Pistachio Cake: Take Two

In January I posted a recipe for Pistachio Cake, which is an easy, tasty dessert to which I personally become addicted whenever I make it and simply cannot stop eating it.  I decided to make it again to bring to a dinner party and thought I would share what I did differently this time.

For the crust, I had previously used Betty Crocker pie crust mix and used half the bag (for one crust).  I ended up noting that I should have used the full bag so that there was enough dough for a 9x13 pan (I used 8x8 the first time).  I found out from my friend, Cathy, that stores no longer carry pie crust "sticks" as required by the recipe.  So this time I bought pre-made pie crust dough that one would normally roll open and into the pie plate.  This helped from the perspective of yielding more dough to fit a 9x13 pan, but be careful not to undercook the crust (350 degrees for 20 min. was not enough time and the middle of the crust was the not quite fully cooked pie crust dough - still tasty though).

Also, I did not have finely chopped walnuts for the crust or garnish so I used more coarsely chopped walnuts that I had on hand in my pantry.  This actually gave the crust a more interesting texture in my opinion so I would probably do this again.

Someone at the party astutely asked, "Why are there walnuts on top if it is a pistachio cake?"  Excellent question.  And the answer is, "I have no idea".  We all had a good laugh over this, but I wonder if using pistachios in the crust would create a flavor that is overpowering?  I think I will test this theory in my next iteration of Pistachio Cake: 8 Guests or 2 Pigs!