This moist and fluffy Vegan Pistachio Cake has delicate nutty flavors from real pistachios! Decorated with a silky smooth vegan pistachio buttercream, it’s a show-stopping dessert that’s perfect for spring.
Looking for more vegan cakes to make this spring? Try my Vegan Lemon Poppyseed Cake, Vegan Strawberry Cake, Vegan Lemon Blueberry Lavender Cake, and Vegan Lemon Cake.
This elegant yet easy Vegan Pistachio Cake is a must for Saint Patrick’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, or any get-together during spring!
Made with everyday vegan baking staples and real pistachios, this cake boasts sophisticated nutty flavors and an almost impossibly moist yet light and fluffy crumb in all three layers. But the best part is the silky vegan pistachio buttercream you’d never guess is dairy-free! With its light green hue and irresistible nutty fragrance, this cake was made to impress.
Why you’ll love this vegan pistachio cake
- Real pistachio flavors – Ground pistachios + almond extract are responsible for the delicate nutty flavors in the cake layers, while pistachio butter adds flavor and richness to the vegan buttercream.
- A sophisticated dessert – All three layers of this cake showcase subtle yet elegant nutty flavors that will impress anyone who takes a bite!
- Perfect for spring – Add a few fresh flowers or berries on top of the cake and serve everyone a slice at Easter, Mother’s Day, backyard get-togethers, or birthday parties.
How to make a vegan pistachio cake
Find the complete recipe with measurements in the recipe card below.
Stir the soy milk and apple cider vinegar together in a large bowl. Set it aside to curdle for 1 minute, then whisk in the sugar, yogurt, melted vegan butter, vanilla, and almond extract.
Process the pistachios in a food processor until fine and crumbly.
Add the pistachio crumbs, cake flour, baking powder, and salt to the bowl with the wet ingredients. Stir until just combined. If desired, mix in a few drops of green food coloring.
Instead of green food coloring, experiment with 1 to 2 teaspoons of matcha powder in the cake!
Divide the batter into the cake pans and bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Afterward, set the cakes aside to cool while you make the frosting.
Beat the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer until it’s smooth. Add the pistachio butter and gradually mix in the powdered sugar on low speed. Add the cream or milk and vanilla extract and mix until everything is well combined and smooth.
If the frosting seems too thick, stir in a little more cream. If it’s too thin, add more powdered sugar.
Place one cake layer on a cake stand and frost the top. Place the second layer on top, frost it, and place the third cake layer on top of the second. Frost the tops and sides of the cake.
Decorate it with chopped pistachios if desired, then slice and enjoy!
Frequently asked questions
Cake flour is best for the light and fluffy crumb but you can use all-purpose flour as a substitute if that’s what you have on hand. You can also make homemade cake flour by mixing all-purpose flour and cornstarch together. Check out this Cake Flour Substitute Guide from Sally’s Baking Addiction to learn how it’s done.
Yes! Almond extract is the secret to enhancing the pistachio flavor. Pistachios have a very subtle flavor and without the extract, the cake wouldn’t taste nearly as nutty.
I personally love the vegan pistachio buttercream frosting in this recipe because it’s nutty, creamy, and smooth. My Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting or Vegan Buttercream Frosting are good options, too. When you want to go all out, try my Swiss Meringue Buttercream.
Wrap each baked, cooled, and unfrosted cake layer in a layer of plastic wrap and store them in the fridge for 4 to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
The frosted cake should be kept covered, either in an airtight container or in a cake carrier, and stored on the kitchen counter or in the fridge. At room temperature, it will last for about 5 days.
Vegan Pistachio Cake
Ingredients
Pistachio Cake
- 1 1/2 cups unsweetened soy milk
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup vegan yogurt plain or vanilla
- 1 cup melted vegan butter
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 cup roasted salted pistachios shelled
- 3 cups cake flour*
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- optional few drops green food coloring
Pistachio Buttercream
- 1 cup vegan butter softened to room temperature
- 1/4 cup pistachio butter*
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons vegan cream or plant milk
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- chopped pistachios for decorating cake
Instructions
Preparation
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F place the rack in the middle of the oven.
- Grease 3 8-inch round cake pans with oil or vegan butter. Place a round of parchment paper on the bottom for easy removal later.
Make the cakes
- In a large bowl, combine the soy milk and apple cider vinegar. Give it a little stir, then let sit for 1 minute to curdle. Now add the sugar, yogurt, melted vegan butter, vanilla and almond extracts and whisk well to combine.
- In a food processor, add the pistachios and process until fine and crumbly, but don't let it get pasty like pistachio butter!
- To the wet ingredients, add the pistachio crumbs, cake flour, baking powder and salt. Stir with a large spoon until combined, but don't over mix the batter. If desired, mix in a few drops of green food coloring.
- Divide the batter evenly into the pans and bake in the center rack of the oven for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Let the cakes cool for 15 minutes in the pans, then carefully transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
Make the frosting and decorate
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or a large bowl with a handheld mixer, beat the butter until smooth, about 2 minutes.
- Add the pistachio butter and 1 cup of the powdered sugar and mix on low speed. Continue adding a cup of powdered sugar at a time until it's all mixed in.
- Add the cream (or milk) and vanilla extract. Beat on medium speed for 3-4 minutes, until everything is well combined and smooth.
- If the frosting seems too thick, add a little more cream. If it's too thin, add more powdered sugar.
- Place one cake layer on a cake stand and frost, followed by the next two layers. Finally, frost the top and sides of the cake and decorate, as desired with chopped pistachios.
Notes
- You can use all purpose flour instead of cake flour, but the cake will be more dense. You can also make your own cake flour if you can’t find any. Gluten free flour may work, but results will vary.
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To make pistachio butter, simply place 1 1/2 cups of pistachios in a food processor and process until a butter is formed. You can also leave it out, or use my Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting instead.
This recipe is absolutely DELICIOUS! I made it with Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 flour, adding the cornstarch as indicated in the recipe for cake flour. I also made a filling like that in the Dubai chocolate bars. It contained kataifi, pistachio cream & tahini. It gave it and interesting crunch. which might not appeal to everyone, but I like it. Next time I may do a chocolate drip for added fun.
Thanks so much for creating and sharing this recipe, Nora. I know I can always count on you to have delicious and easy recipes.
Hi Geralyn. I’m so glad that you loved the pistachio cake recipe! Your filling sounds interesting and amazing! Thank you for sharing your stellar review, and for loving my recipes! Happy cooking!
I cannot wait to try this recipe! I’m so excited! Question though: since this recipe includes a yogurt and vinegar, do you think using baking soda instead of baking powder would give a better lift to the batter? I noticed some saying it was on the dense side. Thoughts?
Would this recipe work with a gluten free flour?
With a quality gluten-free flour mix, it should work quite well. The texture might be a bit more dense. I like King Arthur Measure for Measure flour, or Better Batter. Enjoy!
This is absolutely the best vegan cake I’ve tried yet! My husband likes it more than spice cake (and I NEVER saw that coming!) and my son who generally doesn’t eat many sweets LOVES this too! TOTAL WINNER! Thank you Nora.
You and your family are welcome! I am thrilled that you are all loving this cake! Thank you for taking time to share your terrific review and comments! Wishing you happy cooking!
Made this for my birthday last week. I was the only vegan and we all loved it. First time making a pistachio cake but it won’t be the last time!
Nora scores another hit!!!
Hi Joanne, and happy birthday! I’m so glad that you loved the cake recipe! Thank you for sharing your terrific review and comments! Happy cooking to you!
This recipe is absolutely delicious and has been the most requested cake from my friends and family!!
Hi Lili. I am thrilled that the cake is a hit with your friends and family! Thank you for taking time to share your glowing review! Happy cooking!
Can I make this in a Bundt pan? I would assume I’d need to bake it longer. I’ve made it before as a layer cake and it’s being requested for a Christmas party!
Yes, it should work fine in a bundt cake pan. You’ll need to bake it for longer, perhaps around an hour. Do a toothpick check; when it comes out clean, it’s done. Enjoy!
Hello! I have only 9 inch cake pans…I really would love to try this cake out, what should I do?! 😂
Thanks!!
Danie
9 inch cake pans should be fine, the cakes will just be a tad shorter, no problem. Enjoy!
I’m so excited to try another one of your fabulous recipes!
I have a question about making the pistachio butter for the frosting. Do I use raw or roasted/salted pistachios?
Thanks!
I usually use roasted and salted both in the cake and for the pistachio butter in the frosting. I hope you love this cake!
I loved this cake. It was so nutty and flavorful. The only subs I made were all-purpose flour rather than cake flour, and pistachio emulsion rather than almond extract. It had an excellent crumb to it.
can this recipe be used for cupcakes?
Hi Colleen. This recipe can totally be made into cupcakes! Bake for 18-22 minutes. Enjoy!
The pistachio cake was delicious. Can I modify this for hazelnuts. One to one replacement with the pistachios?
Hi Daniel. I’m so glad you loved the cake! Thanks for your terrific review! I have not tried this with hazelnuts however, I think it could work. Let me know if you try it!
It worked with hazelnuts. I did a one to one substitution.
Thank you for this recipe! Everybody loved the cake
Hi Nora! My husband and I had an amazing (vegan) pistachio lemon cake last spring, which I am hoping to approximate for my birthday. While I can certainly use soy milk, I’m wondering if using pistachio milk would help amp the nutty flavor without using almond extract. Do you think that’s doable? or will the lower protein content (lower than soy) in the pistachio milk alter the recipe significantly? Thanks so much!
Pistachio milk should work just fine in place of soy, I don’t think it will be a problem and you’re right, it may add even more flavor. I haven’t really seen pistachio milk at stores, but it sounds good! I hope you enjoy this cake for your birthday. 🙂
Michelle, did you end up using Pistachio milk??? How was it?? It is my husband birthday and I also want to make him this cake! Also–GREAT idea for the almond extract!!!
This cake was great, but also quite dense. The density was good, but I wonder if there are ways to dial the density down and it still being a great cake?
Ps, the carrot cake and chocolate cakes are long time favourites. Love this site and I’m not vegan.
Great recipe. Delicious cake. I made it with gluten-free flour (Bobs Red Mill All Purpose Baking Flour – red label). My gluten-free friends loved it. My “give me all the gluten” spouse, thought the flavor was great, but the texture was too dry and said “this needs gluten.” Just wanted to share for those curious about using gluten-free flour.
Hi Meg. Thank you for sharing your helpful recipe experience and feedback! I’m so glad that you loved the cake! I appreciate your stellar review! Wishing you lots of happy cooking!
Thanks for sharing Meg! I was considering trying with Gluten-free flour.
Can you please clarify whether the butter should be salted or unsalted? Thanks!
I always use salted unless I say otherwise. I often can’t find unsalted and it didn’t used to exist so I just stick with salted. 🙂
Hi Nora, I have made this cake before and it is delicious!! I am making it again for my birthday, and want to know if I can use almond milk instead of soy and can I use two pans instead of three?
Thank you for all of your amazing recipes.
Judith
Hi Judith. How fun that you are loving the cake and it’s your chosen birthday treat! It will be too much cake batter for only two pans, but you could do a few things. 1. Save 1/3 of the batter, bake two layers, remove from the pans, then bake the final layer in one of the pans. 2. Divide some batter into 2 pans, then take the last 1/3 of the batter and make some cupcakes. 🙂 Thanks for sharing your glowing review! Hope this information helps, and you have a wonderful birthday!
Made this for Father’s Day. It was fantastic! Had to avoid almonds (allergy); I found pistachio extract to use instead, which further reinforced the pistachio flavor – delicious!
Hi Sarah. Thanks for sharing your recipe experience and glowing review! I’m so glad you loved the cake!
The texture of this was incredible. It was so pretty, fluffy, and moist!
Though DELICIOUS, the almond extract is quite noticeable and I may try with pistachio extract next time. It was just as much an “almond” cake and I want pistachio to be the star!
It was also very sweet. I’m a junk food vegan and not one to complain about sugar, but I was wondering if there are any recommendations to reduce the sugar a bit without sacrificing the fluffy texture.
All in all, this was a really great recipe and it impressed my family! Thank you!
Is there a swap for the vegan yogurt?
Hi Reina. You can use either two flax eggs (2 tbs ground flaxseeds + 5 tbs water) or aquafaba that has been lightly whipped (I’d use 1 cup whipped aquafaba) in place of yogurt. Enjoy!
Best cake EVER ! Spectacular!
A friend brought this cake to the vegan rescue I volunteer at – everyone was raving about it !! So unique and a nice a change from the usual chocolate or vanilla cake
The dense moist texture really makes it special – it’s almost like a pound cake – I’m going to experiment with it and try an almond version – Thank you for sharing your amazing veganized recipes – they make so many people happy !😃
You are welcome, Gail! I appreciate YOU sharing your wonderful words! They are so encouraging! I’m glad the cake was a hit, and look forward to you sharing how your almond version turns out! Thanks for your glowing review! Happy cooking!
hiya! this recipe sounds so amazing, but i dont have a food processor, just a blender so it likely wont be able to handle dry pistachios. do you think the recipe would work if i blended them into the wet ingredients? 🙂
Hmmm, I actually don’t think that would be a good idea. I would chop them finely by hand if you don’t have a food processor. I hope you can enjoy the cake!
Hey Nora! I was wondering if there’s anything extra I should do/add if I’m using raw, unsalted pistachios? the shop I get my nuts from only sells them like that. I’m going to check a couple of other stores, but we’ll see. Thanks for the amazing recipes!
You don’t need to do anything different, they should work just fine. Enjoy!
Hi there! Excited to try this out, but wanted to try making it in a sheet pan instead. Would this require any major substitutions or changes to the recipe?
As a sheet cake, pour the batter into a 11×17 inch sheet pan and bake for around 25 minutes or so, checking with a toothpick. I hope you enjoy the cake!
I am not a baker and have zero experience making cakes. Followed this recipe to make a birthday cake for hubby’s 60th and cant tell you how delicious it turned out. i was in shock and the family only believed I made it becaue of the shoddy frosting job LOL! We normally buy vegan cakes from different places hoping one of them would wow us and now I know with Nora’s recipes, we dont need those subpar cakes!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!
Hi Jayasree! Happy birthday to your husband! I am thrilled that the cake turned out great! I hope you enjoy some of the other cakes I posted on my site as well! Thanks for your fun and glowing review and feedback! Wishing you lots of happy cooking!
I made it for my twin daughters’ birthday, they’re both vegan, everyone loved it. I found it a little dense. Is there a way to lighten it or make it fluffier next time? I want to make it in a couple days and I was wondering. Thank you.
I’m so glad everyone loved it! You said you found it a little dense, did you use cake flour or regular all purpose flour? Cake flour makes the cake much lighter and fluffier which is why I ask. It’s perhaps a bit more dense that some cakes due to the added ground nuts, but I still find it pretty fluffy.
I did use cake flour. Honestly they raved about it so I think you’re right. I’m making it again as we’re getting together this weekend!
This is was hit at my birthday. The pistachio butter took a bit of work, but it was worth the effort. People couldn’t believe it was vegan!
Hi Daniel. Happy birthday to you! I’m so glad the cake was a hit! Thanks for sharing your stellar review and feedback!