Pistachio Cake is a delicious cake recipe that I enjoyed while growing up. You use a boxed cake mix and add some additional ingredients to this and you have a wonderfully fresh-tasting pistachio cake. My grandmother McDowell was often made pistachio cake when I went to go visit her. You can prepare this as a double-layered cake or even in a 13 x 9-inch pan. Both are equally as good. This lovely cake has also been referred to as a “Watergate Cake.”
This pistachio cake has been a favorite around my family for a long, long, time. We have often made this cake for St. Patricks Day, because of the color, but it’s so good, you should have it more than once a year!
This cake is made with a couple of boxes of pudding mix. The pudding mix makes the cake extra moist, it also adds a really nice subtle hint of pistachio. This recipe was originally made with a different size of cake mix, cake mixes used to be 18 ounces, and now they are 15.25 ounces, so I adjust this recipe by adding 3 tablespoons of flour. We don’t need to worry about extra leavening agents because of the 3 eggs in this recipe.
This recipe also uses an ingredient you may not have tried before. Dream Whip is a powder that is mixed with milk and vanilla to make a whipped dessert topping. Dream whip has a flavor that isn’t too strong that it will overpower the pistachio flavor of the pudding. You can find Dream Whip in the baking section of most grocery stores.
This cake must be refrigerated because of the delicate frosting. This isn’t the type of cake you can leave on your countertop. I feel it really helps to give the cake that extra bit of panache. The flavor is unique, and the cool refreshing cake really hits the spot.
I hope you enjoy this cake as much as my family has over the years.
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Pistachio Cake
Ingredients
Cake Ingredients
- 15.25 ounces cake mix white or yellow
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 1 package (4 serving size) pistachio instant pudding mix
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup club soda or water
- 1/2 cup oil
- 1/2 cup chopped nuts
Frosting Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups milk cold
- 1 envelope Dream Whip
- 1 package 4 serving size of instant pistachio pudding mix
Instructions
Cake Directions
- Combine all the cake ingredients in large mixer bowl. Blend, then beat at medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour into greased and floured 9 x 13-inch pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool and frost. (You can use 2 9-inch rounds for this cake as well.)
Frosting
- Pour the milk into a deep bowl. Add the Dream Whip and the pistachio pudding mix. Beat slowly to blend. Gradually increase speed until mixture forms peaks. Spread on cake.
eburr
My daughter-in-law is gluten-free for medical reasons. I can get a gluten-free cake mix, but is there a sub for the flour? Oat flour maybe?
Stephanie
You would need to get a gluten-free cake mix and a gluten-free pudding mix for this to work well.
eburr
Instant pudding is gluten-free. I was wondering about the additional flour called for in the recipe.
Stephanie
You could most likely leave it out, the cooking time may need to be a minute or two longer.
Amy
Can I substitute nuts with chocolate chips?
Stephanie
I think you could.
Pyper1977
This is the receipe I had lost and had no hope of finding – the only difference was frosting was made with cool whip, but I will try the Dream Whip – Thx
Stephanie
I hope you enjoyed the cake!
Kerri
This cake was also a big family tradition. My mother makes it at Christmas and it is the only cake my kids want for their birthdays. I lost the recipe and was so glad to find it on this site. It is a very moist and delicious cake. Thanks!
gerri
I made this cake in the 80’s was called Watergate cake still make it now always a winner
j
I made this cake this weekend for a get together and it was a big hit. It was wonderful in a very understated way. When you ate it, you realized it was good and light, super moist but you didn’t want to smear it all over yourself – not that good. BUT both me and my husband, after leaving the cake at a friends house kept thinking about and craving this cake – it’s special that way.