It’s been sometime since I posted a cake recipe on this blog and what better to break the monotony than a coffee cake. The thing about coffee cakes is that apart from pairing ‘oh so beautifully’ with a strong cup of caffeine they are scrumptious just on their own for moments when you want to eat something sweet but not overwhelmingly so.
Cardamom is such a rich exotic spice with an almost romantic ring to it with curious undertones of mystery and an enticing allure of the East so rare in cakes and with a crispy crumb on top this cake is two layers of delicious, resonating with cardamom in each bite, hefty with flavours and yet symbiotically submitting when paired with a cup of coffee or even tea, because cardamom does go well with tea.
these ingredients might seem like a lot but that’s only because there are two parts to this cake. A crispy nutty crumb and a base cake.
first with the crumb topping. Into a bowl add flour (please excuse the lighting)
walnuts
brown sugar
cardamom
and mix with a fork until ingredients are equally dispersed.
finally add room temperature butter to form the crumbs
mix thoroughly
until nice fat crumbs or rather buttery nutty lumps are formed. Set aside.
for the dry ingredients in a separate bowl mix sugar, flour
baking powder, baking soda
and cardamom
mix well and keep aside
Now we get mixing to wet ingredients and also learn how exactly galaxies came to be formed. In a clean bowl add coconut oil
vanilla extract and coffee
milk and eggs
check out your handywork at creating the universe
now for some orange liquor
and a quick whisk to disperse everything
into a murky reality
now it’s just a question of adding the wet to the dry, much like life.
and stirring it all together to form a lovely terracotta mixture of cardamom flavoured dreams.
pour into a well greased baking tin
top with buttery crumbs
take a moment to gaze at the beauty that is this cardamom crumb cake before plunging it into the depths of a furnace that is your oven to bake at 200º for 40-45 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean
after 45 minutes this is what you’ll be rewarded with. beautifully bronzed looking slab of spiced haven.
let it rest for at least ten minutes before taking it out of the tin. It’ll be a moist flavourful cake with a rather delicious, even crispy topping. It’s the crumb topping that offsets flavours of this cake, giving it texture that comes in with a surprising cardamom punch.
serve warm with a strong cup of love.
Ingredients
For the crumb topping:
Flour: 60g (1/2cup)
Walnuts: 60g (1/3cup)
Butter: 80g (1/3cup)
Brown sugar: 80g (1/3cup)
Cardamom: 3/4 tsp
Note: I used regular cardamom pods and crushed the seeds to make a rough powdered texture
For the cake:
Flour: 150g (2cups)
Sugar: 145g (3/4cup)
Baking soda: 1/2 tsp
Baking powder: 1 heaped tsp
Eggs: 2
Cardamom: 1 tsp
Vanilla extract: 1tsp
Coconut oil: 120mls (1/2cup)
Coffee: 60mls (double shot)
Milk: 65mls (1/3cup)
Orange liqueur (optional): 30 mls (single shot)
Recipe instructions:
making crumbs: mix together walnuts, flour, brown sugar and cardamom. Add the butter and using either fingers or a fork mix everything together until it forms crumbs.
making cake: Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, soda and cardamom and keep aside.
In a separate bowl whisk together coconut oil, vanilla, eggs, coffee and orange liqueur if using and once blended well pour into the dry ingredients and mix to form batter. Pour into a greased baking dish and top with crumb toppings. Bake at 200º for 40-45 minutes until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Let it rest for an additional 10 minutes before serving.
Enjoy!
Driedredchillies 