Every month our big chain supermarkets put out free cooking magazines which I love collecting. It’s an obvious advertising ploy as the recipes “encourage” you to use their supermarket brands. While I’m not usually interested in buying their products, I am interested in their recipes. 🙂 One of the recipes I couldn’t wait to make was an Avocado and Pistachio Cake.
I bought my ingredients and eagerly waited for my avocado to ripen. Squeezing it every day, it finally felt ripe enough to use. I got my ingredients ready but left the avocado for the end as I didn’t want it to go brown. With a bench full of measured ingredients, the oven preheated and the pan ready, I cut open the avocado only to discover it wasn’t ripe. Instead of a beautiful soft inside, ready to be scooped out into the cake mix, it was tough as rubber and definitely not cake-friendly!
Thinking quickly I grabbed a ripe banana that I had waiting for another recipe and substituted it for the avocado. The result was a delicious and aromatic banana cake that I would definitely make again!
The recipe included a lemon icing which I omitted as the cake is sweet enough from the banana. As I wasn’t icing the cake, I didn’t have to wait for it to cool completely so I had a couple of slices warm from the oven. You can ice the cake if you like but I do recommend eating some while it’s still hot. And yes, I do plan on making this cake with avocado, I’ll just make sure I cut the avocado before I start.
Banana and Pistachio Cake
Ingredients
70g shelled pistachios
70g unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup caster (superfine) sugar
1 large ripe banana, mashed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup almond meal
Instructions
Preheat oven to 180C / 350F.
Line a 10cm x 21cm loaf pan with baking paper.
Process the pistachios in a food processor until they resemble breadcrumbs.
Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until combined.
Add the banana and vanilla extract and beat until combined.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.
Stir in the flour, baking powder, almond meal and pistachio meal until the mix is smooth.
Pour into prepared pan.
Bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes.
Slice and eat while warm or place on a wire rack to cool completely before icing.
vsomethingspeaks 
You would think I’d know this given how much of my life I have spent on daycation visiting the “World Famous San Diego Zoo” and it’s more Famous Pandas however, “margarita googles”may have played a role in my lack of knowledge. As one of my favorite foodies are you able to put into words how to pick avocados? I have a recipes I am great at, yet I still fail at avocado picking. I am Impressed that your knowledge extended to use of banana instead. I would have been flummoxed. I suspect you know this but on the subject of those two edibles I find a bit of avocado or banana mashed appropriately really reduces sugar and cuts calories in packaged mixes of cakes. Pureed plums, the sort found in the baby food aisle, works well in boxed chocolate brownies and provides the same sort of healthful boost. I only know this having been lectured specially about that info. Much panda hugs from Mr Wu.
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An avocado should fell tender but not mushy when you squeeze it. But even then you can get it wrong like me 🙂
I wasn’t sure if the banana would work but luckily it did.
Pureed fruits are great for reducing sugar and fat content in recipes plus they are tasty.
As I always say, recipes are a guide – just experiment and see what works for you.
Always happy for a hug from the adorable Mr Wu.
Hugs and bamboo from Fu Ni and Wang Wang down under!
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This sounds like a great recipe, and one that could easily be made gluten free, what with all the nuts and relatively small amount of flour. There are so many good wheat substitute flours out there now, easily available from my local grocery store. I’ve made more than a few good cakes and quick breads gluten free. (Not so much yeast breads, but still experimenting there!) I’m not sure I would go beyond bananas and use avocados. It’s so hard to get a perfect one!
On Wed, Apr 3, 2019 at 10:56 PM vsomethingspeaks wrote:
> Vicky V posted: “Every month our big chain supermarkets put out free > cooking magazines which I love collecting. It’s an obvious advertising ploy > as the recipes “encourage” you to use their supermarket brands. While I’m > not usually interested in buying their products, I am” >
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I can’t believe how difficult it is to tell if an avocado is ripe. I love them but so many times I’ve had to toss them out.
Brown rice flour is my go to gluten free flour. Cornmeal is another. I haven’t tried making a gluten free yeasted bread. Let me know if you’re successful 🙂
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Very quick thinking substituting banana for the avocado looks really delicious.
I hope you make the avocado and pistachio cake too that sounds quite interesting.
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I definitely want to make the avocado cake. The picture of it looks a lovely shade of green which appeals to me 🙂
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Vicky you are such a Beautiful Accomplished Vampire 🧛♀️. Attraction to green cake indeed! I think you are marvelous
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I love pistachios and bananas. This looks amazing! I never thought of putting them together in a cake. You are so creative! I wonder how the avocado would be, too — never thought about an avocado cake. (I know it can take forever for avocados to ripen.) Have you ever tried pistachio ice cream? That is my favorite. I bet it would be great as a side to this cake! 🙂
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I love pistachio ice cream! If I make this again, or the avocado version, I’ll definitely try it with pistachio ice cream 🙂
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