My Mom's Swedish Cardamom Cake Recipe
- Ariel van Spronsen
- 1 hour ago
- 2 min read
My family wasn't all that traditional, so holidays often included dishes that aren't the standard fare. One of my favorite desserts to make is this Swedish cardamom cake. I've made it for all sorts of occasions, but this year it'll be the star of Thanksgiving.
With 1½ cups of whipping cream as the shortening, the cake is dense but light, and very moist. The slightly crunchy vanilla wafer crust gives a delightful bite texture. The aroma of the cardamom filling your space while the cake bakes is to die for, and the taste is even better. And it's heckin' easy to make.
This recipe was passed down to me from my mom, who told me it was from an issue of Bon Appétit from the 80s, but a quick internet search reveals that the original source was The Great Scandinavian Baking Book.
Swedish Cardamom Cake (Sockerkaka)
Ingredients
butter, room temperature (or cooking spray)
9-11 vanilla wafers
2 cups all-purpose flour
1¼ cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ground cardamom seed
½ teaspoon salt
3 eggs, room temperature
1½ cups heavy whipping cream
powdered sugar
Notes
Get your eggs out of the refrigerator well before making the cake so they can warm up to room temperature.
Heavy whipping cream usually comes in 8-ounce (1 cup) or 16-ounce (2 cup) cartons. Buy the 16-ounce if you can find one, but if the only option is an 8-ounce carton you can add ½ cup of half and half to make up the full amount.
You'll get the best flavor by freshly grinding whole cardamom seeds in a mortar and pestle, but in a pinch, ground cardamom from a spice jar will do just fine.
Directions
Preheat your oven to 350℉ (177℃).
Butter a 9-inch kugelhopf mold, bundt pan, or tube pan.
Crumb the vanilla wafers by putting them in a large ziplock bag and crushing them with a rolling pin or the bottom of a large glass jar. You'll want a pretty fine grain so the crumbs will stick to your greased pan.
Pour the vanilla wafer crumbs into your buttered pan and move them around so they cover the bottom and sides with a fine layer.
In a mixing bowl or the bowl of a standing mixer, combine the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, cardamom, and salt.
Add the eggs and heavy whipping cream. Mix with an electric mixer on low speed until just blended, about 15-30 seconds.
Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula and increase the mixer speed to medium to beat the batter until it's the texture of softly whipped cream, about 3 minutes.
Pour the mixture into the prepared pan.
Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55-60 minutes.
Remove the cake from the pan by turning it over on a cooling rack. Cool completely.
Just before serving, dust the cake lightly with powdered sugar.
Voilà! Or, should I say, så! If you try this recipe, leave a comment and let me know how it goes.