While the weather may be unpredictable at best, this cake won’t be the same. Today I’m sharing my recipe for this lemon, pistachio and white chocolate cake – its the perfect celebration cake to enjoy this summer season, I promise you.
At first the mixture of lemon, pistachio and white chocolate may not sound like they’ll work but they do, very well actually. The cake consists of a lemon and pistachio cake, white chocolate French meringue buttercream and finished with various forms of white chocolate (chips and chocolate drip), pistachio (crumbs around the bottom of the cake and on top of the rosettes) and lemon (slices on top of the rosettes).
Okay, this cake may not be ideal on a very hot or humid summers day but trust me, it’s worth making. Especially if you like the flavour combinations – it’ll be worth it each time. This may not be so child friendly but would be ideal for adults.
Anyway, lets get started, shall we?
Ingredients:
350g butter, at room temperature.
350g granulated sugar.
6 eggs.
1.5 tsp vanilla extract.
1 tsp almond extract.
350g plain flour.
2 1/2 tsp baking powder.
100g coarsely ground pistachios.
2-3 lemons, zested.
Buttercream:
250g granulated sugar.
62ml water.
70ml egg yolks.
500g butter.
200-300g white chocolate, melted and cooled.
Decoration:
White chocolate spread (for the drip).
Coarsely chopped pistachios.
White chocolate chips.
Lemon slices.
Method:
Cake:
Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll be best to get some prep work done. I like to start by weighing up all of my ingredients, lining my cake tins, preheating my oven to 180˚c/350˚f and getting any equipment you may need such as a stand mixer and spatulas.
I like to start with the cake, as this takes the longest.
Take the mixing bowl and add in the butter, sugar and lemon zest and beat them together until they are lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency (for me this is around 7-10 minutes but this will vary on the climate you’re baking in).
Once you’ve achieved their right consistency, you can go ahead and add in the eggs. One at a time, eating well in-between each addition. Repeat the process until you have no eggs remaining.
This is also the ideal time to add in the extracts, mixing well until they are incorporated into the mix.
Now give the bowl a good scraping down, the sis just to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully incorporated into the mixture.
Add in the dry ingredients and pistachios then mix on a low speed to start with, working your way up to a medium-high speed just until everything is fully incorporated – being careful not to over-mix the cake batter at this stager or it will result in a tougher textured sponge, which isn’t ideal.
Give the bowline final good scraping down to further incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in from earlier on.
Divide the cake batter between your tins, I like to use scales to get a more accurate result but feel freer to eyeball it if you’re feeling confident enough. Bake the cakes in the preheated oven and bake for 30-35 minutes or until, a tester comes out clean.
Buttercream:
While the cakes are baking in the oven, you can go ahead and make the buttercream – this takes a little time but is fully worth it in the end.
To start on there buttercream, take the white chocolate and melt it until its fluid, then set aside and allow to cool until its cool enough to use.
grab a small-medium saucepan and place in the water and granulated sugar and mix the two until combined, then place on the hob over a medium-high heat. You want this mixture to reach 121˚c, it takes a short while.
While you’re waiting for your mixture to come up to temperature, you can work on the egg part.
Whisk together the egg yolks and whole egg over a medium-high speed until everything is combined and the mixture is a pale yellowish colour and increased a significant amount.
Once your sugar mixture has come up to 121˚c, you can remove it from the heat and steadily pour it over the egg mixture over a low speed. Once all the mixture has been added, crank the speed upto a high and whisk until you can touch the bottom of the bowl with the back of your hand.
Now that the mixture has whisked together and is cool enough, you can start adding your butter, piece by piece. At first, you may notice the mixture looks quite loose and this is normal. As the butter is added and incorporated, the mixture will thicken and start looking like a buttercream.
Add in the white chocolate and whisk until everything has been fully incorporated.
If you think the mixture is too loose, don’t worry. Continue to mix it over a high speed until it thickens and place in the fridge and chill until firm.
You can then use this buttercream to decorate your cakes, cupcakes and traybakes. If you make the full recipe, it’s enough for a large cake, I’d half or quarter the recipe for cupcakes and traybakes.
Decoration:
Once you have everything made and ready, you can start the assembly of the cake.
When you’re layering your cakes, you can brush them over with some simple syrup to add moisture and prolong the life of the cake/prevent the cake from drying out.
To start, take a cake stand/board/plate and place a small blob of buttercream into the centre, then place your first layer off cake onto it, pressing down to secure it in place. Pipe a ring of buttercream around the outer edge off the cake (and a thin layer for inside of the ring), then fill in the centre of the ring with the same buttercream and top with the next layer of cake – repeat the process until you have used all your cake layers.
I then like to pipe the buttercream around the cake, as neatly as possibly but it doesn’t need to be perfect, as when we are smoothing it out, it will fill many of the gaps. Take your scraper and scrape around the edge, until you have a smooth enough finish, this is really up to you but most like quite a neat finish.
Around. the bottom edge of the cake, I take some of the chopped pistachios and create a border (which also adds a little more colour, flavour and texture).
Now that the cake is as smooth as you’d like it, you can apply the drip.
Using a piping bag (or whichever way works best for you) apply your drip, do it as you usually would. I always try and make the length of the drips vary but whatever makes you happy, you do. I’m using a white chocolate spread for my drip as its easier to work with and I didn’t have a lot of it left, so wanted to make the most of what I had.
Pipe blobs around the top outer edge and top with a sprinkling of chopped pistachios. I went with 8 but you can do as many or as few as you’d like – its your cake. Then to finish, simply fill the centre with some white chocolate chips and place lemon slices on-top of the blobs and you’re done!
That’s all for today guys, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, don’t forget to share this recipe with your family and friends and enjoy it. I’ll be back soon with another blog post and YouTube video, so join me then. In the meanwhile, don’t forget to check out my other social’s – Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. The YouTube tutorial will be linked down below.
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