Cardamom Coffee Marble Cake and Ahlan Ramadan winners declared!

I first saw this cake at Finla's space and it was love at first sight! How wouldn't I, first of all, look at those pictures Finla has put, anybody would get tempted to make it right away! We all have heard of marble cakes with vanilla and chocolate flavors. I have even made a mango chocolate marble cake earlier. But the flavors of coffee and cardamom intermingled into a cake was too good for me to ignore. I first baked this cake for the men in the office and they absolutely loved it. After that I baked it two times, one time for my HD's business partners and another time for taking it to a relative's house. Somehow, it is funny that I have never baked this for us to eat at home. And that's one thing my umma always says - that I always bake the buttery cakes with eggs for distribution and the eggless butterless ones for home! And come to think of it, it is actually true! Even though it is quite unintentionally, but I do that and I never realised it till umma complained about it once. Must be because I am really impatient to wait for the butter to soften or the eggs to come to room temperature when I want to bake something in a hurry. So I go for easier options. Hehe...

I would seriously suggest all of you who love their cakes to have a go at this one. I am sure you will absolutely enjoy it.... Off to the way it is made...


Ingredients:

1 1/2 stick (175 gm) butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp cardamom powder
3 tsp instant coffee, diluted in 1 tbsp hot water

Method:

Preheat oven to 170 degrees. Grease and flour a big bundt pan generously. Set aside.

Sift the all purpose flour and baking powder together and set aside.

My helper and watcher...

Beat butter and sugar using a hand mixer on high speed till fluffy. Add one egg at a time and continue to beat. The mixture may start to look curdled but it is OK. Add the vanilla extract and beat. Add half the flour and half the milk and beat on low speed till combined. Add the remaining flour and milk and beat finally till there are no lumps.

Divide the mixture into half. Add cardamom powder into one and mix well. Add the coffee into the other and mix well. Arrange both the batters into the bundt pan, one over the other and swirl using a knife. Bake for 45 minutes or till a tester comes out clean.

Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Invert onto a cooling rack and cool completely. Slice and serve with a cup of nice, hot black coffee!!!

Notes:

1. The above quantity of sugar is quite mild. Add more if required.
2. If you want a stronger coffee flavor, use upto 4 tsp of coffee, or stronger instant coffee like Nescafe Gold.


The second time I baked this cake, I used this awesome coffee that was part of the generous gifts that Usha had bought for me when she came to Dubai on her way from Brazil to Hyderabad in April. The coffee tin showed its end just last week. I had told umma, who is an avid coffee drinker to stay away from this can and bought her a big can of Nescafe Gold, so that she doesn't get close to this. Still she had sneaked in the coffee at times, since she loved the flavor. Hehe... I hope you come again to bring this coffee for me, dear... No, dear... joking!!! Just clicked the tin and kept this as a reminder of your generosity and hospitality on the blog... :)

And yes... I know, I didn't take a picture of the sliced piece to show you how beautiful it looks inside, as it used to get cut at the place where I take it and it doesn't look nice to click a picture from there, right? Hehe... But I then remembered that I had taken a picture when I had made this for my colleagues the very first time - way back in January 2013! I rampaged through all my files and finally found it... such a beauty, isn't it? :)


Tail end: want to know who has won our gifts and the lovely entries received for our lovely event Ahlan Ramadan? Then do hop on to Hasna's space! Really appreciate her effort in doing the round up considering that I am on vacation and Humi is going through a tough time in her life... Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your enthusiastic participation! :)