Carolyn sent me a recipe for a trashy pistachio cake, and I have been wanting to make it ever since. It uses cake mix and pudding mix and stuff. I like being a purist at times, but really, I grew up on Velveeta and Hamburger Helper, so boxed cakes are right up my alley (but only if they’re doctored). Anyway, I finally found the pistachio instant pudding today (does anyone else think it is really, really strange that there is pistachio pudding mix? Why that flavor? It just doesn’t seem like a FLAVOR to me), and the rest is history. Read on for the recipe …
Carolyn’s Pistachio Cake
1 box white cake mix
1 box pistachio Jello pudding
4 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup water
8 oz sour cream
Combine and pour into a greased bundt pan. Bake at 325 for 40-45 minutes (mine took a bit longer. I did the toothpick test to check for doneness)
Frosting: Carolyn says you don’t have to frost it, but in my reality, frosting is what makes a cake!
1 container of Cool Whip
1 box pistachio Jello pudding
Whip together. Actually, I thought this frosting was a little weird. It is pretty stiff and even a tad gooey. I think next time I would mix the pudding with about 1/2 cup of milk first and then mix in the Cool Whip?
A version (w/o sour cream or frosting) is my very favorite cake. Made in a regular flat cake pan with a sprinkle of powdered sugar on top. My boyfriend calls it “twinkie cake” and one time tried (unsuccessfully) to whip up a cream filling for it.
Mmmm…I’m on weight watchers so I have to “watch my stinkin points” but I would sacrafice every one of those points for a nibble on that cake! It looks sooo yummy!!! EAT A PEICE FOR ME!!!! 🙂
I’ve made this cake with lots of other pudding flavors too, and they are all super delicious and trashy. It’s also yummy goodness with mini chocolate chips mixed in (the regular size ones sink down to the bottom of the bundt pan).
Yeah, a little strange for a pudding flavor…but have you ever had the pistachio ice cream?? It became new to me this year, and I have to admit…it is pretty yummy. Your cake looks good!
I’ve made that cake several times before. It’s really too sweet for me but some people really like it.
This is so funny…all this talk about pistachio cake and pistachio ice cream. It’s like a direct route back to the ’70s. All these things are coming back — it’s weird, it’s great, all rolled into one. I have a recipe for a “Dump Cake” that, if you don’t have it, I’ll dig out and send you. It’s a guilty pleasure, although I haven’t had it in years. It’s got yellow cake mix, cherry pie filling…I can’t remember..maybe some pineapple? You pour it all directly into the pan and stir and bake. Let me know if you don’t already have it and you’d like it.
I have a similar recipe, but it uses club soda instead of water and has chopped nuts but no sour cream. In lieu of frosting, I make a glaze of powdered sugar & Irish whiskey. While the cake is still warm in the pan I poke holes in the cake with a chopstick & pour the glaze over. It soaks into the cake & tastes wunnerful!
MMmm. Pistachio pudding. My best friend and I used to eat huge bowls of the stuff mixed with marshmallows at the dining center in college. SO good. I totally love the stuff- and will have to make the cake sometime!
i think the cool whip stuff is really supposed to be served on the side. a la mode style. 🙂
delish, right?
My SIL makes a cake like that, but it’s chocolate – and she puts a glaze on it. Yummmmmmmy.
I think pistachio, in the Jello pudding lexicon, is a color, not a flavor. I like the concept of a ‘trashy pistachio’ cake (trashy anything, really) but cannot violate my family’s rule against cake mixes. You never need a cake mix if you have the recipe for ‘Lazy Day Cake’. That’s what Grandma Mabel always said, in a very definite way. xoxo Kay
I, with apologies to Jerry Jeff Walker, like my cakes a little on the trashy side. Pistachio? The trashiest! I’m all for it! Looks great. And, really, anything with Cool Whip must be tasty, even if it does contain a lifetime supply of transfats.
The Indian restuarant in my town makes a pistachio ice cream that is very yummy and I tried re-creating it with the Jello Pistachio pudding. It turned out pretty good. Try making the pudding with a little cardamom, it’s excellent!
Pistachio? That’s not trashy, that’s exotic! And sounds delicious.
This cake has history in my family. I have a recipe for it that my mom gave to us, calling it “Watergate Cake.” It must have first become popular at the time Watergate was in the news.
I remember eating it as a little girl and loving it.
Yummy! Sounds deliciously trashy! My family used to make a fruit “salad” made with Cool Whip, pistachio pudding mix, mandarin oranges, and pineapple (both canned, of course). Sounds weird but it was strangely delicious!
Pistachio pudding! A mainstay of my diet when we were in Spokane, Fuj. I ate several boxes of the sugar-free variety a week. Couldn’t get enough of it.
I think it sounds kind of good. I remember some form of rum cake with similar cake mix and pudding components, though I don’t recall having ever made such a cake. Yum.
Childhood memories, for me. Back when my Mom cooked & baked, she loved a cake mix/’stachio pudding recipe. Hers had a runny glaze that you poured on while the cake was still warm, after having punched the top full of holes with a toothpick. It was ok, but kids (me, anyway) preferred cake that involving chocolate in some manner.
Pistachio pudding is the BEST! Another great and trashy dessert using this fine ingredient is to make a pistachio pudding pie – just mix your pudding, pour it into a pre-made pie crust (oreo cookie crust is a fantastic complementary flavor and color), let set and top with cool whip…mmm.
I have a couple of Jello cookbooks (from early 60s) that have this recipe… with variations using other flavor puddings… haute cuisine of the age, and soooo yummy. Boy, wish I still cooked..
GReat Christmas cake. My version of frosting uses a box of whipped topping(dream whip) +1 box pistachio pudding and 1 1/4 cups milk. Whip that up. Decorate the top with Shredded coconut, crushed nuts and Maraschino cherries ( Refrigerate so nice and cold)
What a fun cake! I LOVE pistachio pudding. Can’t get enough of it. Seriously.
I worked in a restaurant while I was in college, and we used to make this all the time as a layer cake. It was one of the most popular desserts; the manager had to make at least two a week. (I got to lick the spatula after she made the frosting — YUM!)
A little almond extract is very good in this cake.
It’s really too bad that you are so discriminatory about the comments that the general public is allowed to see.
Oh, that looks good. And sweet. My teeth ache already. Eat a piece for me too!
like suebob i have a watergate (pistacio pudding)cake recipe! other pudding flavors i’ve found and bought–banana and lemon. or are they not that strange? i used the lemon pudding in a similar way but i think adding lemon extract helps a lot. the pistacio cake is one of my faves–so easy!
Wow this really was easy. I used a 13 x 9 pan, a little more than a half cup of milk to blend the pudding mix and some almond extract for the frosting. What a nice color – would be nice to bring to a BBQ. I spread it this morning so I know it makes a nice chunk of breakfast too :^)
Your blog is one of my favorites – thanks for the fun.
To whomever keeps posting the nasty comments and then bitching about them being taken down: who the hell would leave something so clearly mean-spirited, pointless and rude up on their own site when there’s nothing to respond to? You don’t write anything profound, or even anything debatable. You just state rude things from your own baseless point of view. Stop trying to act like your free speech has been curtailed or something. Jeez.