I recently went to a dinner party to celebrate two of my friend’s birthdays, and I wanted to bring a birthday cake they would LOVE! These friends prefer savoury to sweet, so what better cake to make than a coffee cardamom cake!! I decided to put miso in the icing to bring an extra savoury salted caramel flavour to the cake, and the cream cheese brought a bit of tartness and meant the icing wasn’t too sweet. And, of course, the walnuts add a lovely different texture!
The cake went down an absolute treat and was the perfect way to end the meal! If you want a show-stopping, mouth-dropping cake, then look no further than this Coffee Cardamom Cake with Miso Cream Cheese Icing and Walnuts…
Coffee Cardamom Cake with Miso Cream Cheese Icing and Walnuts
Course: CakeDifficulty: ★★★☆☆12
servings1
hour30
minutes30
minutesA punchy, deeply flavoured cake where fragrant cardamom, rich coffee and savoury-sweet miso come together.
Ingredients
- Coffee Cardamom Cake
35-40 cardamom pods (seeds only, ground in a pestle and mortar)
240 g plain flour
4 tsp baking powder
240 g butter, softened
4 eggs
125 g caster sugar
125 g light brown soft sugar
2 tbsp instant coffee powder
40 ml milk
60 ml espresso
- Miso Cream Cheese Icing
300 g cream cheese
75 g butter (softened)
200 g icing sugar (sieved)
2 tbsp white miso paste
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- To Decorate
100g chopped walnuts
Directions
- The cake
- Preheat the oven to 170 °C and place a shelf in the middle of the oven. Line and grease two cake tins (I used 2 20 cm loose bottomed cake tins)
- Cream together the butter and both sugars until light, soft and creamy.
- Stir through the eggs one by one until combined. Then stir through the milk.
- In a seperate bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, instant coffee powder, cardamom). Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet. Mix until smooth and creamy and combined.
- Divide the mixture between the two tins, and bake on the middle shelf for 25-30 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. The cake should feel soft and bouncy.
- Remove the cakes from the oven and cool them in their tins. Prick them with a skewer all over and drizzle over the espresso while the cakes are still hot.
- The icing
- Whisk the butter and cream cheese together until smooth and combined. Gradually whisk in the powdered sugar.
- Whisk in the miso and vanilla. Adjust to taste.
- The construction
- Use a knife to carefully go round the edges of the cake in their tins, then push the bottom up through the tin. Place a serving plate upside down on top of the cake, and invert the cake and the plate, so that the cake now sits on top of the plate. Alternatively, using a palette knife to lift the cake onto a serving plate, but being very careful since the cake is delicate.
- Spread around 1/3 of the icing across the top of the first cake layer. Take time to spread the icing to the edges and make sure it is evenly distributed across the cake.
- Remove the second cake from the tin in the same way as the first. Using a palette knife, carefully lift the second cake and place it on top of the first. Be careful since this cake can be quite moist and delicate.
- Spread icing over the top cake – you can use the amount of icing you prefer! Make sure it is even and smoothed around the whole top layer.
- Add the chopped walnuts to the centre of the cake top. Slice and enjoy!
Notes
- Storage: since the icing is cream cheese based, this cake lasts best and longest when stored in the fridge. Remove around an hour before eating 🙂
Leave a Reply