This past Saturday, my siblings and I attended the “Cake Picnic” here in Minneapolis in honor of Betty Crocker’s 104th birthday. (Betty Crocker the brand, not a real person.) A video of that experience can be seen here, but I also figured it deserved a post! And I wanted to share the recipe for my Coffee Chocolate Chip Cake with Pistachio Filling and Brown Butter Frosting, even though I didn’t get good photos of it amidst the chaos of the cake picnic. So… you’ll have to excuse these photos – I only got the one slice of my own cake because I wanted to try it! It was pretty tasty. Coffee, Chocolate, Brown Butter, and Pistachio are a winning combo!

My siblings and I all made a cake – for my brother, it was the first cake he ever baked! Using a Betty Crocker mix, which was not only fitting, but encouraged by the organizers! He did a chocolate chip vanilla cake with honey buttercream frosting. Molly made a Lemon Cake with Blueberry Cream Cheese frosting. Molly’s was most popular, based on how much was left when we checked in at the end of the picnic.

There were 647 cakes to chose from, which is about as overwhelming as it sounds. Everyone got a pizza box, and then they send up groups of people to just get as many cake slices as they want and can fit in their box. The whole 1:1 cake to person ratio means that there was no danger of cakes running out.

We probably got two dozen cake slices between us all, and I definitely felt it! I only had about one bite of each cake, which made it feel like being Paul and Prue during Cake Week.

I didn’t leave the event feeling like I was in a gross sugar coma actually – because just having a bit or two of each cake wasn’t that much. It was more overwhelming for my taste buds than anything, and that made me not want to keep eating.

I did feel it later though. I got a headache a few hours later, and then eating a real meal felt very good. I’m feeling a bit cake-d out, but still have so many cake slices in the fridge. And on top of that, they gave out swag bags with Betty Crocker mixes in them! So stay tuned for that potential post… It’s really a cake month.

Coffee Chocolate Chip Cake with Pistachio Filling and Brown Butter Frosting

Author: Audrey

Ingredients

Coffee Chocolate Chip Cake

2 ½ cups all purpose flour, sifted
1.5 tsp baking powder
1.5 tsp baking soda
1 cup granulated sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
1 tsp salt
3 large eggs
⅔ cup vegetable oil
⅓ cup buttermilk (mix ⅓ cup whole milk + 1 teaspoon vinegar to make your own)
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
2–3 tablespoon instant coffee depending on how strong you want the flavor to be
¾ cup boiling water
1 cup mini chocolate chips

Pistachio Filling

1/4 cup pistachio butter
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)
1 cup powdered sugar

Brown Butter Frosting

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)
2–3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of kosher salt
1–2 Tablespoons whole milk or heavy cream, plus more as needed

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Instructions

For the cake:

Pre-heat your oven to 350F (conventional, no fan) and line 3 8″ cake pans with parchment paper
Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, granulated sugar, brown sugar and salt to a bowl and whisk until combined and no lumps remain
Add the eggs, oil, buttermilk, sour cream, and vanilla to the same bowl. Use a hand whisk to gently stir until the wet ingredients are combined with the dry and no lumps remain. Do not overmix.
Mix the instant coffee with the boiling water in a separate bowl / cup, and pour it into the batter. Very gently fold until a smooth espresso cake batter forms. Then, fold in the mini chocolate chips.
Divide the batter evenly between the three lined pans
Bake at 350F for 20 min until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out with light, moist crumbs attached
Let the cakes cool in the pans for at least 20 minutes, then carefully turn them out. Cover with cling wrap and chill in the fridge for 30-60 minutes before frosting.

For the filling:

Beat together the butter and pistachio butter until smooth. Slowly add in the powdered sugar until well incorporated and fluffy.

For the frosting:

Warm a medium-sized saucepan to medium heat and add butter. Once the butter has completely melted, allow it to brown, stirring frequently and gently scraping the bottom of the pan with a spatula. The butter will foam and sizzle as brown specks appear on the bottom of the pan. When the aroma of the pan is nutty and the bottom of the pan is a toasty-brown color remove from heat and let cool completely.
Once the butter is completely cooled, beat the butter and sugar together; first on low speed, then increasing as the two ingredients become incorporated. Add the vanilla, salt, and milk, and continue to beat until smooth. If the frosting is still too thick, add more milk, one tablespoon at a time, until the desired consistency is achieved.

Assemble:

Put down one layer of cake and add spread out a thin layer of the brown butter frosting on top. Layer on half of the pistachio filling and spread out to nearly the edges. Sprinkle more mini chocolate chips on, if desired.
Do the same with the next layer of cake, and then place the top layer. Frost along the outsides with the brown butter frosting.