This pretty green pistachio pudding cake is unfailingly soft and tender, studded with chopped pistachios, and glazed with a sweet and shiny white icing. It’s the perfect St. Patrick’s Day dessert and an embarrassingly easy cake recipe to bake, made all in one bowl with box yellow cake mix and a package of instant pistachio pudding.
I don’t often use box cake mix, but after finding what appeared to be the easiest pistachio pudding cake recipe on Taste of Home, I was inspired. I kept the heart of the recipe, with box yellow cake mix, instant pistachio pudding, eggs, and chopped pistachios, but used butter instead of vegetable oil, whole milk in place of club soda, and swapped the pistachio pudding frosting for a simpler white icing. The result was a beautifully light and fluffy, nearly foolproof cake.
Adding pistachio pudding mix to the cake does three things: it imparts the subtlest pistachio flavor, tints the cake a pale green, and helps to keep the cake moist and tender. As a testament to that tenderness, my husband “covered” the cake by draping, oh I don’t know, a millimeter? sized piece of plastic wrap over the top of it, set it on the kitchen counter overnight, and it was still miraculously moist the next morning.
You can enhance the mild pistachio flavor by adding up to a teaspoon of almond extract to the batter or add 1 to 2 drops of green food coloring to make it a brighter, more vibrant green.
Pistachio Pudding Cake
Ingredients
- Flour for dusting your bundt pan
- 1 box yellow cake mix (15-ounce box)
- 1 package instant pistachio pudding mix (3.4-ounce package)
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup milk
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled (plus more for greasing your pan)
- ½ cup chopped pistachios
Icing:
- 2 cups confectioners' sugar
- 2 tbsp milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp finely chopped pistachios
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour the bundt pan, tapping out the excess flour.
- In a large bowl, whisk the cake mix and pudding mix. Add the eggs, milk, melted butter, and beat on medium until combined. Stir in the pistachios. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- Make the icing: In a large bowl, whisk the powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla until smooth. It should be thick but spreadable. Add more milk if necessary, 1 tablespoon at a time. Spoon it over the top of the bundt cake and let it drip down the sides. Sprinkle the top with pistachios and serve.
Notes
1 slice of cake without icing: 10 WW Freestyle points
Adapted from Taste of Home
Hi Andie, I’m doing a dairy free month this month. Could I substitute milk with vanilla almond milk? Also use country crock in place of butter? Any suggestions would be great so I can make this for st Patrick day! Thanks!
Hi Melissa! I think the almond milk would work just fine but I’d recommend using vegetable oil in place of the butter!
One question – what does pz represent when referring to the pudding mix? One package?
Hi Taylor! Oh good catch! It’s a typo that is supposed to say (1) 3.4-oz package of pudding mix!
My mom always made this cake for us at Christmas when I was a kid. She would frost it with Cool whip mixed with another packet of pistachio pudding and decorate it with maraschino cherries. Classic 70’s dessert. Thanks for sharing an updated version. This brings back some great memories.
Beautiful little bundt cake. This came together so quickly and it turned out so well. Thanks for always sharing simple yet delicious recipes. My picky 6 year old enjoyed this right after school today.
Wow Andie! You’ve done it again, this pistachio pudding cake looks perfect for the next event I’m organising.
Wow that looks amazing!
This cake is delicious. I’m more of a chocolate person, so I made a chocolate ganache instead of the powder sugar glaze. It looked like it came from a bakery. Thanks for the recipe!
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I love this cake! It is light and fluffy and the frosting makes it a bit sweeter! I can see where this would make a good Christmas cake; I’d probably adopt the idea of another box of pudding in the frosting and use marachino cherries to garnish if I could spell it!! I was very proud of how pretty the cake came out of the bundt pan. I took pains to make sure every groove was greased well!
Do you think I could use the mini bundt pans for this recipe?
Wonderful and not too sweet! The glaze added just the right touch of sweetness, but I added a bit of almond extract rather than vanilla extract. This was a hit, perfect for a nice spring cake!
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Can you use sugar free pudding mix?
This just looks like spring. I might have to make this for Easter!
This looks so good! Can I make other flavors with this batter?
Thanks for sharing! Does it keep long?
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