I don't have any slightly more presentable pictures of this cake, only a few that were taken after cooling down out of the oven, because it came with us to post-cemetery day/R4tK lunch with my relatives. Between everyone splitting up the leftovers, and having samples, three quarters of the cake was gone, and the last quarter disappeared at work, not a camera in sight! This was another of the things that were made on the Saturday afternoon prior to R4tK, along with rice pudding, and the biscuit part of the melting moments, and the bolognese sauce to go with pasta for dinner ... hey - at least the flapjacks were the night before!
Orange and Cardamom Sour Cream Cake
Recipe adapted from Moorish: Flavours from Mecca to Marrakech (p197)
Preheat oven to 170°C. Line a 23cm springform tin.
Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, then add the lemon and orange zests, cardamom, and vanilla extract. Beat in the eggs one at a time, making sure the first egg is well combined before adding the second. Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt. Add the sifted flour mixture to the batter, alternating with the sour cream, mixing well at low speed after each addition. Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin, and bake for 45-60 minutes, or until cake tests clean and the centre of the cake is springy to touch.
While the cake is baking, make the syrup by combining everything in a saucepan over a lowe heat, so the sugar dissolves, then simmer for 2-3 minutes. Strain and discard the cardamom and cinnamon.
As soon as the cake is out of the oven, poke a whole lot of holes in the top with a skewer, and pour the prepared syrup all over the cake. Place the tin on a wire rack and leave it to cool completely before releasing the cake from the tin.
This theoretically makes 10-12 slices. It made lots of little X-sized pieces!
* I didn't actually measure this, but my eyeballed 1 teaspoons worth of cardamom seeds was made from 16-18 cardamom pods cracked open.
** we don't have any cointreau in our not very well-stocked bar, so I just substituted some more juice. Orange juice probably would've been more appropriate, but I had the apple juice out to pour myself a drink anyways!
Recipe adapted from Moorish: Flavours from Mecca to Marrakech (p197)
- 130g unsalted butter, softened
- 200g caster sugar
- grated zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 225g (1 3/4 cup) plain flour
- 1 teaspoon cardamom seeds, finely ground and sieved *
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 200ml sour cream
- 60ml orange juice
- 30ml lemon juice
- 30ml apple juice **
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 6 cardamom pods, cracked
- 1/2 cinnamon stick
Preheat oven to 170°C. Line a 23cm springform tin.
Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, then add the lemon and orange zests, cardamom, and vanilla extract. Beat in the eggs one at a time, making sure the first egg is well combined before adding the second. Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt. Add the sifted flour mixture to the batter, alternating with the sour cream, mixing well at low speed after each addition. Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin, and bake for 45-60 minutes, or until cake tests clean and the centre of the cake is springy to touch.
While the cake is baking, make the syrup by combining everything in a saucepan over a lowe heat, so the sugar dissolves, then simmer for 2-3 minutes. Strain and discard the cardamom and cinnamon.
As soon as the cake is out of the oven, poke a whole lot of holes in the top with a skewer, and pour the prepared syrup all over the cake. Place the tin on a wire rack and leave it to cool completely before releasing the cake from the tin.
This theoretically makes 10-12 slices. It made lots of little X-sized pieces!
* I didn't actually measure this, but my eyeballed 1 teaspoons worth of cardamom seeds was made from 16-18 cardamom pods cracked open.
** we don't have any cointreau in our not very well-stocked bar, so I just substituted some more juice. Orange juice probably would've been more appropriate, but I had the apple juice out to pour myself a drink anyways!
Leave a comment