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Pistachio-Cardamom Cake
Baking a cake can be daunting. Enter the loaf cake, as easy as a quick bread but with more polish. Rose Bakery in Paris, created by Briton Rose Carrarini and her French husband, Jean-Charles, has elevated the style to an art form, producing tempting loaf cakes in all manner of flavors. We were particularly taken by a green-tinged, nut-topped pistachio cake. For our version, we paired toasted pistachios with cardamom and ground orange zest, giving it a distinctly Middle Eastern flavor. Combining ground nuts with rich Greek-style yogurt, olive oil and plenty of eggs ensured a moist, appealingly coarse crumb. We got the best results from grinding the nuts until they were nearly as fine as flour, but still had some texture. If you can’t find unsalted pistachios, reduce the salt in the recipe by half. Cooling the cake was essential to maintain the thick consistency of the glaze.
Makes one
9-inch loaf
Tip
Don’t skip toasting the pistachios. The differences in flavor and texture were significant between raw and toasted. Toast the nuts at 300°F until they’re quite fragrant and begin to darken, 10 to 15 minutes.
1 hour 10 minutes
15 minutes active, plus cooling
Ingredients
-
¼
cup olive oil, plus more for the pan
-
130
grams (1 cup) all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan
Directions
-
01Heat the oven to 325ºF with a rack in the middle position. Lightly coat a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with oil and flour. In a food processor, combine the white sugar and orange zest; process until the sugar is damp and fragrant, 5 to 10 seconds. Transfer to a large bowl.
Reviews
December 24, 2025
Delicious!!
What a treat, and such a welcome pivot from pumpkin bread at the holidays. I made one great modification—to thin the icing a bit I added a squeeze of orange juice. Cuts the sweetness and adds that citrus note you want here. A little zest on top adds color, too. Make this loaf cake. You’ll be glad you did. Cheers!
August 1, 2023
Outstanding!
I had my doubts. I love loaf style cakes but I am not fond of nuts in my desserts. To my surprise, this was one of THE best cakes I have ever eaten. My family devoured it in less than an hour. I have made it several times and my family cannot get enough of it! Try baking the wonderful cake!
July 23, 2023
Pistachio, cardamom & oranges perfect aromatherapy!
The bread smelled amazing during baking. I also point out that the individual ingredients while putting together the delectable recipe smelled just as wonderful. Waiting it all to cool for 2 hours is agonizing.
Made this tonight using a gluten free flour mix (one from a website but I think any all-purpose store bought gluten free mix would be fine). Full disclosure: I also omitted the orange zest and used milk instead of the juice. It turned out perfect and delicious! Very moist, nice texture. Since gluten free starches and flours don't mask sweetness as much as wheat flour, it is plenty sweet enough so I omitted the icing. Maybe it's not as pretty without that drizzle holding nuggets of pistachios, but once you taste a piece it doesn't matter at all! Some of my pistachios didn't quite grind as fine and I didn't notice until I was folding but actually those little pieces add a nice textural interest that I really liked. Will definitely add to my recipe box.
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I made this cake last night and my wife and I thought it was absolutely wonderful. The cardamom, yogurt, and pistachio flavors with the sugar and orange makes the perfect blend of sweet and savory. It was also a fantastic breakfast with dark roast coffee.