Sheet cakes are quite fun to make and given that this lemon sheet cake with pistachios and chocolate recipe is a combination of butter, sour cream, and fresh lemon juice, it is incredibly moist and tender. The lemon adds to the lightness of this sheet cake and makes it a refreshingly sweet cake to take to sunny picnics and outings with family, perhaps on the beach or out in the woods. You can also bake this cake for your home and store the excess away. It doesn't need any special occasion and can be consumed as a snack or tea cake too.
Added to that, the addition of the nutty and earthy pistachios, especially if toasted, uplifts the flavor profile of the cake, and adds a nice explosion of nuttiness, especially in an overpoweringly citrus-flavored cake. The chocolate also complements the cake quite well; instead of lemon glaze by itself, this recipe uses chocolate on top of it, making for a sweet and yet citrusy topping. It also makes for an aesthetically pleasing cake with the lemony accents of the cake being cut by the darkness of the chocolate used in the drizzle. Chocolate chips have been used in this recipe for the glaze, but you can crank up the quality by using Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate or Cadbury Bournville Dark Chocolate as well.
Lemon Sheet Cake with Pistachios and Chocolate recipe
Ingredients:
For the Cake:
- 1 ¼ cups unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup fresh lemon juice
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 ½ cups sugar
- ⅔ cup sour cream, room temperature
- 2 tbsp lemon zest
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp lemon extract
- 1 ¼ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 cup chopped pistachios, divided
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks, divided
For the Glaze:
- 3 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 6 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
- 2 tbsp melted chocolate (for drizzling)
Instructions:
- Fix the rack of the oven in its center and preheat it to 190°C. Grease an 18x13-inch pan that is at least 2 inches deep with softened butter.
- Take a large pot, add butter to it, and heat on medium flame. Once melted, pour the water and the lemon juice. Crank up the heat, and bring to a boil.
- Remove the pot from the heat and set aside to cool for 5 minutes.
- Add the flour and stir to mix it in until no lumps remain. Once done, add the sugar, sour cream, and lemon zest and mix.
- Crack the eggs into a clean bowl, and whisk them. Gradually add spoonfuls of the cake batter into the bowl and temper the eggs.
- Add the vanilla and lemon extract, mix, then sprinkle baking soda and salt over the batter and mix. Stir until everything is blended and lump-free.
- Fold in ¾ cup of the chopped pistachios and ¾ cup of the chocolate chips into the batter. Stir with a spatula to evenly distribute.
- Pour the ready batter into the sheet pan and smooth the top with a spatula.
- Take the remaining ¼ cup of pistachios and ¼ cup of chocolate chips and sprinkle over the top of the batter.
- Transfer the cake to the preheated oven and bake for 15-18 minutes. Insert a toothpick into the center of the cake, if it comes out clean, your cake is done. Keep the cake on a wire rack to cool completely before glazing.
- To make the glaze: Add the powdered sugar, lemon juice and zest into a bowl and stir until smooth. Add more lemon juice if the glaze is thick or a little more powdered sugar if it's thin.
- Pour the glaze over the cooled cake and immediately spread it into a thin, even layer; use a butter knife if need be.
- While the glaze is still wet, drizzle the melted chocolate in thin lines across the top of the cake. You can garnish the cake with quarters of lemon slices.
- Chill the cake without a cover for at least 30 minutes to let the glaze set before slicing. Cover tightly and refrigerate any leftovers.