Cardamom cake with crackly almonds and sugar

Recipe adapted from here

Butter- to grease the cake tin

Caster sugar- around 2 tbsp

Almond flakes-  1/2 cup

Caster sugar- 264 gms

Eggs- 4 large

Plain flour- 160 gms

Salt- 1/4 tsp

Cardamom seeds- 1/2 tbsp (powdered)

Butter- 150 gms, melted

Vanilla extract- 1/2 tsp

Preheat oven to 170c (fan assisted) and grease a 9 inch pan using the butter. Make sure you generously do this.

Also line the base of the pan with grease proof paper.

Put the 2 tbsp sugar into the cake pan and swirl around/shake/tap to coat the side and base of the pan, as evenly as possible. Leave the remaining sugar if any at the base of the pan.

Cover the bottom of the pan with almond flakes. keep aside.

In a bowl whisk together the caster sugar and eggs using a hand held blender or in a free standing mixer., till it becomes pale and double in volume. This step is important so dont skimp it. It took me around 6 minutes.

Slowly fold in the flour and salt without deflating the batter.

Pour in melted butter, vanilla extract and cardamom powder and give a good mix, again without deflating the batter too much. The melted butter may go right to the bottom, so do scrape well and fold.

Pour slowly into the prepared cake tin, give a good tap on the counter and put into the oven.

Bake for about 45 minutes or till a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean (original recipe said to bake at 35 minutes, but it just wasnt done, so mine took about 45 minutes. Start checking at 35 minutes and keep increasing just 5 minutes at a time.)

Remove from oven and leave on the counter.

After five minutes run a knife around the sides of the pan and invert onto a cooling rack (i inverted it directly on to a serving plate)

Peel off the grease proof paper slowly, while the cake is still warm and leave to cool completely before cutting.

Hot milk-coffee cake

Recipe adapted from here

Eggs- 2 large

Demerara sugar- 1 cup

Vanilla extract- 1 tsp

Plain flour- 1 cup + 2 tbsp

Baking powder- 1 tsp (slightly heaped)

Salt- 1/4 tsp

Milk- 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp

Unsalted butter- 5 tbsp

Instant coffee powder- 2 tsp

Beat the eggs on medium-high speed for about 3 to 5 minutes, either using your hand held mixer or using the whisk attachment of a free standing mixer.

Once the eggs turn light yellow and thick, add the sugar bit by bit till the mixture is light and fluffy, it should take another 4 to 5 minutes to get to this stage. Dont skip this bit, it really does make a difference to how to cake turns out.

I turned my free standing mixer on and by the time the eggs were done, i got the other ingredients ready.

Preheat oven to 170C and grease and line an 8 inch cake tin.

Mix together the plain flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Keep aside.

Heat the milk and butter in a saucepan along with the coffee powder, just until all the butter melts. Keep aside.

Once the eggs reach its thick consistency, reduce speed to low and add the flour and mix until smooth without any visible traces of flour combined. 

With the mixer still on low speed, gradually add the hot milk to the batter and beat until well combined.

Pour into the cake tin and bake for 40 minutes or till a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. (mine was done in 42 minutes).

Place on a cooling rack and once completely cool. store at room temperature in an air tight container.

Notes: You can replace demerara with granulated sugar

You can also use a square cake tin for this cake (in fact i think it would be a better option). If so, i would say reduce the cooking time to about 30-35 minutes.

If you dont add the instant coffee, you get yourself a good ol fashioned hot milk cake.

Here's the recipe for my coffee walnut cake 

Pound Cake- two ways

OK I'm obsessed with TasteSpotting and Foodgawker. I'm adamant, I want my photos accepted. I think it totally boosts my self confidence when a photo gets published. Its so weird that the pics i think look nice, actually get rejected, but the ones i submit just for the heck of it gets accepted...some are not even that great. I have managed to rectify my first error of 'what i want in focus,' but the composition (rule of thirds), i just don get it. I always end up getting frustrated and no wonder TS and FG rejects it (well, FG more than TS). The use of natural lighting...well living in a place like UK doesn't help much...its either gloomy or raining or both. I am however making maximum use of the summer longer days which need not necessarily be brilliant with sunshine all the time, but somethings better than nothing right?

Anyhoo, I have created a TS page (FG shall follow) just to keep track of how many pics get accepted and whether I'm making any progress.

I'm a big fan of plain cakes and pound cakes in particular are an all time fav. No icing, no filling, no flavouring...just plain ol pound cakes. I had bookmarked this recipe long back, thinking i should try it and yesterday seemed like the perfect day....why because i was pissed off and i thought baking, since it is therapeutic, would help me..instead it tired me out even more and I would have been incredibly bitchy if the cakes hadn't turned out decent.

I first thought of just baking it in a loaf tin, but half way through i decided to incorporate some fruits and take it down to my neighbour...whom I met after living here for close to a year. She was really sweet and brought me a nice flower pot..so i obviously had to return that gesture and so i thought I'd bake a cake..since i pretty much suck at everything else. But after i baked it, i cut a slice to check how it was and then Ro bit into it and so we decided to chuck the idea and be selfish instead.

Condensed milk pound cake

Butter- 120 gms

Sugar- 45 gms

Vanilla extract- 1 1/2 tsp

Condensed milk- 1/2 cup

Plain flour- 120 gms

Baking powder- 3/4 tsp

Salt- 1/4 tsp

Eggs- 2

Whisk together the cake flour, baking powder and salt. Keep aside

In a free standing mixer (paddle attachment), or using your hand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar till light and fluffy.

Add the vanilla extract and mix well.

Pour in the condensed milk and keep beating till they are all combined well.

Reduce the speed to about 1 (or minimum) and add the flour mix bit by bit. Scrape the sides and make sure the batter is well combined and that no lumps are visible...it should be smooth.

Next, add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition..i increased the speed a bit here. The batter should be nice and fluffy.

Grease a 9 inch cake pan or line a cupcake tray and pour the batter till 3/4th full.

Bake in a preheated oven (175C) for 30 to 35 minutes if its for cupcake and about 50 to 55 minutes otherwise. Also insert a toothpick in the middle and if it comes out clean, you're good to go.

Cool on a wire rack and serve warm...drizzle some condensed milk on top, to make it more gooey and moist.

Raspberry pound cake drizzled with a raspberry compote

Raspberries- 200gms (i used canned ones, because the fresh ones always are a bit sour sometimes)

Butter- 3 tbsp

Sugar- 2 tbsp (or more if you are using fresh ones)

Butter a 9 inch cake pan and layer the bottom with parchment paper. If its a spring form pan, its even better. 

If using canned raspberries, drain the syrup into a glass. Keep aside.

In a saucepan, melt the butter and sugar.

When it starts to slightly bubble, add the raspberries and on medium heat stir, till the berries are coated  well and becomes lightly mushy. Its ok, if it doesn't hold its shape. The mix shouldn't be too watery, it should be slightly thick in consistency. Keep aside to cool a bit.

Have the plain pound cake batter ready. Gently fold the berry syrup into the batter and pour into the baking tin.

If you want to do an upside down cake..then layer the bottom of the cake pan with this berry mix and scoop the batter on top. In this case, the berry mix should not be runny at all.

If you want to do a fancy looking cake, then layer the berry first and then the batter and twirl the batter 

with a fork, like how you do for a marble cake..Make sure you evenly distribute it though.

Place the cake tin on a baking tray (just to catch any syrup that oozes out)

Bake in the centre of a preheated oven (175C) for 1 hr or when a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

Take it out of the oven, and after about 10 minutes, insert a knife around the edges and insert onto a serving plate and let it cool. 

Berry compote

In a sauce pan, mix the syrup (what you kept aside from the can) and 1/4 cup fresh raspberries on medium heat, till they start to bubble and become a little thick..not too much since it needs to be drizzled. Add some warm water if its too thick though.

Cut the cake into huge wedges,warm it a bit in the microwave, drizzle some compote on top and serve with a huge smile :)

edited to add: peeps...this pic got tastespotted yaaaay :)

Notes: When you cut out the parchment paper, make sure its a little bigger than the bottom pan, because the syrup might seep through and this reduce the damage or can prevent it.

You can keep some of the berry mix fr the cake aside and use that for the compote as well.

You can substitute the berry compote with fresh cream or ice cream or even raspberry coulis. The cake has more of a pudding consistency..yes extremely soft and moist.

Its really not that hard at all, if such a long post made you feel so.


Even though id say summer hasnt really set in our side of the world, Raspberries sure bring that colour and brightness summer is all about. Submitting this dessert recipe to the Sizzling Summer Contest over at spicytasty.com.