Jacklyn's Pistachio-Mint Cake

This is a beloved potluck cake with a clever self-icing trick. Yellow cake mix gets boosted with pistachio pudding mix, mint extract, and a shot of green food coloring, then studded with chopped chocolate chips for pockets of melted chocolate in every slice. The color alone makes people want a piece.

The real showstopper is the finish. Thin chocolate-covered mints (think Andes or After Eight) get laid across the hot cake the moment it comes out of the oven. A quick 3-minute warming melts them just enough to spread with a spatula into a glossy chocolate-mint glaze that sets as the cake cools.

The pistachio pudding does double duty. It adds flavor, boosts the green color, and keeps the crumb extra-moist thanks to the stabilizers in the pudding mix.

Kitchen Tips

• Don’t underbake. The directions make a point of this because a gooey center with pudding mix collapses in the pan and turns greasy as it cools.
• Cover the top completely with mints before returning to the oven. Gaps look patchy when spread, so err on the side of overlap rather than leaving bare spots.
• Spread the melted mints quickly while they’re still warm and fluid. Once they start to cool, they’ll drag and streak instead of settling into a smooth glaze.

Variations

• Use chocolate cake mix instead of yellow for a double-chocolate pistachio base.
• Swap Andes mints for chopped peppermint patties or Junior Mints for a different mint-chocolate texture.
• Omit the green food coloring for a more natural pistachio-hued cake if you prefer to skip the dye.