Not too long ago, Jane ran across an adorably designed cookbook by Blanche Vaughan simply titled, Egg. It has this clever little egg on the front cover with the yolk cut out and she just couldn’t pass it up. Luckily for us, even more creativity was found within and we spent several weeks reading over the recipes and drooling over the beautiful photos. One that particular stood out to us was her “Pistachio, apricot, and orange blossom cake”. Very much a coffee cake, we loved the use of ground pistachios and almonds to make up the batter. Not to mention the exotic blast of flavor and aroma that the orange blossom water brings to the mix. It was truly an inspiration to us both.
A month or so later while shopping around for new kitchen and cooking gear, we found this wonderful little ceramic bundt pan on clearance and it immediately sent us spinning with ideas for possible recipes. We’ve been baking so much this year but we’ve yet to make a bundt cake. There are so many options but we both wanted to find a way to incorporate the ground nuts and orange blossom. After an attempt or two, we found success with the following recipe sticking mostly with the pistachio meal and orange flavors. Pro tip – Save a few slices to have with your coffee in the morning!
1 3/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 cup ground pistachio
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1 1/2 cup whole milk
2 tbsp orange zest
2 tsp orange blossom water
10 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 cups powdered sugar
3 tbsp orange juice, fresh squeezed
1/2 cup of chopped pistachio
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and prepare bundt cake pan with butter or non stick spray.
Combine flour, ground pistachio, baking powder, and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Whisk together to blend completely. Set aside.
Add milk, orange zest, and orange blossom water to a small bowl and stir briefly to blend, set aside.
In a stand mixer equipped with the paddle attachment, add the butter and sugar and cream at a medium speed until light yellow and whipped. Reduce speed to low and add each egg one at a time allowing each to become blended completely.
After all the eggs have been added, mix in half of the flour mixture until combined, then add all of the milk mixture, and finally, the remainder of the flour mix until combined.
Pour batter into the bundt pan and bake on the middle rack for approx 60 minutes. The sides will start to separate and the visible area will be golden brown. When ready, allow to cool in the bundt pan for 10 minutes before removing the cake to rest on a cooling rack for 20-25 minutes.
Add powdered sugar and orange juice to a small mixing and bowl and blend completely with a whisk. Spoon over the rested cake and allow to drip down the sides. Add the chopped the pistachios immediately before the glaze has a chance to set.
3 Comments
a digilio
April 13, 2017 at 6:05 pmWhere would I find orange blossom water and are there any acceptable substitutions??
Jeff
April 14, 2017 at 12:11 pmIt’s generally found in the “international” section of the grocery store. I’m sure you can find it online fairly easily as well. I’m not sure what you would use as a substitute though. It’s a very distinctive flavor.
Molly
November 21, 2017 at 2:16 pmWhat size of bundt pan do you use for this?