Pistachio Marble Cake That You Can’t Stop Eating

I recently posted a recipe for a chocolate-covered marble praliné cake that has become one of the most viewed on the blog. An excellent combination of a moist marble cake with hazelnut paste, chocolate ganache, praliné and a chocolate glaçage with caramelized hazelnuts.

This time I decided to visit my friend Julien Abourmad from The French Bastards who are very famous for their special pastries, for example the excellent Brioche Rocher that you must taste. Together we made their wonderful pistachio marble cake.

Pistachio is a wonderful ingredient, but it’s not really green as we’re used to seeing in the food industry. Pistachio paste or pistachio praliné has a brownish-green color, a bit more like olive color, so when using real products without color additives the look is less industrial “pistachio” but more authentic. In my opinion the real color is much more appetitive than the industrial green, from the latter I try to stay away.

Abourmad agreed to give me the recipe so I could share it with you. Like every recipe I get, I tried it at home, adapted it for the home kitchen and took some making-of photos. The problem is that after the filming we’re left with the cakes at home, this time too our neighbors were very very happy.

Pistachio Marble Cake
22cm loaf pan (or shorter and higher pan)

Ingredients
Cake Batter:
100g butter, softened
300g sugar
220g eggs (around 3 large eggs) 
130g heavy whipping cream
240g flour, sifted
8g baking powder
4g salt

Pistachio Batter:
90g pure pistachio paste or 70g pistachio praliné

Cocoa Batter:
15g cocoa powder, sifted

Chocolate Glaçage:
150g dark chocolate 70%, chopped
120g milk chocolate, chopped
75g canola oil

For decoration (possible):
Roasted pistachio, chopped
Pistachio praliné

Preparation
1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius. line a 22cm loaf pan with parchment paper.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until obtain a light and fluffy preparation.
3. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. Add cream, flour, baking powder and salt over butter mixture, stir to combine. Don’t over-mix so that the cake does not come out too dense.
5. Divide the mixture into two equal parts, each part in a separate bowl.
6. Pistachio Batter: Add pistachio paste to one bowl, mix lightly until a natural pistachio color is obtained.
7. Cocoa Batter:  Add cocoa to the second mixture, mix lightly until a brown mixture is obtained.
8. Put each mixture in a separate pastry bag.
9. Pipe alternately from both mixtures stripes or dots along and across the mold. Yes, it requires a replacement of the pastry bag each time but it’s worth it 🙂 
10. Bake for about 40-45 minutes, until the cake is firm but not too dry. Remove from the oven, let cool in the pan and freeze.

Assembling
11. Chocolate Glaçage: Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or the microwave, remove from heat and add the oil, stir until smooth. 
12. Remove the cake from the freezer, place it on a wire rack over a rimmed baking sheet. Pour the glaçage evenly over the top of your cake until desired coverage is reached. You can re-use the chocolate glaçage that drips onto the baking sheet.
13. Garnish with chopped pistachio and pistachio praliné.
14. Keep the cake in an airtight container and when it reaches room temperature enjoy!

Bon-Appétit
Sharon