This moit and delicious cake is also unusual, easy, and adaptable. Almonds may be used instead of pistachios, and orange flavoring may be added if desired.
Preheat oven to 3250.
Whisk together the dry ingredients (through the ground nuts) in a small bowl. Set aside.
Beat eggs and sugar together until fluffy, about 2 min., using a hand or stand mixer. (This recipe probably isn't big enough to bother with the stand mixer, but if you double the recipe you'll definitely want to use one.) Gradually add oil, then extracts and optional orange oil or zest. Gradually add dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated. Add sour cream and mix just until no white streaks remain.
Line two 24-cup mini muffin pans with (what else?) mini baking liners. Portion out the batter into these, filling about 2/3 full. Easiest way to do this is with a small "disher," one of the mot useful kitchen tools you can have for tasks such as this one. You should come out even with the batter.
Bake for 15 minutes, then test with a toothpick which should come out clean. They may need 2-3 more minutes. Don't overbake--they don't need to be brown on top. Cool completely before frosting. Best option, as far as I'm concerned, is my spectacular and easy white chocolate-cream cheese frosting.
*You have several options here: ground raw pistachios, which would be quite expensive and/or labor intensive if you buy them in the shell, or roasted, salted pistachios, preferably from your warehouse club (which is where I get mine), or almonds you grind yourself, either blanched or natural, or almond flour. The last option will produce a cake with a smoother texture since it's much finer than what you can get by grinding it yourself. Be careful not to grind the nuts into a paste, by the way. You can help ward this off by grinding them with some of the sugar and by not overdoing it.
**Cut amount of salt in half if you're using salted nuts. I know this i kind of a fiddly amount--it's caused by the fact that I've increased the original recipe so that it makes a 9x13 pan or 48 mini cupcakes. You can just use a heaping 1/8 tsp. of salt for half of 3/8.
***You don't want to use olive oil but something neutral. Or, if you want to really amp up the nut flavor, you could use almond or pistachio oil. (Pistachio oil is expensive. about $1/ounce, with almond oil running about half that.)