baking rack.
For topping, chop white chocolate. Add 2 inches of water to a small pot, bringing to simmer. In a metal bowl over the double boiler, add 2/3 of the chocolate and melt, stirring consistently. Once the chocolate is melted, remove from heat and add the remaining white chocolate off of the heat. This is called tempering the chocolate, which will make it set and harden on top of the loaf cake.
You can make sure your chocolate is tempered by dripping a spoonful onto a cold plate in the freezer. Once you remove from the freezer, chocolate should crack off plate and remain firm and cold.
If you’re doing this with dark chocolate, make sure you treat the dark chocolate similarly and make sure it’s tempered to 88F-90F.
On the baking rack, cover the loaf in melted chocolate, spreading evenly. Add chopped pistachios and rose petals. Remove from rack while chocolate is still warm onto a plate or sheet pan. Let cool.
When sliced, chocolate will crack and envelop the cake beautifully.
