Swedish Fika Recipe of Cardamom Cake for our Chai Nashta Break. Over a couple of years, I have made this Cardamom Cake, or as the Swedes would call it, Kardemummakaka, quite a few times, and every time it has been a super hit with my family. This tea time or coffee break cake, also known as fika in Sweden, is delicious and mildly fragrant with a handful of green cardamoms. Rest, everything is the same with this oil-based sponge cake that I will get to soon.
What is fika?
Used interchangeably as a verb and noun, fika is the coffee break Swedish people enjoy during their usual routine. It is something similar to our 11 o’clock tea break that we Indians usually enjoy before we head on to our task list for the day. In Sweden, fika allows them to stop and unwind. It puts everything at a halt as they enjoy their fresh brew and a side of snacks like this Kardemummakaka.
Anybody who has been to Sweden must know that Swedish people take their fika pretty seriously. No kidding, their country ranks higher in terms of happiness index than ours!
Offices allow fika breaks when people get off their seats and enjoy their coffee breaks with freshly baked cakes or snacks. Fika recipes are altogether a speciality in their cuisine.
Cardamom cake recipe ingredients
Well, it’s in the name itself, so you know how important it is. So, if you have any kind of aversion towards this spice, then I am sorry. This cake recipe isn’t meant for you. “Coz what’s a cardamom cake without cardamoms?”
Did you know? After saffron and vanilla, cardamom is the third most expensive spice in the world. Originally from South and Southeast Asia, it is primarily cultivated in India and Indonesia. One of the reasons for the steep cost of this Indian spice is the nature of its cultivation. It is a labor-intensive handpicking process where the entire harvesting of the crop has to be done manually.
Now, one of the key points to ponder is how much cardamom to use in cake. Now, I had medium-large-ish Cardamom pods with me, and I used around 10 pods. I crushed them in my grinder and added it to the dry mix of ingredients. You might find the aroma quite overpowering, but it will fade away a bit after baking.
Usually I am a bit orthodox in terms of using eggs in the cake recipes. I believe it gives a degree of richness to the cakes, and they hold better as compared to the eggless ones. However, I know there are many people who prefer eggless cake recipes for various reasons. In case you want to bake an eggless cardamom cake, then simply omit the eggs and replace them with 1/4 cup of apple sauce, condensed milk, or another 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda.
Here, in this Kardemummakaka Swedish cake recipe, I have used the usual cow milk. But if you prefer lactose-free milk, then you may use other plant-based milk options like soy milk, almond milk, cashew milk, etc. I wouldn’t suggest using coconut milk, as its flavour might be too intense for this recipe.
Kardemummakaka recipe instructions
- Grind the 10 cardamom pods into a fine powder. Allow it to sit for a while before you open the jar; otherwise, there will be a cloud of spice in your eyes. Take a bowl and mix all the dry ingredients. This includes 1 cup of all-purpose flour with 2 tablespoons of it replaced with an equal amount of cornflour, 1/3 cup granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon baking powder, and ½ teaspoon baking soda, including the cardamom powder. Sieve them through and keep them aside.
- Now, in another bowl, whisk the 2 eggs with a pinch of salt till light and almost 3 times in volume.
- Add half a cup of oil to the eggs and whisk them vigorously till light and airy.
- Now, add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with milk, and mix gently. You will need somewhere around half a cup of milk to loosen the cake batter. Once you see that the dry ingredients have been incorporated nicely, stop mixing.
- Now, pour the batter into a lightly oiled and floured cake tin and bake it at 170°C for 40 minutes. Once you see that the cake has baked and the sides are pulling back from the edges, you know that it is done.
- Take it out and allow it to cool in the cake tin for 10 minutes before turning it upside down on a wire rack to cool down completely.
- Serve this cake as it is or drizzle it with a glaze.
Frosting or glaze for Cardamom Cake
If you are feeling fancy, then you can definitely go for a glaze on top of this cake. Personally, I felt that cardamom goes very well with a citrussy taste. So, I made an instant lime glaze using lime juice and caster sugar. While the cake is warm, pour the glaze over the top and let it soak for a couple of minutes before slicing.
You may also replace the lime and serve the cardamom cake with an orange glaze. And I have a feeling that another delicious way would be to serve this recipe of cardamom cake with coffee glaze.
Why use cardamom in a cake recipe?
With so many flavours available, you must be thinking, Why cardamom? We usually associate Indian spices with mainstream Indian cooking, where these spices add heat to the savoury dishes. Sometimes, Indian desserts make an occasional mention of these spices. But we find it very hard to believe that these spices can make for an excellent flavouring agent in a dessert recipe like a cake.
In case you are a fan of mangoes, cardamom goes amazingly well with the flavour profile of mangoes as well. I have this amazing recipe for mango cake with cardamom cream on this food blog, which I am sure you will like! Here’s how it looks—pretty, isn’t it?
More loaf cake recipe ideas
Looking for a Christmas cake recipe without alcohol?
Are you in for a no-soak Christmas cake recipe that has spices and makes your house smell nice? Then this cardamom cake recipe is your answer. Of course, it is different from the traditional Christmas cake recipe, which, by the way, I have here on my blog. This aromatic cardamom-infused cake has its own set of charms. While we are on the topic of Christmas cakes, I have an eggless version of rum-soaked plum cake as well.
Ready to cook? Pin this recipe, share it with friends, and explore more Bengali classics on our blog. Happy cooking!
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Over a couple of years, I have made this Cardamom Cake, or as the Swedes would call it, Kardemummakaka, quite a few times, and every time it has been a super hit with my family. This tea time or coffee break cake, also known as fika in Sweden, is delicious and mildly fragrant with a handful of green cardamoms. Rest, everything is the same with this oil-based sponge cake that I will get to soon.
Course:
Dessert, Snack
Cuisine:
Swedish
Keyword:
Cake Recipes, Cardamom Cake Recipe, Fika Recipes, Swedish Cake Recipes
Servings: 1 Loaf
:
-
1
cup
All Purpose Flour
With 2 tbsp of it replaced with equal amount of Cornflour -
1/2
cup
Refined Oil -
1/3
cup
Granulated Sugar -
1
tsp
Baking Powder -
½
tsp
Baking Soda -
½
cup
Milk -
10
pods
Green Cardamom -
2
Eggs
-
Grind the Cardamoms into a fine powder. Allow it to sit for a while before you open the jar, otherwise there will be a cloud of spice in your eyes.
Take a bowl and mix all the dry ingredients together, including the Cardamom powder. Sieve them through and keep them aside.
-
Now, in another bowl, whisk the eggs with a pinch of salt, till light and almost 3 times in its volume.
-
Add oil to the eggs and whisk them vigorously till light and airy.
-
Now, add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with milk and mix gently. Once you see that the dry ingredients have incorporated nicely, stop mixing.
-
Now, pour the batter in a slightly oiled and floured cake tin and bake it at 170c for 40 minutes. Once you see that the cake has baked and the sides are pulling back from the edges, you know that it is done.
-
Take it out and allow it to cool in the cake tin for 10 minutes before turning it upside down on wire rack to cool down completely.
-
Serve this cake as it is or drizzle it with a glaze.
Ready to cook? Pin this recipe, share it with friends, and explore more Bengali classics on our blog. Happy cooking!