Basil mint cake with pistachio chantilly cream
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Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Just over a year ago I came across a recipe for a parsley cake while visiting Maria and flipping through her copy of Food52’s Genius Desserts cookbook. It was love at first sight…a crazy vibrant green herb-loaded cake.
For months now this concept has been pinging around in the back of my mind waiting to resurface as a festive dessert. I loved the idea of this cake’s earthy flavor profile, and the naturally acquired green hue made is oh so appropriate for St. Patrick’s Day. With the advent of coronavirus social distancing and being stuck at home with no other activities, I found I had time on my hands this weekend to experiment in the kitchen and see what I could come up with.
The original cake recipe suggests serving the cake by breaking it into hunks and topping with ice cream. Super cool and rustic, but I wondered how I could bring a new twist to the concept, up the green element for today’s feast, and turn it into something a bit more fancy.
Because here’s the thing: once you start throwing traditionally savory herbs into a dessert, presentation starts to matter a lot more. You can sell almost anything in a dessert if the dessert itself looks like it can support the outlandish, and carry it off as “gourmet.”
Back to the cake: I decided to go with a beloved and trusty Olive Oil Cake (coming to the blog one of these days!) for the base of my recipe, but borrowed the Food52 recipe’s technique of blending the herbs with the olive oil to make the cake green.
Instead of parsley and mint, I decided to go with basil and mint for my herbs of choice. Don’t ask me why…sheer reckless inspiration.
What stumped me for a while was what the additional element should be. A lemony mascarpone filling? Chocolate buttercream? Strawberry whipped cream? I finally settled on a light and delicate pistachio Chantilly cream. First of all, it’d be green, and it would be so naturally. That’s exactly what I wanted in this St. Patrick’s Day dessert. But secondly, I had this idea that the earthiness of the pistachio (is it earthiness? You know that distinctive pistachio flavor??) would somehow make sense of the basil mint cake.
And as an apology (meaning here: a defense) for the whole outlandish thing, I decided to construct them as delicate little teetering towers of cake the likes of which you’d see at a tea party or on the Great British Bake Off. Petite and pretty little things that’d make you exclaim: How elegant! How divine!
So I held my breath and spent an afternoon trying out the experiment. With what results?
Well I sent my 4yo armed with a plate boasting a finished cake down to the basement where my husband was working from home (#flattenthecurve). After several minutes I received a text message.
“This cake is kinda magical,” he said.
He’s not one to flatter.
Now, magical maaaaay not be what you’re looking for in your St. Patrick’s Day dessert. If you want something obscenely indulgent, I suggest you try out our Guinness Brownie Fudge with Baileys Brown Butter Icing. (I still plan to make those too!) But if you want a fun baking project with showstopping results and a flavor profile that’s a bit on the sophisticated side, then this one’s for you.
basil mint cake with pistachio chantilly cream
makes seven 2.75-inch cakes (see note)
Ingredients:
[for the basil mint cake:]
20 grams (about 1 package, or 1 cup lightly packed) fresh mint leaves
50 grams (about 2 cups lightly packed) fresh basil leaves
3/4 cup olive oil
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 1/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup milk
[for the pistachio marzipan:]
4 ounces shelled, unsalted roasted or raw pistachios (with skins removed) *see updated note!
1 cup (4 oz) powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons (1 oz) olive oil
2 tablespoons (1 oz) water
[for the pistachio chantilly cream:]
4 oz of pistachio marzipan (above)
12 oz (1 1/2 cups) heavy whipping cream
[for the pistachio praline:]
1/4 cup pistachios, chopped fine
1/4 cup white sugar
special equipment: half sheet baking pan, parchment paper, food processor, immersion blender with cup or a large jar, acetate strips, approximately 2.75” round cookie cutter (or biscuit cutter without handle—I love my nesting set like these), piping bag, tape
Directions:
Prepare the pistachio “marzipan.” In the bowl of a food processor, grind the pistachios until they create a smooth paste, pausing to scrape down the bowl as needed. This will take anywhere from 5-10 minutes. Add powdered sugar and kosher salt and run the processor another minute or two to combine. Scrape down sides. While the food processor is running, add the olive oil, then the water, in a steady stream. Scoop the pistachio “marzipan” into an airtight container and store in the fridge. (**This makes more than you will need for the chantilly cream, but the extras taste oh-so-delicious by the spoonful, or spread on toast.)
Bake the basil-mint cake. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottom of a half sheet baking sheet, aka cookie sheet (these Nordic Ware ones are my favorite), with parchment paper and grease lightly. In a food processor, pulse the fresh mint and basil leaves until chopped into small pieces. Stop the processor, scrape down the sides, and then add the olive oil in a slow stream with the processor running. (Many processors have this capability to do a small stream through the lid/chute while it’s still running, but if yours doesn’t, you can just add the olive oil all at once.) Process until well combined. Set aside.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, add eggs and beat at medium speed until foamy. Add sugar, and continue to beat at medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and then add the basil-mint oil in a steady stream while the mixer is running at low speed until combined. Add half of flour, stir on low speed until just combined. Add all of the milk and stir again at low speed until just combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add the remaining flour and stir until just combined and no flour pockets remain.
Pour the batter into prepared pan, spread evenly, and bake at 350 degrees until golden and the cake springs back when you press it lightly in the center, about 15-20 minutes. Set aside to cool in pan.
Make the pistachio chantilly cream. In an immersion blender cup, or smoothie cup, or large glass jar (something relatively tall and narrow), place 4 oz. of the chilled pistachio marzipan and the heavy whipping cream. Use immersion blender to blend the pisachio paste and heavy cream together, gently moving the wand up and down, until it forms a thick, creamy frosting-like consistency. (An immersion blender works better here than a whisk because it incorporates less air and creates a stabler finished product. If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can use a food processor, but monitor it closely because it will go fast!) Spoon pistachio chantilly cream into a piping bag fitted with a round piping/filling tip (or just put in a ziplock bag and snip off the corner). See note below about the color.
Assemble the cakes. Flip the cooled sheet of cake out onto a large sheet of parchment paper, or a large clean cutting board, or a silicon pastry mat. Peel off layer of parchment paper stuck to the bottom of the cake. Use a round biscuit/cookie cutter to cut as many circles as you can out of the sheet cake, preferably in multiples of three (for three-layer mini cakes!). I used a 2.75-inch round cutter and was able to get 21 circles of cake that made 7 fully assembled cakes. (See notes for ideas on different size cakes; for instance, a single larger layer cake.)
Measure out a strip of acetate by wrapping it around the outer edges of the round cutter and using scissors to cut to size. On a small square of parchment paper just larger than the size of your round cutter, place the round cutter upside down. (Using a parchment square underneath makes it easier to transport the individual cakes until you are ready to plate them.) Fit the acetate strip so that it stands inside the round cutter. Place one round of cake inside and push it all the way down so it lays flat. Pipe a layer of cream on top of the cake inside the acetate. Top with another circle of cake pressing down gently, and pipe another layer of cream, and then top with final layer of cake and top layer of cream. (Note: You may want to wait to pipe the top layer of cream until you have finished assembling all of your mini-cakes, so you can divide the last bit of cream to top them evenly— the recipe given for the chantilly cream makes just enough and not any extra.)
Use scotch tape to tape the edge of the acetate strip down so that it keeps its shape, then carefully lift up the round cutter. Repeat steps 7&8 until you have assembled all your little cakes. Store in a covered container, or place on a tray and cover tops with plastic wrap, in the fridge until ready to serve, up to 1-2 days in advance.
Prepare the pistachio praline. Preheat a medium-sized pan over medium heat. Add chopped pistachios and sugar and reduce heat to low. Cook, stirring continuously, until the sugar melts and turns golden. Remove from heat immediately and scrape praline mixture onto a cutting board to cool. Once completely cool, break or chop into bits if stuck together and store in an airtight container.
When you are ready to serve the cakes, remove them from the fridge, place on a plate or serving platter, peel off the scotch tape and gently unwrap the acetate strip. Top with a sprinkling of pistachio praline.
notes:
cake size: you can cut these cakes any size you want, and you’ll make more or fewer cakes depending on the size of your round cutter. (I love my nesting set of round cutters, similar to these.) I went with a 2.75” cutter because that seemed about right to me for personal-sized cakes, but you may very well want to make more cakes that are littler in size (I’m thinking now of those adorable shot-glass sized cakes at the bakery counter of Whole Foods.) You could also opt to make one large approximately 6-inch round cake, in which case you’d want to have an adjustable cake ring for assembly.
make ahead: the basil-mint olive oil can be made ahead and stored in the fridge a day or two in advance. The pistachio marzipan can be made ahead and stored in the fridge up to a week in advance. The pistachio chantilly cream can be made ahead and stored in the fridge up to a week in advance. The pistachio praline can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container on the counter for at least a week. The fully assembled cakes can be made ahead and stored in the fridge wrapped in acetate at least a day or two in advance (I didn’t test them any longer than that!).
acetate strips: I ordered these acetate strips when I was making the Milk Bar Birthday Cake. They come in two different sizes, and I found the 3” ones were perfect for this recipe.
pistachios: you can use either raw or roasted, and this will vary the intensity of the flavor. Stella Parks (inspiration recipe) explains how removing the skins makes all the difference in purity of flavor for pistachios. I did not blanch and peel my pistachios, but used raw pistachio nutmeats with good results (the ones sold at TJ’s are steam treated and seem to have most of the skins removed already).
the green color: the cake itself comes out a lovely mossy green which I was satisfied with, although the Food52 recipe notes that if you want to intensify the color you can put the cake batter in the fridge for a few hours to sit for even more. Since the two cake recipes (the inspiration recipe and the one I actually used) are fairly similar in technique, I don’t see why that wouldn’t work if you want to try it! For the pistachio cream, roasted pistachios have a deeper flavor but also run a little yellower than unroasted. To counter the yellow hue, you can add a drop of blue food coloring to the chantilly cream while you are blending it, which will cool down the color and make it more of a typical St. Patrick’s Day green.
Cake recipe inspired by Roberta’s Parsley Cake in Food52’s Genius Desserts but adapted from a beloved Olive Oil Cake recipe that will be shared on the blog at some point but whose origins I frankly don’t know; Pistachio Marzipan and Pistachio Chantilly Cream adapted from Stella Parks’ recipes for Pistachio Paste and Pistachio Cream, respectively.