Author Notes
My grandmother, Janet, got this recipe from an innkeeper in Stowe, Vermont in the 50s, and my family has made it ever since. In the original recipe, the cake is served warm with a dusting of powdered sugar, but my mother modified it by adding a rich brown sugar icing. It's the perfect winter celebratory cake! - HMC —HMC
Test Kitchen Notes
The batter says a lot about the cake. This one really spoke to me. It is rich, fragrant and makes licking the spoon a sensory treat. The cake in its baked form does not betray the batter’s foreshadowing of a dense, heady, sour-cream coffee cake-like crumb. Don’t skip the brown sugar frosting, which forms a caramelized coating reminiscent of a hard-shell dip on a soft-serve ice cream cone and adds a great contrasting texture. —cheese1227
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Ingredients
- for the cardamom cake
-
1 cup
butter, softened slightly
-
1 cup
brown sugar
-
1 cup
granulated sugar
-
2
eggs
-
1 teaspoon
vanilla
-
3 cups
flour
-
1 teaspoon
baking soda
-
1 teaspoon
ground cinnamon
-
2 teaspoons
ground cardamom seed
-
8 ounces
sour cream (regular, not non-fat)
- for the brown sugar icing
-
2 cups
brown sugar
-
6 tablespoons
heavy cream
-
1/4 cup
unsalted butter
-
1 teaspoon
vanilla
-
1 cup
confectioner's sugar
Directions
-
Preheat the oven to 275 F and butter and flour a bundt cake pan or tube pan. Cream the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar.
-
Beat in the eggs one at a time, and then beat in the vanilla.
-
Sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and cardamom in a small bowl.
-
Add sour cream to the butter/egg/sugar mixture, then add flour mixture and gently fold wet and dry ingredients together until blended.
-
Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes at 275 F, then turn up the oven to 300 F for another 30 minutes, or until the top is lightly golden and a toothpick comes out clean. Do not overbake!
-
Remove pan from oven and let sit for 15 minutes. Invert onto a rack to cool.
-
For the icing, heat brown sugar, cream, and butter in a heavy saucepan until the mixture reaches a rolling boil, stirring all the while.
-
Remove pan from heat and stir in the vanilla and then sift in the confectioner's sugar and stir with a whisk to remove any remaining clumps.
-
Pour icing onto the completely cooled cake, allowing it to run down the sides freely. The icing will harden quickly, so pour it steadily while moving the pan in a circle to cover the whole top. Allow icing to harden for at least half an hour before serving.
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