Dessert: Pistachio Raspberry Cake

Recipe by Rosie Daykin "Baking and icing a cake from scratch can be daunting. But you don't have to do it all in one day," says Rosie Daykin, the cheerful and talented owner of Butter Baked Goods, in Vancouver. Bake the cakes first and let them cool; the

Ingredients

3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for pans
1 3/4 cups sugar
5 large egg whites, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract or seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean
2 3/4 cups cake flour, plus more for pans
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 cups 2% buttermilk, at room temperature
1/2 Raspberry Buttercream
3 cups fresh raspberries, divided
1/2 Pistachio Buttercream
6 ounces (about 1 1/3 cups) roasted pistachios, pulsed in a food processor until finely ground

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 ° with a rack in center. Butter two 8-in. cake pans, then line bottoms with parchment paper cut to fit.
In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment (or a handheld mixer with an egg-beater attachment; a whisk attachment won't mix the batter properly), beat butter on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl halfway through.
To butter, add sugar and beat on high speed until pale and fluffy. "Every time the paddle turns, sugar crystals cut through the butter, creating little pockets of air for a fluffy cake." Scrape sides and bottom of bowl. On low speed, mix in egg whites and vanilla, then beat on high until thick and smooth; scrape bowl again. "Scraping down the bowl is huge. If you see butter at the bottom when you pour the batter into the pans, that's a rookie mistake."
Onto a large piece of parchment paper, sift flour and baking powder. Add salt.
Turn mixer to low. Pick up parchment from opposite corners and tip about one-third of flour mixture into bowl; mix just until combined. Scrape bowl, then drizzle in half of buttermilk and mix just until combined. "Otherwise you may develop the gluten in the flour, and your cakes will be tougher, denser, and sometimes gummy." Repeat, then mix in remaining one-third of flour mixture the same way. Scrape once more, "then give it a final spinaroo."
Pour batter evenly into prepared pans, smoothing tops flat with a rubber spatula. Give the pans a couple of taps on the counter to deflate any overly large air pockets. Bake on center rack, rotating 180 ° halfway through, until top is pale golden, sides are deeper brown and pulling slightly away from sides, and top springs back lightly when pressed, 30 to 50 minutes. "Don't overbake it or it will be dry."
Remove cakes from oven and let cool 10 minutes in pans. Invert cakes onto a cooling rack "so their tops flatten out," and let cool completely.
Split cakes: Cover a rotating cake stand with a sheet of plastic wrap and set one of the cakes on top. With a large serrated knife, gently cut the cake horizontally and evenly in half, rotating the stand to move the knife deeper into the cake. Holding sides of plastic wrap, lift layers off stand and repeat with a second cake to make 4 layers total. Set aside 1 bottom layer to form top of cake later (it'll be more even).

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