This cardamom coffee cake recipe is the perfect dish to complete brunch! It’s packed with a whole tablespoon of cardamom, cinnamon, and lots of crumb topping. All my friends have obsessed over this coffee cake and I’m confident that you will too!
How to make Cardamom Coffee Cake
- Make the crumb topping: This is the best part of any coffee cake!
- Beat together softened butter and sugars: This helps whip air into the coffee cake to give it a fluffy texture.
- Beat in eggs, vanilla, almond extract (optional) and sour cream.
- Fold in dry ingredients.
- Assemble, bake, let it set, and enjoy!
The function of ingredients
All purpose flour: Flour is essential to any cake. It is the ingredient that provides the cake with its structure.
Butter: As you may notice, there is a lot of butter in this cake. This help keeps the cake moist for days after it’s baked and gives it an incredible flavor! Butter is also necessary for the crumb topping.
Cardamom: I promise it’s not a typo when you see that there is one whole tablespoon of cardamom in this cake. I absolutely love cardamom and wanted it to be the main flavor of this coffee cake. Tbh, I wanted to add even more cardamom to this recipe but several recipe testers agreed that there was already enough cardamom in there. Feel free to add a bit more and let me know how it turns out!
Cinnamon: Cinnamon is mostly meant to compliment the cardamom flavor in this recipe.
Salt: Please never skip the salt in a recipe!! It is what helps bring out all the flavor elements in any recipe. You’ll notice this recipe calls for a decent amount of salt. That’s because cardamom is a subtle flavor and salt can help bring it forward even more.
Eggs: Eggs provide a tenderness to the cake, build structure, and act as leavening agents to help the cake rise.
Almond extract: This one is optional, but is my secret to better cakes and muffins! It provides that extra oomph that takes any cake or muffin from homemade to professional bakery status.
3 secrets to great coffee cake
- Let your ingredients come to room temperature! This ensures that your batter will come together smoothly. Otherwise, you may be left with some chunks of butter or egg.
- Beat together the sugar and butter for at least 3 minutes. This helps prevent chunks of butter and adds lots of air into your batter for a nice, light crumb.
- Let your coffee cake sit overnight!!! I cannot emphasize this one enough. Coffee cake is always a million times better the second day. While the cake is still hot, the middle crumb layer hasn’t had enough time to set and you’ll end up with a buttery mess if you try to cut into it too soon. I promise you it’s worth the wait.
Cardamom Coffee Cake
Equipment
- 1 Hand or stand mixer
Ingredients
Streusel Topping
- 85 g Unsalted butter, half melted 6 Tbs
- 120 g Flour 1 cup
- 200 g Brown Sugar 1 Cup
- 1 teaspoon Ground Cardamom
- 1/2 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
- 1 pinch Salt
Cardamom Coffee Cake
- 180 g Flour 1.5 cups
- 1 Tablespoon Ground Cardamom yes, a full Tablespoon!
- 1/2 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 100 g Granulated Sugar 1/2 cup
- 50 g Brown Sugar 1/4 cup
- 113 g Unsalted Butter, Softened 1 stick or 1/2 cup
- 2 Whole Eggs, room temperature
- 1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
- 1/4 teaspoon Almond Extract optional
- 185 g Full Fat Sour Cream, room temperature 3/4 cup
Instructions
Streusel Topping
- Start by microwaving your butter until it's about halfway melted. Let cool while you mix your other ingredients.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, and salt.
- Add in the half-melted butter and use a rubber spatula to combine. Once the butter is almost all incorporated, use your hands to finish mixing the streusel. Use your hands to break apart any large chunks so that you're left with a crumble consistency. Let chill in fridge while you make the cake batter.
- *If your streusel is all sticking into one big clump, add more flour 1 Tablespoon at a time until it starts to separate. If your crumble feels to dry and sandy, add more butter 1/2 Tablespoon at a time.*
Cardamom Coffee Cake
- Preheat your oven to 350F. Grease a 8×8 square pan or a springform pan and set aside.
- in a large bowl, combine flour, cardamom, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In your stand mixer bowl, add softened butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar. Beat with a paddle attachment (or hand mixer) for 3 minutes until pale and fluffy.
- Use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Then add eggs, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Mix until combined.
- Scrape down your bowl once again and add sour cream. Beat until well combined. Your batter may be a bit lumpy. That's okay!
- Add all dry ingredients and mix until just barely combined. Be careful not to overmix! If your batter seems pretty lumpy, beat quickly on a medium-high speed for about 3-5 seconds for an extra smooth batter.
Assemble the cake
- Pour 1/2 the batter into the bottom of your greased pan. If needed, use a rubber spatula to spread the batter evenly.
- Take 1/2 of your streusel mixture and sprinkle it evenly over the batter in your pan.
- Take the remaining batter and pour it over top. Gently use your rubber spatula to evenly spread the batter as needed.
- Use the remaining streusel to top the cake.
- Bake at 350F for 50-60 minutes until the center no longer jiggles when you gently shake the pan, or a toothpick comes out with just a couple moist crumbs.
- Let sit for at least 8 hours, or ideally overnight before cutting into!
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