Thursday, June 20, 2013

Chocolate Pistachio Swirl Cake & SRS

It's that time again for our Surprise Recipe Swap.  This is a fun swap hosted by Jutta over at Hungry Little Girl.  For the swap you are assigned a new blog partner each month and you get to look through their blog, find a recipe to try then make it and blog about it.  If you are interested please click on the link at the bottom of this post.
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This month I was assigned Heather from My Sweet Mission blog.  I was excited to check out this blog I hadn't visited before.  Heather has an amazing assortment of recipes to chose from.  I actually printed out several of her recipes to try including Patriotic {no roll} Sugar CookiesCrusty Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes, and Warm Waffle Brownies, and finally settled on her Chocolate Pistachio Swirl Cake for this swap.

Here's what you need:

1 - 18.25 oz. yellow cake mix, I use Betty Crocker
1 - 3.4 oz. pistachio instant pudding
4 eggs, room temperature, I use extra large but large will work fine
1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
1 cup water
1/2 cup chocolate syrup

Chocolate Glaze:

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3 Tbs. butter, room temperature
1/4 cup milk, room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup powdered sugar
15 - 20 pistachio nuts, shelled and chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a bundt pan with cooking spray and set aside.
In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer combine the cake mix, pudding, eggs, oil, and water.  Mix on medium for 2-3 minutes or until combined.  Don't forget to scrape the sides as you go.
 
Fill the bundt pan with 2/3 of the batter.
Add the chocolate syrup to the rest of the batter and stir until it's completely combined.
Pour the chocolate batter on top of the pistachio batter and do NOT mix or swirl the batters together.  It will make the swirl pattern while it cooks.  Believe me, I was skeptical and mine came out perfect :)
 
Bake for 45-50 minutes.  Start testing with a toothpick at 45 minutes.  Mine only took 47 minutes to cook and it was a small bundt pan.
Cool for 7-10 minutes in the pan before inverting onto a plate.
Cool completely.  

Now here's the tricky part.  You can place pieces of parchment paper under the cake so when you glaze it it doesn't end up a huge mess (ahem) or you can glaze the cake and then transfer to a clean plate (brilliant!) lol

For the glaze place the chocolate chips and butter in a pan and melt over low heat on the stove.  
Stir continuously or it might seize (harden into a blob, then you get to start over)
Remove from stove when the butter is almost all the way melted and add the milk and vanilla and stir until completely combined.
Add the powdered sugar and salt and stir until completely combined.  Use a wire whisk like me and get a major work out or you can always use beaters.
 
Drizzle glaze over the cake in a pretty back and forth pattern or you can just coat the whole cake like I did.  The benefit of having a smaller bundt pan was that the glaze completely covered the cake :)
Sprinkle with the chopped pistachios.
 
Pretty cake on a clean plate :)    Look, the cake swirled all by itself!

Serves 12-16 depending on the size of the bundt pan you use

Enjoy!
Here's the handy printable - Chocolate Pistachio Swirl Cake

If you would like to join our group please click the link below and sign up for Surprise Recipe Swap.
HungryLittleGirl

5 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness! Michelle that cake looks amazing! I am drooling! Such a lovely presentation :)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Jutta! It was fun to make and tastes delicious :)

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  2. Mmm that looks really yummy! :) Chocolate and pistachio is such a nice combination, isn't it?! Also, I’d like to invite you to come link up with me at my link party! I’d love it if you could stop by & link up some of your recipes! Here's the link: http://anyonitanibbles.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/tasty-tuesdays-15-9-recipes-youll-love.html

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  3. What a nice and fun cake! Looks great too. :)

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  4. This is a great blog and I have to congratulate you on the content. hermes jewelry

    ReplyDelete

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