Comments on: pistachio petit-four cake

By: Hoda

Hoda — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:03:42 +0000

Hi Deb! I’m planning on making this cake for a friends birthday and was wondering how you think a chocolate marzipan top would hold up. I’m thinking of replacing the chocolate ganache with a marzipan or chocolate marzipan coating and was curious if you think the cakes are dense enough to hold it. Also do you have a good chocolate marzipan recipe?

By: sarah

sarah — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 03:57:29 +0000

Hi Deb! I just finished making this cake into cupcakes for a coworker’s birthday tomorrow (no need for plates and utensils that way!), and WOW, that is one delicious batter! I haven’t tasted one yet, but I’m optimistic. I halved your recipe to make only 12 cupcakes, filled the cupcakes with apricot preserves (a la your method with the irish whiskey/cream cupcakes), and then glazed. I skipped the marzipan, b/c I have never worked with it before and was nervous enough about the cupcake conversion, but if I make the cupcake version again, I’m definitely going to try a marzipan rose or two. Thanks Deb!

By: Laura

Laura — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 18:55:21 +0000

thanks for the recipe!! my friends and i loved this cake and i will definitely make it again! here’s how it turned out… http://thechaoticcupcake.blogspot.com/2009/08/pistachio-petit-four-cake.html

By: Debs

Debs — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 21:01:44 +0000

Elisa, I just made this cake (literally; it’s chilling in the fridge) and I needed 2 tubes of marzipan (they were 7 oz. each). That was enough for the three circles and a few roses. I did require a pretty good sprinkling of powdered sugar on both my countertop and my rolling pin — straight from the packaging, the marzipan was sticky (and Houston is humid). Also, I used Susan’s tip about making the roses — rolling marzipan into small balls and flattening with the bottom of a glass.

Agree with J and Lisa, above — the cake was fun to make and came together quicker than I thought it would. It’s going into the repertoire!

By: Elisa

Elisa — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:34:55 +0000

Hi, Deb!

This looks ridiculously fantastic, and I’m thinking of making it for my next birthday. I just wanted to know, that if I buy my marzipan ready from a shop, how much would I need?

Thanks for the recipe!

By: Rachel

Rachel — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 23:22:58 +0000

Just made this for a friend’s birthday in Baltimore this Friday.
A smashing success. Thanks!!
Some photos of how ours turned out:
http://redprairiepress.blogspot.com/2009/06/birthday-cake.html

By: Yael

Yael — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:10:31 +0000

Ran into this, and was thinking of perhaps making it for some occasion (I’ll find a reason!), because we bought some pistachio puree last Passover and I’ve been wanting to use what we have left.
Then read through the instructions and realised you don’t use puree, you use actual pistachios. How would you suggest to make the switch?
I guess there might be different types of those purees, what we have is non-brand (through a local baking shop), and it is made from ground pistachios and oil (I asked them), so is not sweet, but rather oily, so I can’t used it straight instead of the pistachios-ground-with-sugar, in the recipe… maybe drop some of the butter? Any ideas?

By: Lisa

Lisa — Mon, 11 May 2009 01:57:16 +0000

Also, I meant to add my own tips/observations about this recipe for the possible benefit of others who try this cake (since I had to make it twice and messed around with it a bit):

1. I used storebought marzipan and one 7-ounce tube was the perfect amount for filling and four small roses. Bought an extra tube just in case, but ended up not needing it. (though I was tempted to bust it open just to make more roses.. SO much fun!)
2. Make sure you use the parchment in the baking pan; my first parchment-less cakes stuck like crazy and were unusable, even though I greased (with Crisco) and floured the pans. (more cakey for me to snacky. just broke my heart.)
3. In the first cakes, I followed the recipe’s recommendation for the amount of pistachio; in the second cakes I doubled it (used 1 full cup) and preferred this. Also, my pistachios were salted, but I rinsed them and omitted the salt in the recipe, which worked well.
4. Like I said earlier, I plan to tweak the dark chocolate’s role in this just a bit. I thought the apricot and marzipan amounts were perfect, but I thought they and the pistachio flavor were overwhelmed by the dark chocolate.

So.. you know, not that it really matters :).. but tharr’s my two and a half cents. This cake was so much fun to make and didn’t take nearly as long as I anticipated. A keeper for sure!

By: Lisa

Lisa — Mon, 11 May 2009 00:55:41 +0000

My mother positively cried today when I made her this cake. It’s definitely the coolest cake recipe I’ve tried so far, and your instructions/tips were great. Everyone in my family said they thought the dark chocolate was a bit much, so I think the next time I make it I’ll either cut back on the amount of ganache or substitute milk chocolate for half of the dark. But oooooh, this was good. And my favorite part was making the marzipan roses per your excellent instructions. :)

By: j

Sun, 10 May 2009 23:53:48 +0000

Thanks so much for the advice… it’s just like me to panic over nothing. Anyway, In the nine inch pans it took about 20 minutes to bake, just to forwarn anyone else caught in a similar conondrum. The cake was fantastic and absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!! I made a few changes which I totally recommend. First, I used just scant of one cup of apricot preserves and I microwaved the preserves to loosen them up a bit before spreading on. Also, to keep it moist, I made a simple syrup (per deb’s instructions) with brandy and simple syrup. I was afraid to mess with the amount of pistachio in the cake per other’s suggestions, but I added a dash of almond extract to really bring out the nuttiness in the cake layers. Finally, I messed around with the marzipan quite a bit…and I totally advise anyone making this to MAKE IT IN THE FOOD PROCESSOR (this made the whole process so simple and it cake out perfectly even with my alterations)!!!!!!! I used delicious raw honey in place of half the corn syrup for superior flavor. Also, almond paste is sold in 7 oz tubes, and at 6 dollars per tube I was not about to buy another tube for the last ounce; therefore I ended up adding one ounce of raw almonds. I just let everything rip in the food processor, drizzled in a little extra honey until it all came together in a beautiful dough, and then wrapped it in a double layer of plastic wrap to keep it moist. The marzipan behaved just beautifully for me and was so delicious. Overall this was a fantastically beautiful and delicious cake and was much easier than I had anticipated.