This Cardamom Cream Cake is a treat to your senses. Bursting with the flavors from cardamom, rosewater and pistachio.., this Cardamom Cream Cake can be the showstopper in your next gathering. This Cardamom Cream Cake is also a great cake to adorn your special events like an anniversary cake or a milestone birthday cake!
For a similar flavored cake with a twist is Sandesh Cake
While my blogger friends are all over displaying these fabulous desserts for Valentine’s day, I was indecisive about what/how to bake. Oh! The pressure. I almost zeroed down on baking a Red Velvet Cake and nothing says Valentine’s day like Red Velvet Desserts. Right? But then I decided against it. I am going to reserve baking a decadent red velvet cake for the late summer/early fall time and I would love to share a funny story behind my first time baking a red velvet cake.
Now coming back to what-to-bake, I thought of trying this recipe that I had stumbled across a few months back in New York Times – Cardamom Cake. First I thought I would follow the recipe to the T, but the control freak that I’m, I ended up modifying a bit here and a bit there to give it a personal touch. The outcome was great, however. The taste of cardamom will linger much after you have cleaned off the plate. This is a fresh, moist cake with great, but subtle cardamom flavor and the mascarpone- cardamom icing compliments it nicely.
Another challenge that I faced was to – how I should present the cake. Should I cover the cake with Frosting or not (I suck at frosting. Period) I gave it some thought and then decided to present it with just the frosting on top. I decided to keep the sides naked. Naked cakes are kind of cool, right?
Recipe adapted from New York Times.
How I altered the Recipe:
- I took out the yogurt from the frosting and replaced with full cream
- I didn’t go for the ricotta filling. Instead, I used the mascarpone icing for filling
- I used a basic Sponge Cake Recipe.
- The cup used in this cake is a USA cup. You can convert the measurements into grams.
INGREDIENTS:
For The Sponge Cake:
- 3 Cups Cake Flour
- 1 Cup milk
- 2 Sticks Butter
- 2 Cups sugar
- 2 Tsp Baking Soda
- 4 Eggs
- 1 Tsp salt
For The Milk Syrup:
- 2 Cups whole milk
- 4 Cardamom pods
- 6 Tbs granulated sugar
- 1 Tsp rose water
For The Mascarpone Frosting:
- 1 ½ sticks (12 Tbs) tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 Cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 Tsp rose water
- ½ Tsp ground cardamom
- 8 Ounce cold mascarpone
- ⅓ Cup pistachios, toasted and chopped
- 1/4 cup Greek yogurt
METHOD:
Milk Syrup:
- In a small saucepan, combine the milk and cardamom pods. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer the milk until it reduces by half, 30 to 45 minutes.
- Let cool, strain the mixture to get rid of the cardamom and any coagulated milk, then stir in the rose water.
Cake:
- Heat the oven to 350 degrees
- Grease two 9-inch cake pans with butter and dust with flour
- Sift Cake flour
- Cream butter in a large bowl
- Gradually add sugar until light and fluffy
- Sift the cake flour once again with baking powder and salt
- Add eggs one at a time to the creamed mixture, beating well
- Add flour mixture alternately with milk and blend
- Do not over mix
- Pour into prepared pans and bake for 20/25 minutes
- When the cakes have cooled, brush cake layers on all sides with milk syrup.
Mascarpone frosting:
- Using an electric mixer, beat the butter, confectioners’ sugar, rose water and cardamom until fluffy, about 2 minutes.
- On low speed, beat in mascarpone and yogurt until the mixture is just combined and looks smooth.
- Do not overbeat
ASSEMBLY
- Place one cake round on a cake stand, then top with one-third of the mascarpone filling, leaving a small border around the edge of the cake.
- Frost top of the cake with the mascarpone frosting.
- Top with chopped pistachios and candied rose petals if using; chill until ready to serve.
Check Out other cakes –
Olive Oil Date Loaf Cake (Eggless)
Beautiful AND delicious. 🙂
Thank you Aruna
Gorgeous!
Thank you Freda.
Good Job Aish! looks good!
Thank you Binjal 😍
This looks so good!!
Thank you Ami
Beautiful pic Aish.. and you have explained the recipe pretty much in detail.
Thank you Subh!
Beautiful looking cake and I love cardamon so must give this a try. Like you I will probably tweak slightly (to suit my UK tastes) just can’t can’t help it
Thank you Jacqui. Yes, tweak according to your taste and see if turns out even more delicious
Wow love cardamom, and it’s a beautiful cake! Pinned!
Thank you Nutrizonia
My eyes are popping out of my head– that looks delicious!
Jeanne – thank you so very much. I’m a newbie in food photography. You think I captured the essence of the cake well,?
You did! Very much so!
Thank you Jeanne. Means a lot
Reblogged this on freespiritfood and commented:
Doesn’t this look good? Might do some baking tomorrow!
Thank you, Shanthini. Let me know how it comes out. Share pics.
Loved the cake. I had seen it on FB, but never got a chance to look at the recipe till now. Amazing flavors Aish
Thank You, Sree!
Wow! this looks so delicious. I want to try this recipe soon. Can I use this recipe to make jamoon cheese cake? instead of adding sponge cake?
Thank you, Priti. Yes, try the recipe. What’s Jamison?
This looks incredible! One question, I see cream called for in the recipe for the frosting but missed how to use it in the instructions. Assume this is just heavy whipping cream whipped up and folded into the frosting to lighten it up and make it fluffy? Thank you!
Hey Taylor! Yup that’s correct.
Thank you for clarifying! I cannot wait to make this!
And when you do, please share a pic.
Perfectly suitable for a family celebration!
This sounds absolutely delightful! Can’t wait to give it a try!
Cardamon is an absolute favorite! Can’t wait to try this!
This sounds great, but I’m a diabetic. I stumbled it and will pin it for when I have company. Do you know the best places to find mascarpone? I can’t seem to find it anywhere in my area.
Beautiful cake! Naked cakes are definitely cool. 🙂
This cake almost looks too good to eat… almost. 🙂 I love that you used mascarpone for the frosting. I’ll be pinning and sharing this one for sure!
I’ve been wanting to try and bake a cardamom cake for a while now, but still haven’t got around to it! Your cake is gorgeous!
Cardamom is my all time favourite spice and I’m always finding excuses to put it in absolutely everything! This cake sounds like it was the perfect valentines day cake.
I just adore cardamom, it is such a beautiful spice. I make a cardamom cake with pears and chocolate. Yours looks absolutely wonderful too. 🙂
Thank you so much!
Oh my! I am a cardamom addict and this looks utterly scrumptious. I would happily devour it (somewhat greedily) 😉
This is such a stunning and elegant cake. I love the decoration.
first: your pics are beautiful. second: your cake is mouthwatering. third: can you send me a slice?
I’m always looking for new ways to use cardamom!
Absolutely gorgeous cake. I love the touch flowers on top. I haven’t made a cardamon cake but I’m pinning to gove it a go.
Beautiful, elegant cake. If it tastes as good as it looks, and I’m sure that it does, this is one of the top cake posts ever! Thank you.
This cake looks super delicious and mouthwatering! Thanks for sharing the recipe with us!
To be honest never even heard of this type of cake before but the cake inside looks super white and super delicious and moist!
You know what..I am quite glad that I stumbled upon your blog today. Got two recipes that I have been looking out for lately. 🙂
Now this is a cake. So nice to see a cake like this when all we get to see now days are highly colored fondant cakes. Very nice!
Yummy! It looks really good:-)
This looks amazing. I had never heard of this but would love to try it!
Heiiii… Just went through ur ras malai n cardamon cake… They look heavenly…very different…..had some queries … Can we replace mascorpane cheese with cream cheese…in both the cakes.. And do we need to use home made chenna.. Market bought paneer won’t do??
Just went through ur rasmalai and cardamon cake.. They look heavenly… Something really diff…. Superb… Just had some queries… Can mascorpane cheese be replaced with cream cheese in both the cakes.. As it would be easily available for me…. And do we need to use home made chenna or market bought paneer would be fine??
Thank you so much. These comments mean a lot to me. Thanks for stopping by. And yes!! you can swap mascarpone cheese with cream cheese. Home made paneer is better since its easier to handle.
I see a cup of cold cream in the Marscapone frosting recipe. Does it go with all the other ingredients and everything gets whipped once? Or should I whip it and fold it in? Thanks for the help–I’m making this for a big family party on Sunday!
Hey! Thanks for stopping by. The full cream was a typo. You need 1/4 cup thick Greek yogurt for this frosting. I have updated the post.
Please Please do let me know when you try. I’ll be waiting eagerly.
Great! I have it in the fridge. I will let you know if everybody likes it. And I will try to remember the to take a pic. 😋
This cake looks so gorgeous. I wouldn’t have a heart to cut it. Perfect for any occassion
This cardamom cream cake looks stunning, perfect for any occasion.
Loved this cardamom cake, awesome one.
I love cardamom, this is such a beautiful cake!