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Apple Cardamom Coffee Cake – A New Fall Treat

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slice of apple cardamom crumb cake

I have become hooked on coffee cake! Especially my new apple cardamom coffee cake. I’ll be honest, between the pandemic and having a baby I haven’t had much time or energy to bake. I’ve been buying my baked goods from the grocery store (gasp). Specifically I fell in love with the coffee cake from Wegmans (which is my favorite supermarket chain). It’s surprisingly really really good….for store bought coffee cake.

I’m finally getting a little more sleep and finding time throughout the day to do things (like baking) while the baby naps. One of the first things I decided to bake post-baby was coffee cake. But being me I couldn’t make just make plain coffee cake, I wanted to give it a little pizazz.

Since it’s fall I thought apple coffee cake would be yummy, but I didn’t want to do just typical apple and cinnamon. While they are a classic flavor pairing, I still wanted to incorporate something different. That’s when I raided the spice cabinet and grabbed the cardamom! My husband is from India so we have a lot of spices in our house. Cardamom, which is a spice made from seeds native to India and Indonesia, is used often in Indian cooking. It is in the same family as ginger, so I thought it would pair nicely with apple and cinnamon.

The resulting cake was delicious! As soon my husband tried it he commented on how it tasted a little like an Indian dessert. The cake is very easy to make since it’s oil based, which means you don’t need to cream butter to make it. You could even mix the batter by hand. Try my apple cardamom coffee cake for something a little different this holiday season!

apple cardamom crumb cake
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Apple Cardamom Coffee Cake

Course Dessert
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes
Servings 10
Author Around the World 80 Cakes

Ingredients

Streusel Topping

  • 1/4 cup (1.1oz) unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1/3 cup (2.4oz) brown sugar, packed
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
  • 2 Tablespoons (1oz) unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
  • 3/4 cup almonds, chopped (see notes)

Cake Batter

  • 1 1/2 cups (6oz) diced apples (about 1-2 medium apples)
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 2 cups (8.5oz) unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup (4oz) oil (canola, safflower, vegetable, etc)
  • 1/2 cup (3.6oz) brown sugar, packed
  • 1/2 cup (3.6oz) granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 large (3.5oz) eggs
  • 1 cup (8.5oz) buttermilk (see notes)
  • 2 Tablespoons extra flour

Instructions

Streusel Topping

  1. In a medium bowl, or in the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, and cardamom. Mix/pulse to combine.

  2. Cut the butter into small cubes then add to the flour mixture. If mixing my hand use a pastry blender or fork to cut in the butter. If using a food processor, processes until the mixture forms coarse crumbs.

  3. Stir in the chopped nuts and set aside.

Cake Batter

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-inch springform pan with baker's spray (like Pam with Flour). Line the pan with parchment paper and spray again, then use a pastry brush to spread it evenly.

  2. Peel, core and dice the apples. Place into a medium bowl and toss with the lemon juice to keep them from browning as you prep the cake batter.

  3. Sift the all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cardamom into a mixing bowl. Add the salt, then whisk well to combine, set aside.

  4. In the bowl of a stand mixer combine the oil, brown sugar, granulated sugar and vanilla. Mix well to combine.

  5. Add the eggs to the oil/sugar mixture and mix until pale and a little fluffy (about 1 minute)

  6. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients in two batches, alternating with the buttermilk. Mix well (about 30 seconds) after each addition.

  7. Toss the diced apples with 2 tablespoons of flour then fold into the batter. Pour the batter into the prepared springform pan. Top evenly with all of the streusel mixture and press down gently so that it sticks to the cake batter well.

  8. Bake at 350°F for 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes before unmolding from the springform pan.

Recipe Notes

I used almonds for the topping, but you could easily use pecans or walnuts (or whatever other nuts you have on hand). I don’t always have buttermilk so I will substitute it using regular milk and vinegar. Just put 1 Tablespoon of vinegar in a measuring cup, then fill to the 1 cup mark with regular milk. Stir and let sit for a few minutes before using in the batter. 

Make it Dairy Free: You can replace the buttermilk with non-dairy milk and 1 Tablespoon of vinegar as described above. Replace the butter in the topping with margarine or another non-dairy butter replacement (like Earth Balance).

 

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