Pistachio Cupcakes
These light and tender pistachio cupcakes are made with real pistachios for a sweet, nutty flavor. The silky smooth mascarpone frosting piped on top is the perfect finishing touch!
Calling all pistachio lovers! If you love pistachio desserts, you’re going to fall in love with these cupcakes.
This recipe is actually adapted from my favorite pistachio cake, but I scaled it down and topped them with some whipped mascarpone frosting. There’s no pudding mix in the batter either, just ground up pistachios and a little almond extract for a pure pistachio flavor.
These pistachio cupcakes aren’t overly sweet and they taste like something you’d buy at a fancy bakery. They’re the perfect sweet treat for any occasion or the pistachio lover in your life!
Watch The Full Recipe Video
Ingredient Notes & Substitutions
Pistachios
I prefer using lightly salted roasted pistachios for this recipe for a subtly sweet and salty flavor. My favorite pistachios are from Wonderful, but you can feel free to use any brand that you prefer. Unsalted pistachios will work too!
Cake Flour
Cake flour has a lower protein content than all-purpose flour, which makes cakes and cupcakes much softer and lighter in texture. My personal favorite brands are Swans Down and Pillsbury Softasilk. If you don’t have any, you can make your own cake flour substitute using a combination of flour and cornstarch.
Almond Extract
Almond extract won’t make your cupcakes taste like almond, it just enhances the pistachio flavor. I highly recommend using it!
Mascarpone
This is a type of high-fat, buttery smooth Italian cheese that makes for the creamiest frosting. Make sure to take the mascarpone out of the fridge just 10 to 15 minutes before making the frosting to help prevent it from curdling. You don’t want to use room temperature mascarpone, it should still be cold.
How To Grind The Pistachios
First things first, you’ll need to grind your pistachios so you end up with a smooth batter.
Grinding the shelled pistachios is super easy though with the help of a food processor or blender. Just make sure to keep a close eye on them and turn off the food processor (or blender) as soon as they reach the fine crumb stage.
If you keep grinding them up, the mixture will start to turn into pistachio butter (which would be delicious, but that won’t work for this recipe!).
How To Cream The Butter & Sugar
After you grind your pistachios and mix them together with the dry ingredients, it’s time to mix together the wet ingredients. The first step for the wet ingredients is to cream your butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
This step is crucial for this recipe because all the trapped air inside the butter and sugar will create super fluffy cupcakes! Here’s how to do it:
- Set the butter out approximately 30 to 45 minutes before you begin baking. This will allow it to soften, so it’s easier to mix together with the sugar.
- Add the softened butter to your mixing bowl and beat it on low speed until smooth. This is optional, but it makes it much easier to mix in the sugar! If you’re using a stand mixer, I recommend using the paddle attachment for this step.
- Add the sugar into the bowl and mix on medium speed for about 3 minutes. I prefer to set a timer on my phone or oven to make sure that I mix everything together long enough. You should wind up with a mixture that’s light in color and looks nice and fluffy.
How To Beat The Egg Whites To Stiff Peaks & Fold Them In
Whipped egg whites are another important component to making these cupcakes light and fluffy! They’re also mixed in at the very end, so you don’t accidentally deflate them.
The trick to perfectly beaten egg whites is to use room temperature eggs and a clean mixing bowl that’s free of any residual oil. If you forget to set your eggs out ahead of time, just place them in a bowl of warm water for 5 to 10 minutes before cracking them open.
When you’re separating the yolks from the whites, make sure no yolk whatsoever sneaks into the whites; if that happens, you’ll struggle to whip the egg whites to stiff peaks.
Once you’ve separated out your room temperature egg whites, here’s what you need to do:
- Beat the egg whites on medium speed until stiff peaks form. In other words, the peaks of the egg whites stand straight up when you lift your beaters up out of the bowl. They should look like the picture above on the left. I like to use the whisk attachment on my stand mixer for this step.
- Then, use a rubber spatula to fold HALF of the egg whites into the cupcake batter. This will lighten the batter, making it easier to mix in the rest and prevent you from over mixing. Then, gently fold in the remaining egg whites.
Don’t throw away the egg yolks! You can save the yolks and use them to make mini key lime pies, German chocolate cake frosting, or thumbprint cookies.
Can I Use This Recipe To Make Mini Cupcakes?
Yes! Only fill each mini cupcake liner about ⅔ of the way full and reduce the baking time to 9 to 13 minutes.
Can I Use Round Cake Pans Instead?
You can bake this cupcake batter in two to three 6-inch cake pans or one 9-inch cake pan. You can also double the recipe to create a layer cake (but following my pistachio cake recipe would be a little easier!).
Just look at how beautiful that cupcake looks! As I mentioned earlier, I used my mascarpone frosting on top of these cupcakes. My whipped cream cheese frosting, strawberry frosting, cream cheese frosting, or even ermine frosting would all be delicious too though.
If you want to try adding a filling, some strawberry cake filling or raspberry cake filling would pair really well with these too!
If you try this recipe, don’t forget to leave a comment to let me know how they turned out! I’d love to hear what frosting you try with them too. Happy Baking!
Pistachio Cupcakes
Ingredients
Pistachio Cupcakes
- 1 cup roasted and salted shelled pistachios I used Wonderful Pistachios (145 grams)
- 1 ½ cups cake flour spooned & leveled (170 grams)
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup buttermilk at room temperature (180 ml)
- 1 ¼ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- 1 to 2 drops green liquid food coloring optional (I used 2 drops)
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened (1 stick; 113 grams)
- 1 cup granulated sugar (200 grams)
- 3 large egg whites at room temperature
Mascarpone Frosting
- 1 cup cold heavy whipping cream (240 ml)
- 1 cup powdered sugar (120 grams)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 8 ounces cool mascarpone cheese remove from the fridge about 15 minutes beforehand
Instructions
- To make the pistachio cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line two standard cupcake/muffin pans with 17 to 18 cupcake liners and set aside.
- Place the shelled pistachios in a food processor or blender and process until you have fine crumbs. Make sure not to process the pistachios for too long! They can quickly go from crumbs to pistachio butter.1 cup roasted and salted shelled pistachios
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the pistachio crumbs, cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.1 ½ cups cake flour,1 ½ teaspoons baking powder,¼ teaspoon salt
- Combine the buttermilk, vanilla extract, almond extract, and green food coloring in a separate mixing bowl or measuring cup and stir together. Set aside.¾ cup buttermilk,1 ¼ teaspoons pure vanilla extract,¼ teaspoon almond extract,1 to 2 drops green liquid food coloring
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large mixing bowl using a handheld mixer, beat the butter on low speed until smooth, then slowly mix in the granulated sugar. Once all of the sugar is added, increase to medium speed and continue mixing for 3 more minutes or until the mixture is light in color and fluffy.½ cup unsalted butter,1 cup granulated sugar
- Add half of the dry ingredients to the creamed butter and sugar and mix on low speed until just combined. Add the buttermilk mixture and mix on low speed until just combined, then mix in the remaining dry ingredients. Make sure to only mix in each addition until just combined to avoid over mixing the batter.
- In a separate clean mixing bowl with clean beaters, beat the egg whites on medium speed until stiff peaks form (when you lift up the beaters, the peaks should stand straight up). Gently fold half of the egg whites into the batter, then fold in the remaining egg whites until just combined.3 large egg whites
- Evenly distribute the batter between all of the cupcakes liners, only filling each one ⅔ of the way full. I usually get 18 cupcakes out of this recipe, but I scrape every last bit of batter out of the bowl.
- Bake for 16 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pans for 5 to 10 minutes, then carefully remove from the pans and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- To make the mascarpone frosting: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, or in a large mixing bowl using a handheld mixer, add the heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Start mixing on low speed. Once the mixture starts to increase in volume, increase the speed to medium-high and mix until soft peaks form (the mixture will still be soft, but not runny, and the peaks will fold over when you lift your beaters up out of the bowl).1 cup cold heavy whipping cream,1 cup powdered sugar,1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Add the mascarpone cheese and continue mixing on low-medium speed until stiff peaks form. Make sure not to over mix or the mixture will start to curdle! You may see some small chunks of mascarpone as you’re mixing, but they will smooth out. If needed, you can stop a few times and fold the frosting with a rubber spatula to make sure everything is thoroughly mixed together.8 ounces cool mascarpone cheese
- Add the frosting to a piping bag fitted with your favorite piping tip and frost the cooled cupcakes.
