Cardamom coffee cake (Printable)

A tender cake featuring cardamom spice and a crunchy brown sugar streusel topping.

# What You'll Need:

→ Streusel Topping

01 - 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
02 - 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
03 - 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
04 - 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
05 - 1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
06 - 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cubed

→ Cake Batter

07 - 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
08 - 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
09 - 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
10 - 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
11 - 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
12 - 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
13 - 3/4 cup granulated sugar
14 - 2 large eggs, room temperature
15 - 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
16 - 2/3 cup sour cream
17 - 1/4 cup whole milk

# Method:

01 - Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-inch square baking pan and line with parchment paper, leaving overhang for easy removal.
02 - In a medium bowl, combine brown sugar, flour, cardamom, cinnamon, and salt. Add cold cubed butter and rub with your fingers or pastry cutter until mixture forms clumps. Refrigerate until needed.
03 - In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cardamom.
04 - In a large bowl, beat softened butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, approximately 3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in vanilla extract.
05 - On low speed, alternate adding half the flour mixture, then sour cream and milk, then remaining flour mixture. Mix just until combined without overmixing.
06 - Spread batter evenly into prepared pan. Sprinkle streusel topping evenly over batter surface.
07 - Bake for 38 to 42 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the top is golden brown.
08 - Cool cake in pan for 15 minutes. Use parchment overhang to lift out. Cool completely on wire rack before slicing.

# Expert Pointers:

01 -
  • The streusel topping stays crunchy even after a day, which is honestly miraculous and makes you feel like you baked something professional.
  • Cardamom does all the heavy lifting flavor-wise, so you can't really mess this up even if you're not a confident baker.
  • It's tender enough to eat with just a fork and coffee, but sturdy enough to wrap up and take places.
02 -
  • Don't skip the 15-minute rest in the pan—I learned this the hard way when I tried to remove a warm cake and it basically fell apart into beautiful but disappointing crumbles.
  • Overmixing the batter is the enemy here, so once you see no streaks of flour, stop immediately even if you feel like you should mix a bit more.
03 -
  • Weigh your flour if you can—it's the easiest way to guarantee consistent, tender results every single time you make this.
  • Keep your parchment paper overhang generous because pulling out a warm, delicate cake is so much easier when you have those little handles to grab.
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