We’ve been fortunate enough to celebrate special occasions with our extended family lately. And whenever we do, we meet at my parents’ house, and my Mum lays out a gorgeous spread. And my job is to bring dessert, which I am more than happy to do!
For one of our family dinners, I wanted to do a cake. And I had seen the prettiest little rose-shaped tea cakes in Small Plates and Sweet Treats by Aran Goyoaga. Which got me obsessing about buying this bug-shaped Bundt pan. But in the end, I decided to use something I already had, and went with a big 10″ Bundt pan.
It worked out most beautifully, and I think I made a classier cake in the traditional Bundt shape. I dusted the cake with powdered sugar, and then decided it needed to be topped and surrounded by chopped pistachios. I love their green colour!
The flavour in the cake comes from ground pistachios, lemon zest, and lavender sugar. I was so happy to get lavender sugar as gifts from two of my favourite people (Pem and Nicole) recently, so it’s been going into all my baked goods. And I truly love the lavender/lemon combination so I had to use it here. You can even make your own lavender sugar — just make sure you use food-grade lavender to do so. And if you don’t like lavender, plain sugar will still give you a gorgeous lemon/pistachio cake.
I think that the pistachios, olive oil, and coconut milk make for a deliciously moist cake. The texture is perfect — which I think is why everyone liked it so much!
In fact, this cake was such a hit that my Dad proclaimed it his favourite. And last time, when I brought a different cake to dinner, everyone asked if it was this cake, and then was crestfallen that I’d made something else. Lesson learned, this cake is a winner.
Gluten-Free Lavender-Lemon Pistachio Cake
This cake looks gorgeous baked as a big Bundt cake, or as little tea cakes. And besides from being gorgeous, it is moist, lemony, and delicious. My Dad claimed it was the best dessert I’ve ever made, and the rest of my family was shocked to find out it was gluten-free. I do think it’s my new favourite cake. Adapted from “pistachio-rose cakes” from Small Plates and Sweet Treats by Aran Goyoaga; Makes one 10″ Bundt cake.
- 160g (1 cup) unsalted pistachios, shelled
- 300g (1 1/2 cups) lavender sugar
- zest of 1 lemon
- 4 eggs
- 160 ml (2/3 cup) coconut milk
- 160 ml (2/3 cup) olive oil
- 80g arrowroot starch (a.k.a. arrowroot flour)
- 52g (1/3 cup + 1 Tablespoon) millet flour
- 56g (1/2 cup) amaranth flour
- 32g (1/4 cup) sorghum flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- icing sugar, for dusting
- 40g (1/4 cup) pistachios, finely chopped, for dusting
Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a 10″ Bundt pan with butter or coconut oil.
Place the shelled pistachios, sugar, and lemon zest in the bowl of your food processor. Pulse until you have a fine powder.
Add the eggs, coconut milk, and olive oil to the food processor, and pulse to mix all of the ingredients. Add the arrowroot, millet, amaranth, sorghum, baking powder, and salt, and pulse until you have a smooth and pourable batter.
Fill the greased Bundt pan with the batter (it will fill to about halfway), and bake for 22-25 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove from the pan and let cool on a rack.
Before serving, use a sieve to dust the cake with icing sugar, and sprinkle with the chopped pistachios.
Enjoy, and remember to store any leftovers in the fridge.
Kitchen Operas 
Your idea of using different types of flour is really a good one, I was thinking to use rice flour instead of millet flour. Please suggest..
You’d be fine using brown rice flour instead of millet flour. White rice flour would change the texture, but I think it would work well too. Let me know what happens if you experiment!
I will definitely trying the recipe with brown rice flour, will tell ya how it turns out… 🙂
Hi! This seems so delicious; I am buying the ingredients this week!
I have a question! I read you make lavender sugar it by mixing ordinary sugar and lavender, or icing sugar and lavender. I was wondering if we can use any other sugar in this recipe, for ex. making it with coconut sugar mixed with lavender? or other? will it do about the same result?
Thanks for helping!
And thanks for sharing all these!!! Have a nice day!
Marie-Claude
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Hi Marie-Claude!
I think coconut sugar and lavender would make gorgeous lavender sugar… however, coconut sugar does bake up differently than cane sugar in recipes. I’d give it a try, but be aware that the final texture will change dramatically (I’ve found baked goods with coconut sugar to be denser and more moist, with more caramel flavour).
Let me know if you try it!