The key to this cake is to keep the actual cake as simple as possible because you will cry for at least twenty minutes while making the pistachio ganache. It’s that horrible to make, but it’s also really worth it, and if you ask me, the salt from your tears really brings out the flavor of the pistachios.
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For the Cake
- 1 box of yellow cake mix
- 2 x 3.4 oz boxes instant pistachio pudding
- 3/4 cup butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 1 cup milk
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 cup pistachios, shelled and roughly chopped
For the Pistachio Ganache
- 1 ¼ cups (150 g) of shelled, unsalted pistachios
- ¾ cup of whole milk, divided
- 2 tablespoons of butter
- 1 cup of white chocolate chips
- 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar
Cake Instructions
Step 1
Preheat oven to 350° and prep your bundt with Bundt Gunk or spray with nonstick spray.
Step 2
In large bowl, combine the cake mix, puddings, melted butter, milk, eggs, and pistachios until all is just combined. As little mixing as possible please!
Step 3
Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until it passes the toothpick test. Let the cake rest in the pan for 15 minutes before inverting on a wire rack (I use a wire rack to make pouring the ganache over the cake easier to clean up).
Pistachio Ganache Instructions
Step 1
Bring a small pot of water to a boil and add the pistachios. Boil the pistachios for 4.5 minutes. Drain them, and put them in the center of a clean kitchen towel.
Step 2
Roll the pistachios in the tea towel to remove the skins. This step is, well, nuts, but completely worth it. The friction of the towel will remove most of the skins, but you may still have to pick through some. Just keep telling yourself it’s worth it. Discard the skins.
Step 3
Add the pistachios to a food processor with a good splash of your ¾ cup of milk (about ¼ cup) and the powdered sugar. Process the pistachios until you have a smooth paste, scraping down the sides as needed. Use your best judgement for when to stop processing the pistachios, you’re just looking for a nice paste.
Step 4
In small sauce pan, heat the remaining milk, which should be about ½ cup, butter and white chocolate. Heat on low until the white chocolate has melted. Let the mixture cool slight then add, in batches, to the food processor, blitzing until smooth between each addition
Step 5
Add this point you can start adjusting the ganache for sweetness and consistency. I added enough milk to make the ganache thin enough to pour over the cake but thick enough to make a nice, hardy, layer of ganache so it would be like a thick icing. I would err on the thicker side and just spoon it over the cake if you don’t want to risk it being too runny.
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