Have Your Cake and Virtue Too

April is a month of birthdays for my immediate family, most of whom are scattered in the semi-wilds of Ontario. One of them was my dear old dad, who passed on many years ago. This year I decided to make a cake here in Whitehorse, stick it with birthday candles and send a video of my roommate and I singing “Happy Birthday” to all those April celebrants in Ontario.
We used to make a cardamom coffee cake at the Chocolate Claim, 30 years ago. It doesn’t have too much fibre in it (i.e., doesn’t fit that well with the annual, themed “Poop” issue), but it does have walnuts (high in Omega 3), vitamins B6 and E, and a host of minerals; it’s substantial, and it stays fresh for many days.
There’s a little northern bonus, too. During the brown-sugar shortage this winter, I learned from a friend on the ski trails that she substituted one cup of granulated sugar mixed with molasses for brown. I didn’t have molasses, so I tried it with birch syrup for the walnut filling/topping in this cake and it was out of this world. The brown sugar is back in stock (or it was last time I visited the grocery store) but I suggest trying this filling. I don’t think you’ll be sorry.
The recipe here is a mash-up between the Chocolate Claim original (derived from the Moosewood Cookbook) and a Swedish coffee-cake recipe that doesn’t use quite so much butter and dairy.
I borrowed a bundt pan, but I seem to remember making it in a 10-inch cake pan with a removable bottom, long ago, so that’s worth a try too. As Whitehorse chef and instructor Cat McInroy of Well Bread Culinary Centre once said, you don’t want too many pieces of equipment in the kitchen that are only good for one task.
Happy Birthday to all those who celebrate in April. Do eat some fibre for supper before your cake, for virtue’s sake.

Yield: 1 cake

Cardamom Coffee Cake

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Ingredients

• Batter
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 Tbsp ground cardamom
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 3/4 cup buttermilk (or whey)
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 9 oz butter, softened
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• Filling/Topping
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 Tbsp birch syrup
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a 10-cup-capacity bundt pan.
2. Whisk flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cardamom together in a medium bowl.
3. Pour buttermilk into a small bowl and stir in lemon juice.
4. In a large bowl, beat butter with a wooden spoon or a mixer until smooth, then beat in sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Whisk in the vanilla.
5. Stir the butter mixture into the flour mixture in a few strokes, then add the buttermilk. Mix and fold until thoroughly combined, but be careful not to overmix.
6. Spoon one-third of the batter into the pan and smooth with a spatula. Sprinkle one-third of the walnut mixture overtop. Repeat two more times so that you end up with a good sprinkling of walnut mixture on top.
7. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
8. Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes. Loosen the cake from the pan by running a slim knife around the edges of the cake, including the circle in the middle. Place a 10-inch plate overtop of the cake and invert it onto the plate. Remove the plate.
9. Next, place a wire cooling rack over the cake and invert the cake onto the rack so the side with the topping is facing up.
10. Cool the cake to room temperature before transferring it to a serving plate. Serve with a scoop of ice cream or just as is.