Year of Cakes - 3 down, 9 to go!

Peek-a-boo!

It’s true that our confidence in tackling Martha’s recipes has increased over time, although as we found in the last 2 months’ attempts, that confidence was sorely tested when the experiences turned into baking marathons! Surely we could ask in absolute confidence….how hard can it be to make March’s Cardamom Streusel Coffee Cake?? It’s just a tea cake, right? Well, you’ll be glad to hear that the cake didn’t get the better of us this time…we could actually take the pictures well before midnight….in daylight!

The cake had only two main components: the streusel and the cake. Firstly, we baked the cardamom pods in the oven until they were fragrant. We have never used whole cardamom pods before & were surprised by their aromatic aniseedy & almost minty fragrance. After the pods had cooled, we needed to finely grind them. Now, we’ve found with Martha’s recipes there’s always some key piece of equipment we never have! Without access to a spice grinder, we had to use the next best thing…a handblender. So Tiff starts whizzing away, but uh-oh, what’s that scary noise it’s making…hmmm, better stop that, don’t want to bust the thing! So, out comes the mortar & pestle for a bit of manual handgrinding!

After pestling the pods to a finely ground spice, we added this to both the streusel mix and the cake batter. We were mildly appalled at the amount of butter required for the streusel alone. Neither of us are manic calorie-counters, but no amount of baking over the years has dampened the shock when we find out how much butter is needed in some recipes. It’s usually met with a gasp & a look of shock…followed by “ok, whatever!?” Here’s a pic of the streusel mix before being mixed with our version of a pastry blender; namely, Tiff’s hands. Yes, substitution was necessary cos this was another piece of equipment we didn’t have, but we admit we didn’t actually know what a pastry blender was!

While Tiff was streuselling, I started mixing the cake, which was pretty straightforward. We then spooned a layer of cake batter into Tiff’s newly purchased angel cake tin (ok, so this was one piece of equipment we thought necessary to purchase!). This was followed by a layer of crumbly streusel and then another layer of cake batter, before topped off with the rest of the streusel. Wow, there was a lot of streusel – we were really looking forward to those crunchy crumbly bits!

The pre-baked cake:

Into the oven it went…and the smell wafting out of there was amazing! But even more amazing is the fact it was only 12 noon! Don’t believe it, we can actually sit down to a leisurely lunch with a friend while the cake bakes! So leisurely we were…lunching & chatting on the balcony that we didn’t hear the timer go off until I yell out….”THE CAKE!!!??” Tiff bolts to the kitchen, takes it out…some hesitation follows until she says, “It looks good!” Phew! A burnt cake wasn’t on the cards today….

After some trickiness to get the cake out of the tin requiring 3 pairs of hands, 2 spatulas & a lotta concentration, we were quite pleased with the result. Here it is:

Martha’s Cardamom Streusel Coffee Cake


Our Cardamom Streusel Coffee Cake


And the taste? The cake was moist (thanks to the yoghurt), the streusel sweet & crunchy and overall, the cake had a nicely spiced cardamom flavour that wasn’t at all overpowering like we feared. Good with a cup of tea. But to tell you the truth, we felt there was something missing. Something moist and juicy. We thought the cake would have been nice with some chopped apples or pears folded through it, or as Tiff suggested, maybe accompanied with some poached pears with custard poured over the top! Or ice cream! Mmmm…now you’re talking!

Next month…the Spring Shower Almond Petits Fours…my favourite kind of sweet little treat! N