Pistachio Olive Oil Cake

An olive oil cake made with pistachio flour, flavored with a bit of lemon, and iced with a cream cheese frosting!

- Yield: 8" cake

- Prep time: 10 minutes, Bake time: 20 minutes, Total time: 30 minutes

- Allergens: milk, eggs and nuts

- Equipment list: 8-inch round pan, 2-3 mixing bowls, whisk (or any other mixing utensil), spatula (for frosting), hand-mixer (optional), food processor (to make pistachio flour)

Ingredients for an 8” Cake

Cake

- 1 1/2 cups (180 g) whole wheat pastry flour or unbleached all-purpose flour

- 1 cup (100 g) pistachio flour (see note)

- 2 tablespoons lemon zest

- 1 teaspoon bakings soda

- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

- 1/2 cup olive oil

- 1/4 cup honey

- 1/4 cup whole milk

- 3 large eggs

Frosting

- 6 ounce cream cheese, softened

- 2 tablespoon butter softened

- 1 cup confectioners' sugar

- 1 to 2 tablespoons honey

- 2 to 3 tablespoons heavy cream

Instructions

Step 1

Preheat oven to 350˚. Grease and 8-inch round pan with oil.

Step 2

To make the cake: In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, pistachio flour, lemon zest, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the olive oil, honey, milk, and eggs. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until combined.

Step 3

Scoop the batter into the prepared pan and smooth out evenly. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, until the cake is golden and has domed. Let cool for 10 minutes.

Step 4

Once the cake has cooled, run a knife along the edges to loosen. Flip the cake over onto a cake plate and finish cooling.

Step 5

To make the frosting: Beat together the cream cheese and butter with a hand or stand mixer. add the confectioners' sugar, 1 tablespoon honey, and 2 tablespoons heavy cream. Continue to beat until the frosting is smooth. Taste and add more honey if desired. If the frosting is too thick, beat in another tablespoon of heavy cream. Frost the cake and sprinkle with pistachio meal if desired.

Notes

To make pistachio flour, take shelled, unsalted, roasted pistachios (buy them unshelled and save yourself some time) and pulse in 1/4 of the pistachios in the food processor just until beginning to break down. Pass through a sieve to get the flour and return the pistachio pieces back to the food processor. Repeat until a good amount of the pistachios are flour (you will have meal left over, use it to top the cake.) Just be careful not to over pulse the nuts and turn them into butter- patience is key. If you try to make the cake with pistachio meal, the texture won't be the same!

Recipe source :

naturally ella

Gallery

Pistachio Olive Oil Cake 1 Pistachio Olive Oil Cake 2 Pistachio Olive Oil Cake 3 pistachio-cake pistachio

Website review/critique:

Recipe webites

1. Nytimes Cooking

Some recipe websites tend to drag on with excess description or information about the recipe rather than getting to the actual ingredients or recipe. I want to recreate a similar website to Nytimes Cooking where you get all the important points at a glance, such as prep and cooking time. I also really like the clean aesthetic with clear layout that is appealing for a professional, food-related website.

2. Bonappetit

Bonappetit is another website example that depicts clarity, but I’m especially inspired by the consistent incorporation of scale shifts. One example is the large bold heading text and image that contrasts directly with the caption and body text below it. This is effective in controlling the attention of viewers and also this dramatic dynamic of text is trendy and exudes some confidence that makes the website seem more professional. I think their minimal yet striking color choices (black, white and neon yellow) adds another layer of modern trendiness.

3. Serious Eats

As a recipe website, Serious eats provides an easy experience for viewers through their big serif fonts that have effective hierarchy of size. I thought it was a nice touch to include pictures for each step of the recipe that gives additional visual guidance of the recipe. Overall, the website is kept clean and to-the-point which I like.

Non-recipe websites

1. Cereal

I admire Cereal’s calming brand aesthetic that they were able to effectively express through their website. They recreated their luxurious and relaxed brand aesthetic through by incorporating lots of spaces throughout the pages with very small typefaces. They make intricate use of both serif and san-serif font to differentiate between heading and body texts, which doesn’t distract us from the pleasing visual experience. The soft background color alongside the beautiful photographs contributes a great deal to creating their desired look.

2. Rhode

I like how subtly interactive the website is as you scroll down the pages. The clean and contained layout organizes the pages well and makes it easier for users to navigate. The trendy text and images of various sizes makes the website interesting to look through. The website only makes minimal use of their unique font across their pages which I think works well in making a less distracting experience for users and getting the attention of users where it is most important.

3. Ssense

It is very easy to navigate the website with their subtle yet effective hierarchy of text and images by adjusting type style. It has a similarly luxurious experience to cereal which I tend to prefer stylistically. The consistency of even spacing and sizes of elements seem to contribute a lot to creating this visual experience I’m going for. I realize how important the images’ quality and aesthetic is in impacting a website atmosphere.


Refer to:My Research Evaluation