Pistachio Raspberry Marble Pound Cake
This pound cake is easy and delicious with made with two of my favorite flavors raspberry and pistachios. It’s buttery and moist, perfect afternoon treat with coffee or anytime of the day.
I love pound cake and basically snack cakes without frosting. I don’t care for frostings. Pound cakes are very versatile because you can have them with morning cup of coffee or as an afternoon snack. You can also have pound cake as dessert with fruits and ice cream or whipped cream. So delicious and buttery and easy dessert to serve.
WHAT IS A POUND CAKE?
A traditional pound cake is a pound of sugar, butter, flour and eggs. I didn’t know why it is called pound cake. When I started making them few years ago, I always questioned myself why it is called pound cake. I had to find out and that’s how I figured out.
This recipe makes a buttery but moist pound cake, do not over bake your cake and make sure your oven temperature is perfect. If you need to cook it thoroughly, then you can turn it around mid-way into baking.
The Process Of Making A Pound Cake
Like every baked cake, it starts with creaming the butter and sugar until it turns light and fluffy. This step is very important. Then eggs are added one at a time until each one is mixed in properly. Scraping the bowl after addition of every ingredient is very important. Then dry the ingredients are added in followed by milk. Pound cakes are very easy to make.
To give it marbled effect, I used pistachio cream and raspberry preserves. Divide up the batter in three equal parts, and mix in pistachio cream in one and raspberry preserves in another one. All three batter is poured in a greased 9′ x 5′ pan. It is baked at 350 F until its done for about 55 minutes. Pound Cakes take longer to bake and do get dark on top.
You can use any type of preserves like strawberry or raspberries. Do not use jam though. You want to definitely use preserves. Pistachio paste is available online or in any Italian grocery stores. Try to buy one with clean ingredients and less sugar. I bought mine from Eataly in New York.
Storage
It keeps well at room temperature tightly wrapped in plastic wrap or in a container. If your house is too hot or weather is too warm, you can store it in the refrigerator and remove it for few hours before serving or eating. You can also microwave it or slightly grill it.
This is a perfect dessert to store in the freezer for later use. Just thaw it at room temperature few hours.
Some important tips –
Make sure to always scrape the bowl in between mixing ingredients. Everything should incorporate properly.
You can use any other extract instead of vanilla.
Make sure to grease your baking pan thoroughly so that cake comes out clean when removed from the pan after baking.
I used store bought pistachio cream/paste and raspberry preserves.
Real pistachio paste is lighter in color, so if you like you can always add little food coloring to give it better green color. Same with raspberry preserves, add pink to intensify the pink.
Drier cakes are often the reason of over baking. So, do not overbake it.
A simple glaze can also be added once the cake has cooled down by using ½ cup – 1 cup of powdered sugar mixed with few tablespoons of milk and a splash of vanilla. Stir and Drizzle it over the cooled cake and you’re set!
Pistachio Raspberry Marble Pound Cake
Ingredients
- 2 sticks butter room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 eggs room temperature
- 1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup cornstarch
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- ¼ cup milk
- 3 tbsp pistachio cream/paste
- 3 tbsp raspberry preserves
- Raspberries and pistachios to garnish/serve
Instructions
- Pre heat oven to 350 F. Grease a 9' X 5' loaf pan with butter.
- In a bowl, sift and mix all-purpose flour, cornstarch, salt and baking powder. Leave it aside.
- Take butter and granulated sugar in a mixing bowl. Cream them with the help of the kitchen-aid paddle attachment until the mixture turns pale yellow, light and fluffy for about 5 minutes.
- Add one egg at a time until it gets incorporated and then add another until all eggs gets incorporated one by one.
- Mix in the dry ingredients, followed by milk and vanilla essence. Mix until everything gets incorporated.
- Divide the mixture equally in three separate bowls.
- In one of the bowls, add raspberry preserves and mix properly using a whisk. The batter should look light pink. If you like you can add one or two drops of pink color too in the batter.
- In another bowl, add pistachio cream/paste and whisk it.
- Third bowl will be plain batter.
- In a greased loaf pan, pour all three batters in lumps. See pic
- Once all the batter is used up, smooth the top of the cake with a spatula and with the help of knife, make 8 figures in the batter very gently and carefully to make the swirl pattern.
- Bake it for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then remove it on a cooling rack. Slice and serve with raspberries, chopped pistachios, and whipped cream or with some ice cream.
Notes
- Store it in the refrigerator and keep it at room temperature for few minutes or warm it up in the microwave. Did you know, pound cakes can be lightly grilled too?
- To make the glaze- take ½ cup powdered sugar and 2 tbsp. milk. Stir and drizzle on top.
- Pistachio Cream is easily available online or any Italian grocery store.
XO, Devangi