Cardamom Crumb Cake

This recipe for Cardamom Crumb Cake is just perfect for snacking. It’s not only for snacking though. The cake can also be a dessert, served with cream or ice-cream.

The cake is lovely and moist, and soft too. But the crumb layer on top gives a nice crunch as well. The addition of some chopped hazelnuts also provides a flavoursome crunch.

But the star of the show is ground cardamom. It has an intense flavour, with hints of mint, ginger and pepper. The spice is particularly popular in the Nordic countries and in some Middle Eastern cooking too. It is also used in lots of Indian cookery.

Just a little of the spice in the cake batter and more in the crumb provides a great flavour for this cake. However, for those who don’t have cardamom, cinnamon could be used instead which also works very well.

The recipe is very easy, which is always a bonus, taking little time to make. The list of ingredients is not too long either.

Along with the cardamom you just need the usual cake ingredients, flour, sugar, butter, eggs and raising agents. Some natural yoghurt is used too, but that can be swapped out for sour cream, creme fraiche or cream cheese if you wish. The final ingredient is some chopped nuts. I used roasted hazelnuts, but walnuts, pecans etc could be used instead too.

So we have a simple recipe that takes little effort to mix into a batter and a crumb topping, that makes a simply wonderful cake right just for snacking.

My Cake

I mixed my crumb topping and then make the cake batter. The batter was placed into a greased springform pan, with parchment covering the base. Then the crumb topping was sprinkled onto the batter and covered with the chopped nuts.

I then baked my cake for 50 minutes, until it had risen well and a skewer was clean after being poked into the centre.

I left the cake in the pan for about 15 minutes then the I transferred it to a rack to cool completely.

Once it was cool I cut a slice of cake and tasted it. The texture was soft and moist and the flavour was wonderful, with the cardamom really coming through, giving a warmth to the back of my throat. I tasted just a hint of minty ginger which was not overpowering. The cake went so well with my cup of tea.

Another great recipe to try is Gooey Orange Tarts.

Cardamom Crumb Cake

Recipe by geoffcooCourse: Cakes, DessertsDifficulty: Easy

Servings

12

servings

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking time

50

minutes

Ingredients

• Crumb Topping

• 200g(1 1/3 cups, based on scooping packed flour into a 250ml cup) plain flour

• 150g(3/4 cup) soft light brown sugar

• 140g(10 tbsp) melted and cooled unsalted butter

• 3g(1 tsp) ground cardamom

• pinch of salt

• 30g(1/4 cup) chopped roasted hazelnuts

• Cake batter

• 225g(1 1/2 cups, based on scooping packed flour into a 250ml cup) plain flour

• 113g (8 tbsp) melted and cooled unsalted butter

• 200g(1 cup) caster sugar

• 180ml(3/4 cup) natural yoghurt

• 2 medium eggs(large in USA)

• 4g(1 tsp) baking powder

• 2g(1/2 tsp) baking soda

• 3g(1/2 tsp) salt

• 1.5g(1/2 tsp) ground cardamom

• 5 ml(1 tsp) vanilla extract

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/350F
• Grease a 9 inch/23cm round cake pan and line the base with parchment paper.
• In a large bowl place the flour, brown sugar, salt and cardamom, for the crumb topping, and mix them together.
• Pour in the melted butter and stir with a fork until the mixture is moist and fully incorporated into a clumpy mixture. Then set aside.
• In another large bowl place the eggs, yoghurt, melted butter and vanilla extract and whisk them until fully combined.
• Add the sugar and whisk again to incorporate.
• Mix the cardamom, baking powder, baking soda and salt into the flour.
• Tip that dry mixture into the wet and stir until fully combined.
• Place the batter mixture into the prepared cake pan and spread it to evenly cover the base.
• Break the crumb top mixture up a little, as it will have firmed up, and sprinkle it over the cake batter.
• Sprinkle the chopped hazelnuts on the top and gently press down.
• Bake the cake for between 45 and 50 minutes, until it has risen well and a skewer poked into the centre comes out clean. Then remove the cake from the oven and leave it in the pan for 15 minutes before transferring it to a wire rack to cool completely.