Gateau Vert – A Cake to Make You Green with Envy

This gateau vert, or green cake, takes its color from an unexpected ingredient. Marzipan and a glazed icing, in addition to creme au beurre, make this treat especially decadent. The cake itself is a genoise sponge.

Edible flowers and pistachios make a lovely garnish on this beautiful cake. If all that sounds like a lot, don’t worry. You definitely don’t need to include all the layers to get a picture perfect dessert for spring.

So what makes it green, you may ask? Spinach! Don’t click away just yet. This cake is actually quite tasty, and if the spinach really is beyond belief in a cake, you can always substitute matcha powder or simply green food coloring.

This is a great way to convince your kids to eat some more greens. Also, the spinach is only in the icing glaze and the creme au beurre, so picky eaters could still try your pistachio cake and be impressed. The pistachios on their own make this dessert a bit green, so you could skip the spinach altogether.

Gateau vert was the favorite birthday cake of the famous Impressionist painter Claude Monet. His bold appetite suited his bold painting style. You may be familiar with his water lily paintings or his haystacks. If not, or if you’d like to see them again, you can get a quick overview of his beautiful work here.

Adaptations to this Gateau Vert recipe

Time (and money)

Gateau vert does require some technical skill and pricy ingredients. However, I’ve adapted it slightly to make it a bit easier and less expensive. Also, to make it easier and more enjoyable, I split the work (and dishes) into two days. The day before, I made the marzipan and the genoise sponge.

The marzipan

Traditional gateau vert features pistachio marzipan, rather than almond (which would make it green instead of white). Shelled pistachios are a bit more costly than almonds, so I only bought one bag of pistachios and divided it to my preference, using almonds to fill in some of the gaps.

This cake also calls for pistachio essence in the marzipan and optionally in the glaze. I could not find any, so I used almond extract. I really enjoyed the almond flavor in this cake.

The pistachio genoise sponge

In addition, a traditional gateau vert is sliced into three layers. That seemed like asking for trouble (or at least a lot of crumbs), so I opted to just cut the genoise sponge in half. As it happens, this type of cake is actually very easy to work with, cut, and carry around.

(If you think this gateau vert might be a bit too much work, I use this same pistachio genoise sponge as the base for my pistachio torte, which is much faster to make! That being said, if you’re up to the challenge of the full gateau vert recipe, marzipan and all, it’s absolutely delicious!)

The glaze

Normally, a gateau vert would have twice the spinach. However, I only bought one bag, and my husband was pretty skeptical about spinach in cake, so that’s all I used. More would just make the final glaze on top a bit greener.

The creme au beurre

Finally, a traditional gateau vert calls for a bit of kirsch in the creme au beurre. Kirsch is cherry brandy. Since I already owned some maraschino cherry liqueur, I used that instead.

Final thoughts on how I would make this gateau vert in the future

If I made this again, honestly I would skip the creme au beurre and the layers and just do one layer of the cake with marzipan and the glaze. This will save a ton of time (and butter) and the flavor will be almost identical.

Gateau Vert Ingredients

Before you begin, you will need:

TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT

• A food processor or blender
• Cheesecloth or muslin
• A stand mixer or hand mixer (The creme au beurre would be challenging to make by hand, but could be done. If you skip this layer, you don’t need a mixer.)
• Something to zest the lemon with, like a vegetable peeler
• Measuring cups and spoons
• Mixing bowls and stirring spoons
• A 9″ round nonstick cake pan
• A bread knife to cut the sponge in half
• A butter knife to spread the creme au beurre

Marzipan Ingredients (or buy some pre-made)

• 2 egg whites (keep the yolks for the creme au beurre)
• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar + more for kneading
• 1 3/4 cups slivered almonds (to be ground)
• 1 tsp almond extract (or pistachio if you can find it)

Pistachio Genoise Sponge Ingredients

• Zest of 1 lemon
• 4 eggs
• 3/4 cup + 1 Tbsp flour
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup shelled pistachios (to be ground)
• 2 Tbsp melted butter (unsalted)

Creme au Beurre Ingredients

• One 5-ounce bag of spinach
• 1/3 cup shelled pistachios (to be ground)
• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 Tbsp maraschino cherry liqueur
• 1/3 cup sugar (heaping)
• 2 egg yolks

Glaze Ingredients and Decorations

• Remaining spinach water (hopefully 3-4 Tbsp worth. If you’ve run out, just use water.)
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• Save out around 1/4 cup of pistachios for decorating
• Edible flowers – I used dried lavender buds

How to Make Gateau Vert

First, How to Make Marzipan

1. To begin, make the marzipan. Grind the almonds in a food processor and add them to a large mixing bowl.
2. Next, add in your powdered sugar and combine.
3. After that, add in one egg white and the almond extract and combine thoroughly. If you have a really large egg, you might be able to get away with just one egg white. However, mine was pretty unworkable, so I added another and more powdered sugar to fix it. Don’t worry if the consistency looks off at first. When I was mixing the marzipan in a bowl, and also when I tried using a bread hook in a stand mixer, as one recipe recommended, it did not look like marzipan. That changed with kneading.
4. Then, clean a surface, sprinkle it with powdered sugar, and start kneading the marzipan. Add more powdered sugar as needed. Once the texture appears pliable, stretchy, and easy to work with, you can wrap it in plastic and let it sit. If you are making the marzipan and genoise sponge the night before, go ahead and put the marzipan in the fridge for the night. Just make sure to bring it back to room temperature the next day so you can roll it out.

Then, How to Make a Pistachio Genoise Sponge

1. The next step is the genoise sponge. First, preheat your oven to 350°. Grind your pistachios and put them in a large mixing bowl.
2. After that, zest your lemon. (If you need a refresher on how to zest a lemon, you can refer back to my lemon pepper pasta recipe.)
3. Add your flour and sugar to the pistachios and combine.
4. Next, melt your butter and add it to the mix, then stir.
5. Add the eggs and combine thoroughly.
6. Fold in the lemon zest and stir rapidly so you see some bubbles in your batter. A genoise sponge relies on air bubbles from rapid mixing rather than more traditional leavening to rise.
7. Finally, bake for about 27 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean, it’s a bit springy to the touch, and the edges are golden brown. Set aside to cool completely.

Next, How to make Creme au Beurre with Pistachios

1. First, make spinach water. Put 1/2 cup of water in a pot and bring to a boil. Once it’s boiling, add in the bag of spinach and turn off the heat, but leave the pot on the hot burner. Stir the spinach so all of it becomes wilted, and cook for about 3 minutes.
2. Pour all the spinach and spinach water into a food processor and blitz.
3. Then, place a cheesecloth inside of a measuring cup (or bowl) and pour all the spinach mixture into the cloth. Let it sit a few minutes so you don’t burn your hands, then squeeze all the spinach water out, leaving the actual spinach safely inside the cheesecloth. You should have about 2/3 cup of spinach water. (You won’t need the actual spinach for this recipe, just the green water. Feel free to discard, or add salad dressing and eat it.)
4. After that, grind your pistachios. You can leave them in your food processor and add in 1/4 cup butter, 1 Tbsp of the spinach water, and 1 Tbsp of your cherry liqueur. Blitz and set aside for now.
5. Put 7 Tbsp (1/2 cup minus 1 Tbsp) of spinach water in a pot on the stove and bring to a boil. Add in a heaping 1/3 cup of sugar and stir until dissolved. Cook about 3 minutes until slightly thickened, then turn off the heat.
6. After that, add your egg yolks to a bowl (or stand mixer if you have one) and mix. While mixing, add in the syrup. Mix until the syrup is no longer hot.
7. Add in the remaining 1/2 cup of butter and blend.
8. Finally, add in the pistachio/butter mixture from the food processor and thoroughly combine.

How to make the green glazed icing

Add 2 cups of powdered sugar to your remaining spinach water and combine. I didn’t have enough liquid so I added 2 Tbsp of water. You probably want about 3-4 Tbsp of liquid for that much sugar. Stir all the lumps out. It’s ready when it’s pourable but not runny.

Finally, How to cut and layer your Gateau Vert

First, mark and cut the pistachio genoise sponge

1. To begin, sprinkle some powdered sugar on your surface (I used a cutting board). Use a plastic knife or something similar to loosen the edges of your genoise sponge. Once, it’s loosened, flip it out onto your surface upside down so it’s easier to see how thick your layers are.
2. Next, use toothpicks if desired to mark out where you want to make your cuts. Now, use a bread knife to cut the genoise sponge in half. It’s easier if you cut to the center of the cake and then turn the cake as you go, unless you happen to have a really long bread knife.

Add the additional layers to complete your gateau vert

1. Place the bottom half on a plate and spread with a layer of creme au beurre. Add the top layer of sponge, followed by another layer of the creme au beurre, and keep spreading it around the sides of the cake as well. I had leftover spread, probably since I didn’t do three layers.
2. After that, sprinkle a clean surface with powdered sugar. Roll out your marzipan into a large circle, larger than the cake. Pick up your flattened marzipan and place it on top of the cake, pressing it down around the sides of the cake. Then, cut off the excess marzipan with a butter knife, the way you would with homemade pie crust.
3. Put the plate on a cookie sheet (or move to a wire rack, if you have one, also over the cookie sheet). Pour your glaze (see below) over the cake and let it drip for about three minutes.
4. Transfer the cake to its final destination (I used a cutting board, but if you have a cake tray, now’s the time to use it).
5. Finally, decorate the cake. I put a ring of whole pistachios around the bottom, but you could also chop them and press them to the sides of the cake. It is also traditionally garnished with edible flowers. The one grocery store that normally has fresh edible flowers was out of stock, so I used dried lavender flowers. The lavender buds actually tasted significantly better, even though they are not as bright and bold. Slice and enjoy! You’ve earned it!

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Variations on Gateau Vert

As I mentioned at the beginning, if the idea of spinach in cake is too much, you can always use matcha powder (from green tea) or food coloring. Technically, if you use enough pistachios, the cake might turn green from those, but they are rather expensive.

Of course, you can skip any layer that sounds like too much. As long as there is cake, and it’s green, you have a gateau vert! Any one of the three toppings (marzipan, glaze, creme au beurre) would hold up just fine alone, without taking up too much of your time.

If you want to impress on a time crunch, you can buy pre-made marzipan and/or fondant instead of the glaze.

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I hope you enjoy this gateau vert, or green cake!