chocolate cake with pistachio cream

classic chocolate can be dry and underwhelming, you can’t just add cocoa powder to a vanilla cake recipe and call it a day. cocoa is a very dry ingredient, so we need to add a bit more liquid, rather than relying only on the eggs and butter. this recipe includes brown sugar, which has molasses in it, so it lends to the moisture while giving a warming flavour, greek yoghurt helps keep it light and soft, there's coffee in there too for flavour cause we all know how well chocolate and coffee go together!

I made my own pistachio paste by blending up pistachios in a small food processer, it takes a minute but saves your wallet.

the pistachio cream is just whipping cream that has been whipped with pistachio paste and some icing sugar, super simple and tastes delicious.

cake

125g flour

37g cocoa powder

1/2tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

150g brown sugar

1 egg

112g full fat plain greek yoghurt

112g warm coffee

pistachio cream

35g pistachio paste

125g whipping cream

20g icing sugar

preheat the oven to 350F, grease a 6inch cake tin.

for the cake sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl, whisk to combine, then whisk in the brown sugar until there are no lumps left. 

make a well in the centre of the flour, then whisk in the egg, yoghurt, and coffee until a smooth batter forms. pour the cake batter into your prepared cake tin, smoothing off the top. bake for 20-30 minutes. stick a toothpick or small knife in the centre of the cake, if it comes out clean then the cake is done. leave to cool at room temp, take out of the cake tin. 

for the pistachio cream, place the pistachio paste, whipping cream and icing sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, whip until soft peaks form. you could also do this by hand with just a bowl and whisk. 

spread the cream over the top of the cooled cake, decorate with extra pistachios:)