I love me some cake. Although, I try not to have it around unless a special occasion to avoid the chance of me eating it all.

This recipe has been around a while in my house. I first had it as a child when my BFF's mom made it for us and I couldn't believe how delicious it tasted! When she told me her mom made pistachio cake, I thought it sounded nasty. Mostly because I had NO idea what I was thinking, OR what she was talking about! My family loves this now and I carry the tradition on!

I love it because it's SO EASY TO MAKE, and tastes delicious. ALso, another plus is that the icing option has much less calories and fat than traditional iced cakes. I love this though with just powered sugar sprinkled on top, along with some chopped pistachios.

Over the years though of making it over and over, I have tweaked it a bit and changed the original recipe to the one featured below! Hope you enjoy it!

Ingredients

• 1 box of gluten free vanilla cake mix (I use Bob's Red Mill Gluten free cake mix)
• 1 box pistachio pudding mix
• 1/2 cup coconut oil (I put the solid oil in microwave for 15 seconds before using)
• 1 cup ginger ale
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 tsp. almond extract
• 1/2 cup chopped pistachios
• powdered sugar for dusting on top

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a round/bundt cake pan with coconut oil. (Dust with a little bit of cake mix and/or gluten free flour if you prefer).
2. In a bowl, combine the cake and pudding mix and blend. Add coconut oil and ginger ale. Beat eggs in one at a time. Add extract, and chopped pistachios. Blend thoroughly.
3. Pour into pan.
4. Bake for 45-55 minutes. Toothpick test the cake around 45 minutes. You want the cake to be moist and not overcooked. Ovens vary differently in how they cook. I usually start testing around 45 minutes and go from there. Cake will spring back from pan when done.
5. Remove from oven and cool completely. Once cool, dust top with powered sugar or try the cool whip topping mixture below.
6. ENJOY AND LOVE IT!

Icing

Should you decide to go with an icing instead of the powered sugar, this is one I have used in the past that works great. Note that the cake must be kept cool in fridge should you use this. This also makes the cake SUPER sweet, sometimes too much for my taste, but kids love it.

• 1 12oz. tub cool whip thawed
• 1 box pistachio pudding mix
• 1 cup milk

Mix all the ingredients and refrigerate to harden frosting before placing it on cooled cake. Store in fridge.

The great thing about the cake recipe above, is that you can substitute the vanilla for gluten free chocolate cake mix, and substitute chocolate pudding mix in for the pistachio, and make the same sort of thing as a chocolate cake! Delicious!!

 

Photo Credit: http://cottonandbrass.wordpress.com/2012/04/24/recipe-box-pistachio-bundt-cake/