Cardamom Bundt Cake

Kardemummakaka Cake

Pastel by Vicki Smith

Annika is a police procedural on Masterpiece starring Nicola Walker as the lead detective of a Marine Homicide Unit in Glasgow, Scotland. Walker, famous for many British TV productions including MI-5 (known in Britain as Spooks), Unforgotten, and Last Tango in Halifax, is one of the main reasons to watch the show. The murders to be solved in each episode, all involving a foot chase to catch the bad guy, are never as compelling as the humanity and vulnerability that Nicola Walker brings to the character of Annika. Her somewhat messy personal life and relationships with co-workers unfold during the first season. In one episode she decides to bake a cake flavored with cardamom which is traditional to her native Norway. She is not satisfied with the results, an entirely relatable moment as most of us have been there.

Vikings are said to have returned to Scandinavia with cardamom from bazaars in Constantinople one thousand years ago. Today, the spice is used more widely in Scandinavia than in the United States in everything from mulled wine to pastries. Kardemummakaka Cake is Swedish, lightly flavored with cardamom, and the perfect accompaniment for an afternoon cup of coffee. I don’t know how close it is to the recipe that Annika used, but this recipe is moist and not overly sweet. It is baked in a Bundt pan, a fluted tube pan, introduced by a Minneapolis company in 1950 and inspired by Eastern European cakes. How many cultures is this bringing together? Jewish women, of Eastern European descent, were searching for a cake pan that was lighter than the cast-iron pans that they used to make kugelhopf. H. David Dalquist of the Nordic Ware Company introduced an aluminum Bundt pan that would suit their purpose. It did not become widely popular until 1966 when a Bundt cake won second place in a Pillsbury bake-off. My Bundt pan was my mother’s and is ceramic, so somewhere in heft between aluminum and cast iron. I dusted the top of the cake with confectionary sugar and found that it freezes well.

Photo by Vicki Smith

Kardemummakaka Cake

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon ground cardamom

¾ cup buttermilk

1 tablespoon lemon juice

18 tablespoons butter (2 ¼ sticks unsalted butter), softened to room temperature

2 cups granulated sugar

3 large eggs at room temperature

1 egg yolk at room temperature

Powdered sugar for topping the cake

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray the interior of the pan with baking spray.

Whisk flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cardamom in a medium bowl. Set aside.

Combine buttermilk and lemon juice in a small bowl. Set aside.

Place butter and granulated sugar in a large mixing bowl. Use an electric hand mixer. Mix on medium speed until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Add eggs and egg yolk one at a time, allowing each one to be fully mixed into the batter before adding the next.

Reduce the mixer speed to low. Add one-third of the flour mixture, followed by one-half of the buttermilk mixture. Repeat, finishing with the flour mixture (do not over-mix). Transfer the batter to the prepared bundt pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to eliminate any air bubbles. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes. Lay a wire cooling rack over the top of the pan and invert the cake onto the rack. Remove the pan, leaving the cake behind. Cool the cake to room temperature and dust with powdered sugar before serving.

This recipe came from Kristi at True North Kitchen who writes about Scandinavian cooking. I don’t think you will be disappointed if you follow her recipe for Cardamom Bundt Cake. Plus her Swedish ginger cookies look amazing!

The teacup is from a set of my mother-in-law’s Spode that we recently passed on to a niece. Instead of step-by-step photos of making the cake, here are some photos of the teacup from start to finish.

Thanks for reading!

Vicki