I was so excited when I saw this cake appear on the December recipes list, thanks to Jill of Jill's Blog. However, with work, a nasty bug and general holiday craziness, I didn't get much time to spend on this. The one night I was able to bake this I discovered that I didn't have enough cardamom for both the cake and the crumbs. I put what I had in the cake, as I'm not usually a fan of crumb toppings and figured I'd be picking it off anyway. I know many people who prefer the crumb topping to the actual cake, but I am definitely not one of them. Other changes I made were to use slivered almonds instead of walnuts and I omitted the orange, as I wasn't convinced that it would work with both the coffee and cardamom. In the end, I didn't much like this cake, but I think it was probably my own fault. I found it tasted more of coffee than cardamom, and the texture was a bit coarse, like those boxed snack cake mixes my mother would occasionally buy when I was a child. Oh, and no surprise, but I didn't like the crumb topping. One good thing about it was that it kept very well: it sat around for about a week before I took a photo of it, and it was still perfectly fresh-tasting. Please don't let my poor results deter you--this was a well-liked cake by the rest of the TWD bakers. You can find the recipe here. I do have my eye on another cardamom cake recipe, so hopefully I'll be more successful next time.
11 comments:
Sorry to hear about the bug - hope it's blown over now. I was not too happy with this the first day myself, but by the second day, it had gone all soft and squidgy and was more to my taste. Then I loved it!
You sound like me last week. Sick, injured... :) Bummer that you didn't like this all that much. I am making mine today and giving ti to my students tonight. We'll see if they like it.
Oh so sorry this recipe did not turn out to your liking, it is unusual indeed. Hope you are feeling better, I think I am starting something. 1 week later and fresh for pic...wow
Every recipe can't be a winner, but thanks for giving it a try and baking with me this week. I had never thought about cardamom and orange together, but I liked the combo a lot.
Happy holidays!
I like how your cake looks almost like candy honeycomb!
Mary, I really want to put a fork through my computer screem and eat all that topping off your cake...as long as you're not eating it. :D
This wasn't one of my favourites either, but it was better than I thought it would be.
Hope you are feeling better now. Sorry you didn't care for this. If you don't like cardamom this is not the cake to bake.
Some subbed in cinnamon/nutmeg/ginger and liked it that way.
I hope you are starting to feel better now. Today is the first day I am. What a gift!!! I hate it when I make the effort to get with the program and do something I hardly have time to do and then mess it up. You would think I would learn. It has happened more times than I could possibly recall... so, I share in your disappointment. But, it does SOUND like a delicious cake.
:)
Valerie
It's too bad you weren't over the moon about this cake, but kudos to you for getting the challenge done, despite your cold. Hope you feel better!
Apparently, cardamom is not to everyone's taste. It's a good thing there are many cake flavors out there! At least you gave it a try.
I love cardamom especially in my coffee and tea; however, my mom hates it and I know it is not to everyone's taste. This sounds good to me though! Hope you are feeling better, I am still fighting off a nasty cold. :)
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