I love cardamom, the aroma and the flavor. I have a recipe of a Cardamom Cake, added some red plums to give it a seasonal twist. Unfortunately, I cannot get the pods around here, so I’ll have to do with the ground version. I believe that when you use the pods and grind the seeds yourself it is more flavorful, but it is what it is.
My first encounter with cardamom was in, I think it was Middle School. My best friend’s mother was Swedish and their favorite cake was ‘Kardemumma’. They had this secret, special Swedish ingredient; seeds from these funny looking pods, to flavor the cake. My friend and her 2 younger sisters made the cake together and it was easy to do. It was and still is absolutely delicious and for me it was love at first sight. Actually it was love at first whiff and confirmed by first bite. At that time, I did not know that Kardemumma is Swedish for Cardamom and I had the distinct impression that it came all the way from Sweden.
Years and years later, when I was visiting Sweden on a business trip, I asked my colleagues (all women at that time) whether they ever heard of kardemumma. They laughed and said ‘you’ll see’. It was close to tea time in the afternoon and they always had their coffee and tea breaks together in their lunch room. Guess what they served – a cake with Cardamom. I was so surprised, because I couldn’t figure out how this coincidence was possible, then I learned that Cardamom is a ‘regular’ in Swedish baking recipe.
I am used to make a plain Cardamom Cake, since I got this recipe from my friends mother way back, and I slightly changed over the years. Today I thought I could add another ingredient – red plums. Readily available and their flavor would not overpower the cardamom. It adds a fruity layer of mushiness to the cake. It is still ‘my cardamom cake’, with just a little extra. I am enjoying a slice of this Cardamom Cake with Red Plums, while I type this post, yumm!!
Cardamom Cake with Red Plums
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons bread crumbs
- 1/2 teaspoon cloves ground
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1 3/4 cups brown sugar
- 2 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 1/2 tablespoons cardamom ground
- 1 1/4 cups milk
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 egg yolks
- 2 egg whites
- 4 red plums
Instructions
- Warm the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a cake form (9x5x3 inches) and dust the inside with bread crumbs.
- Mix all dry ingredients, ground cloves until ground cardamom.
- Melt butter.
- Beat egg whites stiff.
- Peel red plums and cut the fruits around the pit in quarters and then the quarters in halves.
- Whisk milk and egg yolk and add melted butter.
- Add milk mixture to dry ingredients and mix well. Add egg white and fold these into the batter. Don’t overmix, but make sure you have no white clouds of egg white.
- Pour half of batter in the cake form. Place red plum pieces on top and cover with other half of batter.
- Place cake form in oven and bake 1 hour and 15 minutes.
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