This moist, fragrant cake has been one of the most visited dessert recipes on my blog for years now. It’s packed with almonds and pistachios, a little lemon zest and is so soft and buttery. It’s easy to make, small-batch and has a tea-cake vibe. I recently revisited it, made some modifications to the recipe and love it as much as I did before!
This is adapted from a recipe in Molly on the Range (seriously, I love that book SO MUCH) which makes a fudgy, nutty loaf with almond extract. The original recipe uses 4 eggs and a whole cup of butter, but I preferred to make a smaller cake because small-batch desserts suit my life a little better. I also reduced the amount of pistachios, and upped the amount of almonds for personal flavour preferences, but you can still taste both. I also included a little baking powder to give the cake some lift, and milk to help make a spreadable, lighter batter. I hadn’t expected all of these changes to work as well as they did but ohmygod, this is gooood!
The cake is on the denser side as any almond cake would be, but super tender, moist and so flavourful! The citrus is subtle but tastes lovely and despite all the nuts, it’s not an excessively heavy or very sweet cake which in my world means you can eat more, yay.
While grinding the almonds and pistachios, some slightly larger bits are likely to remain. But they add a nice texture and crunch to the cake, so don’t worry about leaving them out. In fact, make sure you’re not grinding them to the point of turning them into nut butter!
I loved this cake still slightly warm from the oven or at room temperature. It reminded me of Indian badam halwa in cake form, which I never thought I’d say, but I promise it’s a good thing! Let’s get baking!
Please read the recipe notes before beginning.
Almond & Pistachio Cake
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter, at room temp (115 gms)
- 1/2 cup + 2 tbsps caster sugar (120 gms)
- Zest of 1 lemon, about 1/2 tsp
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 eggs, at room temp (see notes)
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (60 gms)
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt if using unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup finely ground pistachios (from 3/4 cup or 75 gms shelled pistachios)
- 3/4 cup finely ground almonds (from 1/2 cup or 70 gms whole almonds)
- 3 tbsps milk
- 1/3 cup Sliced almonds for topping, optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 175 C. Line a 9x5 loaf tin (see notes) with non-stick baking paper, leaving a little overhang for easy removal. Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, beat the butter, sugar and lemon zest until pale and creamy, using a hand mixer on medium speed.
- Add the eggs and vanilla and beat again to combine. Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt (if using) and gently stir into the batter.
- Add the ground pistachios and almonds and use a spatula to stir them into the batter until combined, but do not over-mix. Finally, stir in the milk to make a thick but spreadable batter (see photos below).
- Spoon into the prepared tin, smoothen the top, sprinkle on the sliced almonds and bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick poked in the centre comes out with only a few moist crumbs.
- Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 20 minutes, then lift the cake out using the paper overhang and set it on a wire rack. Gently peel away the paper from the sides and allow it to cool completely before slicing into 8 thick pieces or 16 smaller ones. In humid weather, this cake is best stored in the fridge (a week to 10 days), otherwise it will keep at room temperature in an airtight tin for 3 to 4 days. Enjoy!
Notes
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Have yiu tried this with almond flavoring instead of vanilla? Or maybe add an almond flavored drizzle icing?
I haven’t tried either of those but can’t see why the cake won’t taste good either way 🙂
😊
Hii, is the milk liquid or powdered. Can you pls share in grms. Thanks
It’s regular liquid milk, 1 tbsp is 15 ml. Hope that helps !
Hi Gayatri! This recipe looks lovely, and I’m planning on making it for my pistachio and almond-loving friend. When you say you prefer to use raw nuts for this cake, does that mean I shouldn’t roast them before grinding?
Hi Sara! Yes you can leave them as is and just grind them for the batter 🙂 Hope you and your friend love it !
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Hi…would like to bake it a cake tin…which will be ideal..an8inch or 7inch or 6inch round pan???
Hi, I think 6 inch would be ok and if you’re planning to double the recipe then 8 inch should be fine. Go by the toothpick test to check for doneness, I’m unsure of the exact baking time.
HI, can I use gluten free bob mills baking flour and the flaxseed eggs for this recipe?
I can’t say for sure unless I try it, I’ve never used that GF flour and without gluten to bind it the cake could be a little fragile. Another commenter has said flax eggs worked, so you could try that. Let me know how it goes!
This cake was amazing. I didn’t have pistachio so I substituted for cashews. Delicious! Thank you!
Good to hear cashews worked! I’m glad you enjoyed this 🙂
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Can we use wheat flour and brown sugar in the above recipe mam
Wheat flour might make the cake more dense, you can swap half and see how it turns out. Brown sugar will also weigh down the cake since it’s molasses mixed with white sugar, and the flavour might change slightly too, so again start with swapping half and see how you like it!
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What kind of pistachio is best? Most pistachio nuts I see are salted … ?? Would those be ok to use?
You need the unsalted kind here, otherwise the cake might taste too salty even if you omit the added salt.
You’ve probably already made these, but I rinsed the salted pistachios and it worked great!
How high is the cake supposed to be? Mine is 1 1/2”
Yup it’s not a super tall cake but you can also double the recipe if you prefer. An 8×4 pan produces a slightly taller cake if you’d like to try that.
Hi! Im on a low carb diet and want to know if i can substitute almond flour for the all purpose flour.What do you think?
Hmm I think you could but I haven’t tried it myself. It might make the cake much more dense. I have some gluten free recipes on this site as well, those might help?
Absolutely blessing , pistachio and almonds cakes I love them and will try the, the dream of my life, to find the healthy nuts recipes , thank you so much, I have already made an orange cake for Easter day took to my friend, all the her guesses loved it, it is gone in 10 minutes. thank you so much for your brilliant work you do to gather all the best I can come across< ,
Do you measure the almonds & pistachios before grinding or after?
The measurements are taken after grinding 🙂
What about the skins of the almonds?do i need to remove them?
No not needed
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You mention that it calls for 1 cup of butter in the text before the recipe, but then list only 1/2 cup butter in the recipe. Which is correct?
My version uses 1/2 cup butter, it’s an adaptation of the original recipe. I’ve made a few other changes as well as written in the recipe.
Can you post the original recipe as well.
It’s from the cookbook linked in the post
Hi there! Can I use Coconut Milk instead of dairy milk?
I think it should work! Let me know how it goes 🙂
It’s a lovely recipe. Thank you for sharing it. Was looking for something different and a little special to my mum in-law’s 80thbirthday and this is a perfect cake. Already tried it twice. If I may say I had to lower the temperature in my fan assisted oven to 165C and baked it for 40 mins.
I’m so happy to hear that Christine! Thanks so much for trying it out 🙂 I don’t have a fan forced oven so I’m glad you were able to adjust the temp to suit yours!
i’ve made it with a flax egg which worked fine better than a chia seed paste
Good to know 🙂
Can you use almond flour instead of ground almonds? The consistency of the flour is finer than grinding your own almonds.
Yes I assume almond flour should work too, though I do like the slight bite of ground almonds 🙂
Hi, please check the recipe notes.
Please mention some substitute for eggs in this cake