I know my friend Vidhya is looking forward to this recipe because of the cardamom. She is quite the baker and cook herself, and she never ceases to impress. Vidhya, I hope you can veganize this one! I also hope it lives up to your caliber of baking and cooking. Also, the cardamom cake recipe means I’ve baked a cake with each of the challenge ingredients you all voted on so far except for persimmon – but rest assured, I’ll make that, too.

A little baking tip for you fellow bakers out there. One of the biggest rules I learned from The Cake Bible that my sister-in-law got me for my birthday is not to overbeat the cake batters. I use the paddle attachment instead of the whisk attachment in the KitchenAid, and I only beat as much as it takes to incorporate the ingredients. Also, the book suggests to sift all the dry ingredients together – even if the recipe doesn’t say so. So I use the flour sifter I got from mom-in-law a while back to incorporate my flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, etc. these days. I have really changed my ways and started planning ahead so I can pay better attention and get my timing right. These two changes have helped lead to lighter, fluffier, softer, tastier cakes!

This one turned out so neat. I love a good coffee cake, but the cardamom adds such an interesting and unique twist.

Cardamom Coffee Cake Recipe Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup brown sugar, and an additional 4 tablespoons or so of brown sugar (flexible)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1.25 teaspoons baking soda
• 0.75 teaspoon cardamom (I used Guatemala ground cardamom from Penzey’s)
• 0.25 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon (I used China Tung Hing Cinnamon from Penzey’s)
• 0.25 cup chopped walnuts

Cardamom Coffee Cake Recipe Directions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and prepare a round bundt pan or tube pan. I line the bottom with parchment paper and use non-stick cooking spray to prepare my pans lately, but cutting out an o-shaped piece of parchment paper seemed like a pain, so I just sprayed generously. In a large bowl, cream the softened butter and the brown sugar together until they are light and fluffy. Add the vanilla, and then the eggs one at a time. Sift the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl. Add the dry ingredients mixture and the sour cream a bit at a time, alternating. You should start and finish with the dry ingredients mixture. Set your cake batter aside, and in another bowl mix together the cinnamon, 1/4 cup of brown sugar and the chopped walnuts to create your nut mixture. Pour about half of your cardamom coffee cake batter into the pan, layer on about 2/3 of the nut mixture, then the last half of the batter, then the last half of the nut mixture (I kind of mushed the last part of the nut mixture into the batter with my spatula, don’t know why – but it turned out great). This can bake for about 1 hour in your 350-degree oven, but it wouldn’t hurt to check starting at about 45 minutes. You should have a lovely brown color on top, the cake should spring back when lightly pressed, and your skewer tester should come out dry when inserted in the middle. Cool for about 20 minutes, then run a knife around the edge of the tube pan and remove from pan to finish cooling completely.

About HeatherPhysioc

Heather Physioc is a 27-year-old Senior Website Manager at PlattForm Advertising in Kansas CIty. She is a vegetarian food-lover who finds joy in cooking, baking and finding funky new restaurants. She leads a pack of dogs, including her beagle Ford, and her shepherd-collie-retriever mix, Otto, and also has a cat named Ahab. Her husband, Luke, bought her the KitchenAid you see in this blog as a wedding present!

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