Cardamom Spiced Cake … spicing up life with cardamom

Leafing through the Australian Women’s Weekly book on CAKES that my friend recently brought for me when she was visiting from the UK, I stopped at this Cardamom-spiced Cake. Not that I’m a huge fan of cardamom, (though the hub & boy certainly are), but because it had a little note that said this cake was a new take on the Armenian nutmeg cake. Reading the note took me right back to when I began blogging...

When I began this blog in August 2007, for the want of nothing better to do, it was the first cake I made specially for my blog, my inaugural bake as I chose to refer to it as. It had turned out to be a warm & wonderful cake, the Armenian nutmeg cake. This new take sounded entirely enticing .

I think this is a tea cake, full of spices, quite perfect for ‘chai‘ or tea, warm with spicy flavours. The method is also entirely different from most of the cakes I’ve tried before. It’s got a crumb base, & then the batter on top that makes the cake. The boy loved it & couldn’t stop asking for me (tch, tch), but the daughter wasn’t too excited about it to begin with. But I guess it grows on you, as it grew on her, & soon enough she was back asking for seconds & thirds. Browned Butter Caramel Frosting, (recipe from an earlier Daring Bakers challenge) on top added to it’s appeal, or then the dollop of chocolate ganache within, which ensured runaway success. I think this is a pretty versatile cake indeed. The original recipe used pistachios, my favourite nuts (for colour, taste & beauty), but I used almonds here as an alternate as the recipe suggested. Pistachios are quite highly priced here, & I didn’t want to weep over precious wasted nuts just in case the cake was a disaster. Other nut substitutes suggested are walnuts, hazelnuts or pecans. If you aren’t a huge fan of cardamom, I think the cake might work well with just cinnamon & nutmeg, in which case just omit the cardamom to make a ‘Spiced cake’. Another idea might be to omit the spices altogether, & add some chocolate chips with the nuts to make an entirely different version. Think on…

1/2 cup almonds; chopped

• Preheat oven to 180C/moderate oven. Grease a 20cm X 30cm Lamington pan, & line the long sides & bottom.
• Process the flours, sugar,spices & butter till the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
• Transfer to a bowl. firmly press 1 1/2 cups of the flour mix into the bottom of the pan.
• Use a fork to combine the egg, soda & milk in a jug, add to the remaining flour mixture with nuts, mix well with a wooden spoon. Pour mixture over base in pan, & spread evenly.
• Bake cake for about 1 hour (mine took about 45-50 minutes). When done, cool on rack for about 10 minutes. then turn out of pan gently. Cut when cool.

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