Cardamom Coffee Cake

This is another recipe from the Hairy Bikers new baking show and book.  If you don't know who the Hairy Bikers are, check out the post I did on their Norwegian Rye Bread recipe.  This particular recipe is also Norwegian.  Now, my American readers will understand the concept of a coffee cake that has no coffee in, but for us Brits this needs some explaining.  This is a coffee cake that is served WITH coffee rather than a coffee flavoured cake.  But honestly it's a silly name, who decides what differentiates a cake to be served with coffee from a cake to be served with a glass of milk or a pint of beer, or whatever?

Anyway, onto the cake.  You will need:

• 200g butter plus extra for greasing (YES, I KNOW, just imagine it is in the photo, OK?)
• 2 tbsp cardamom pods
• 225g caster sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 300g self raising flour (American readers will be able to find lots of sites online that tell you how to create it yourselves)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 200ml semi skimmed milk
• 3 heaped tbsp demerara sugar
• 40g flaked almonds

First you will need to deal with the cardamoms.  Yours might be fresher and therefore softer than mine but this took me well over half an hour!

Take the cardamom pods and open them, removing the seeds.  I found the best way to do this was to press down on one with the handle from my pestle and mortar.  Discard the husks and  place all the seeds into the pestle and mortar.

GRIND, grind and grind some more.  Until you have a powder.  If you have a spice grinder you might be able to do this in that, I don't know.  I had to do it the hard way.

You should end up with about 2 tsp, set this aside.

Preheat the oven to 190c / 170c fan / Gas 5 / 380f.  Grease a 20 * 30cm  cake or brownie tin and line with baking parchment.

Put the butter into a small pan and melt it slowly, then remove the pan from the heat and leave the butter to cool.

Put the caster sugar and eggs into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment.

Beat until pale and light.  You could do this with an electric hand whisk, or even by hand, but I would imagine it would take a while.

Add the cardamom, flour, baking powder,

cooled melted butter and a little of the milk,

then whisk until just combined.

Gradually add the rest of the milk, a little at a time, whisking constantly

until the batter is smooth and has the texture of double cream.

Pour into the prepared cake tin.

Mix the demerara sugar and almonds and sprinkle the mixture over the top of the cake.  Bake for 30 - 35 minutes in the centre of the oven or until the cake is well risen and golden brown.  Check by putting a skewer into the centre - it should come out clean, but if not, cook a little longer.

Leave the cake to cool in the tin for at least 30 minutes, then cut it into squares before serving.  If you'd like to serve the cake warm, remove it from the tin after 5 minutes of cooling.  Although I have to say my pieces were still warm after 30 minutes.  Great cold with coffee,

or warm with a little cream.

I did not know what to expect flavours wise using cardamom in a cake but this is delicious!  So light and fluffy from the whisking of the eggs and sugar in the stand mixer and the taste is fantastic.  Think I might have to bake one of these for the next shared meal at church.  I probably won't label it as cardamom cake and just wait for people to work it out, heeheee.

If you want to try that Norwegian Rye bread from the same book and tv series, check it out.

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