Pistachio Rose Cake Two Ways
A pistachio-flour layer cake with pink coconut-rose frosting, and a no-bake pistachio rose cheesecake with raspberries. Both are 6-inch cakes made for celebrating.
Layer cake: serves 10 · Active: 40 min · Total: 2 hr (includes cooling)
No-bake cheesecake: serves 8 · Active: 30 min · Total: 4 hr 30 min (includes freezing)
Season: garden roses bloom May–June, with repeat bloomers into fall; California pistachios are harvested September–October and keep all year · Cuisine: modern grain-free · Best eaten: at spring and summer celebrations, early afternoon
The layer cake is inspired by Sweet Laurel and their grain-free, refined-sugar-free, naturally pink aesthetic. It’s four thin pistachio-flour layers with a coconut-butter frosting tinted pink with beet juice, finished with roses and pistachios. It’s the cake for a bridal shower, a Mother’s Day brunch or a small garden wedding.
The no-bake cheesecake is a pistachio-date crust, a hidden layer of fresh raspberries and a pale green cashew-pistachio filling scented with rose water. Make it a day or more ahead and it waits in the freezer.
Pistachio flour is the star of both. It has more flavor than almond flour, with a deeper, savory-sweet taste and a soft green color. Love this flavor pairing? Try my Pistachio-Rose Almond Walnut Cookies.
Way 1 · Pistachio Rose Layer Cake
Ingredients
Cake (one 6-inch, four-layer cake)
2 cups pistachio flour. You can grind your own: pulse 2 heaping cups of shelled unsalted pistachios in a clean, dry food processor about 30 seconds, stopping before it turns to butter.
½ cup blanched almond flour or hazelnut flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp Baja Gold sea salt
3 pasture-raised eggs, at room temperature
½ cup pure maple syrup
¼ cup coconut oil, melted
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
Coconut-butter rose frosting
¾ cup coconut butter (coconut manna), softened
¾ cup full-fat coconut milk
3 tbsp pure maple syrup
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1–2 tsp rose water, to taste (or 1 drop food-grade rose oil, added from a toothpick)
1–3 tbsp fresh-pressed beet juice. 1 tbsp gives a soft blush; 2–3 tbsp gives a brighter pink.
Decoration
Organic, pesticide-free rose petals or small roses (from your garden or a farmers’ market, never a florist bouquet)
Shelled pistachios, whole and chopped
Swaps
Hazelnut or cashew flour can replace the almond flour.
For a greener cake, use blanched (skinned) pistachios, or swap 2 tbsp of the almond flour for more pistachio flour.
The cake is already dairy-free.
Nut-free: sunflower seed flour can stand in for the nut flours, but the flavor changes. It also turns green when it meets baking soda, which is a natural reaction, harmless and fitting here.
Method
Preheat and prep. Heat the oven to 350°F. Grease two 6-inch cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment.
Mix the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk the pistachio flour, almond flour, baking soda and salt, breaking up any lumps.
Mix the wet ingredients. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, maple syrup, melted coconut oil, vanilla and vinegar.
Combine. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry until you have a smooth batter.
Bake. Divide the batter evenly between the pans. Bake 25–30 minutes, until golden and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in the pans, then turn out onto a rack and cool completely.
Make the frosting. In a small saucepan over low heat, stir the coconut butter, coconut milk, maple syrup and lemon juice until melted and completely smooth. Take it off the heat, then stir in the rose water (or oil) and beet juice. Add more beet juice for a deeper pink. Let it cool at room temperature, stirring now and then, until it’s thick and spreadable like soft frosting, 20–30 minutes. If it’s runny, add a spoonful more coconut butter; if it’s too thick, add a splash of coconut milk.
Split the layers. Use a long serrated knife to slice each cooled cake in half horizontally, giving you four thin layers.
Build the cake. Place the first layer on a cake plate and spread on about 3 tbsp of frosting. Repeat with the next two layers, then add the last layer. Spread a thin coat of frosting over the top and sides to catch the crumbs and chill 15 minutes. Then finish with the rest of the frosting.
Decorate. Arrange the roses, petals and pistachios on top.
Chill and serve. Refrigerate until serving. Coconut butter frosting firms up a lot in the fridge, so take the cake out 20–30 minutes before slicing so the frosting softens to creamy.
Make-ahead: Bake the layers 1 day ahead, wrap tightly and keep them at room temperature. Make the frosting and assemble the same day for the brightest rose and pink.
Storage: Refrigerated up to 3 days. It’s best on day 1, while the rose is most fragrant and the petals are fresh.
For 18+ guests: Double the recipe and bake in two 8-inch rounds for 30–35 minutes, then split each for four layers.
Way 2 · No-Bake Pistachio Rose Cheesecake
Ingredients
Crust
1 cup raw shelled pistachios
1 cup medjool dates, pitted
Pinch Baja Gold sea salt (skip it if your pistachios are salted)
Filling
1 cup raw cashews, soaked overnight and drained
½ cup raw shelled pistachios
⅓ cup pure maple syrup, plus more to taste
⅓ cup filtered water
⅓ cup coconut oil, melted
¼ cup packed fresh spinach (for color; you won’t taste it)
2 tsp rose water, plus more to taste
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
Pinch Baja Gold sea salt
Raspberry layer and garnish
¾ cup fresh raspberries
1 cup pistachios, roughly chopped
Pink rose petals, dried or fresh
Method
Prep the pan. Grease a 6-inch springform pan with coconut oil and line the bottom with parchment.
Make the crust. Pulse the pistachios, dates and salt in a food processor until finely textured and sticky. Squeeze a small handful: if it holds, it’s ready.
Press. Press the crust firmly into the base of the pan, building the edges up slightly.
Make the filling. Blend all the filling ingredients in a high-speed blender for 2–3 minutes until completely smooth, scraping down the sides as needed. Taste and adjust the rose water or maple syrup.
Add the raspberries. Scatter them evenly over the crust.
Pour. Pour the filling over the raspberries and smooth the top with an offset spatula.
Freeze. Freeze at least 4 hours, or overnight, until completely firm.
Serve. Take it out 30 minutes before serving. Unmold it, then garnish with chopped pistachios and rose petals. Slice with a knife warmed under hot water and wiped dry.
Storage: Freeze up to 2 months, or refrigerate up to 5 days.
Nourishment Notes
Pistachios are one of the few plant foods with all nine essential amino acids. They’re also rich in vitamin B6, copper and manganese, and higher in potassium per ounce than almonds. They’re one of the only nuts with meaningful amounts of lutein and zeaxanthin, the same pigments found in egg yolks and leafy greens. These collect in the macula of the eye, where they help filter high-energy blue light. That makes pistachios a nice fit for spring and summer, when days are longer and the sun is stronger.
Almond or hazelnut flour adds vitamin E, magnesium and monounsaturated fats. Pasture-raised eggs bring complete protein, choline and the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K2. Their lecithin is a natural emulsifier, which is what gives the layer cake its tender crumb.
Coconut butter is whole coconut meat ground into a paste. Unlike coconut oil, it keeps the fiber and minerals, and it makes a creamy, lightly sweet frosting with no powdered sugar or shortening. Coconut oil in the cake and cheesecake is mostly lauric acid. It’s solid when cold, which is why the cheesecake sets firm in the freezer and softens as it sits out.
Beet juice turns the frosting pink with betalains, the same red-purple pigments that make beets red, which have antioxidant activity. At this amount you can’t taste the beet, especially with the lemon and rose in there. Spinach does the same for the cheesecake, deepening the green with chlorophyll and no flavor.
Rose has flavored sweets in Persian, Turkish, Indian and Levantine kitchens for centuries, almost always alongside nuts or dairy. A little lightens rich, fatty sweets and adds a floral lift that works with green pistachio and red raspberry. Use edible rose petals only from your own garden or a pesticide-free grower; florist roses are sprayed with chemicals not meant for food.
Raspberries bring fiber, vitamin C and tartness to cut the cheesecake’s richness.
Maple syrup adds trace manganese and zinc, but it’s still sugar, so slice thin.
When to eat it: this is celebration food, best in the early afternoon at spring and summer gatherings: Mother’s Day, showers, anniversaries, garden parties. Pair it with a small glass of dry sparkling wine, or skip the alcohol with sparkling water, rose and a squeeze of lemon, an unsweetened mint-and-rose tea, or chilled lavender lemonade.
For your cycle: in the follicular and ovulatory phases, the fresh raspberries, floral notes and lighter cheesecake fit those brighter weeks. In the luteal phase, the eggs, pistachios and coconut make the layer cake a steadier way to celebrate, since the protein and fat soften the sugar hit.
Sourcing
Pistachios and pistachio flour: California-grown, raw and unsalted, from a farmers’ market or bulk supplier, or grind your own. Blanched (skinned) pistachios give the greenest color.
Almond or hazelnut flour: finely ground and blanched, organic if you can find it
Eggs: Pete & Gerry’s or a local farm
Maple syrup: Crown Maple or Coombs Family Farms (Grade A Dark for more flavor)
Coconut butter (manna): Nutiva or Artisana
Coconut oil: cold-pressed virgin, from Nutiva or Spectrum
Coconut milk: Native Forest Organic (guar-gum-free)
Rose water: food-grade, such as Cortas, or from a Middle Eastern market
Beets for juicing: organic, from the farmers’ market. Use a juicer, or blend with a splash of water and strain through cheesecloth.
Raspberries: a farmers’ market or pick-your-own in season
Rose petals: pesticide-free, from your own garden, a farmers’ market or an edible-flower supplier (Marx Foods ships nationally)
Medjool dates: Bautista Family Organic Date Ranch or Joolies
Sea salt: Baja Gold
— Anna aka Food Marshall