Coffee and Cardamom cake for Two

A lovely little coffee and cardamom cake that’s perfect for two people and doesn’t require any special equipment!

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You know when you’re a young child in middle school and you get home from school and you’re just really craving a nice white chocolate cardamom mousse? No? Weird.  

That was totally me.  

I was such a weird kid, to be honest, but the love for cardamom has persisted.  This cake is a tribute to that love for cardamom and my addiction to coffee.   It’s a fantastically light cake that I pair with either tahini icing or coffee frosting depending on my mood. 

(Question, is there a difference between icing and frosting ?)

I currently own cake pans in 5 different sizes, which is completely absurd, and I completely realize that most people aren’t quite as cake pan obsessed as me.  All this to say I wanted a small cake recipe that didn’t rely on you owning a mini cake pan!  So I’ve gone a little rogue with this and made the cake in a loaf pan and then sliced and stacked it to create a layer cake.  (If you do have a mini cake pan then I high key recommend this mini chocolate cake recipe

You can totally eat it as a loaf, but if you want to create a cute little layer cake then you should 100% do it!  There are two ways to do this.  You can either level the top of the loaf and then slice into three rectangles to get a cute little rectangular cake.  It’ll look a bit like a strange townhouse….

Option two is to use a round cookie cutter to cut out circles of cake.  If you want to do it this way I’d recommend leveling the cake first and then cutting the circles in half to get two thinner circles.  You can then stack these circles to get a more traditional looking round cake!

What you Need to Make this Cake:

• A loaf pan (check out my links below for pan ideas!)
• A hand held electric mixer of a bit of arm strength
• Mixing bowls

And that’s it! It’s a super simple recipe in terms of equipment!

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Why I love this coffee and cardamom cake:

• Flavor: as we’ve established, I have a passion for cardamom and cardamom and coffee is just such an idyllic combination
• Size: it’s a lovely two-person cake (maybe 4 if you feel like sharing)
• Easy: No need to break out an electric mixer for this recipe, you can do it all by hand with just a couple of bowls
• Equipment: This recipe uses a loaf pan instead of a small cake pan, which, hopefully, means you have the equipment on hand already!

How to make this cardamom and coffee cake:

1) Combine ingredients

Combine the wet ingredients in one bowl and the dry in a second.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir together to combine.

2) Bake the cake

Grease and flour a loaf pan and then fill with the cake batter.  Bake on 350 for 30-35 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

3) Make the icing

Choose whether you’d like to make the tahini or coffee icing and then just beat together all the ingredients either by hand with a whisk or with an electric mixer.

4) Assemble

Option 1: The townhouse (rectangular) cake

Start by leveling the top of the cake and if you want really straight sides then level the sides too so you get a perfect rectangular prism.

Now slice the rectangular into three even slices.  Layer icing onto one piece, stack the second piece on top, and spread with more icing.  Add your final layer and top with the last of the icing.  Decorate with sprinkles or whatever takes your fancy!

Option 2: Round cake:

Grab the largest round cookie cutter you have (but make sure it isn’t too big to fit on the loaf!).  Level the top of the cake and then cut out two circles from the loaf.  You can then slice these two down the middle to get a total of four rounds.  If you have a smaller cookie cutter you may be able to get more layers – you could even make two individual-sized cakes if your cutters are really small!

Once you have all your circles you can stack them with icing between each layer of cake.  Finish with a final layer of icing on the top and then decorate with sprinkles (sort of optional – mostly not optional)

Other Recipes you Might Enjoy:

• A Mini Chocolate Cake for Two
• These Little Lemon Souffles
• A lovely stack of Pecan Chocolate Chip shortbread cookies

Coffee and Cardamom cake for two

Maya’s Kitchen Daydreams

A lovely coffee and cardamom cake that's perfectly sized for two. I've included two icing options, a coffee one and a tahini one, both are lovely so just go with whatever you prefer!

5 from 4 votes

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 35 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 5 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American, Italian

Servings 2 people

Ingredients

  

• 1 egg
• 2 oz coffee
• 3 oz buttermilk 2 oz milk and 1 oz greek yogurt
• 2 oz oil
• 3.5 oz sugar
• 4 oz flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp cardamom
• 1 tsp vanilla

Coffee Icing

• 2 oz unsalted butter – very soft
• 3 oz of icing sugar
• 2 tsp of strong coffee
• pinch of salt
• pinch of cardamom
• 1 tbsp cream or milk

Tahini Icing

• 2 oz unsalted butter – very soft
• 3 oz of icing sugar
• 1 tbsp of tahini more to taste
• pinch of salt
• 1 tbsp cream or milk

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 350 F
• Grease a loaf pan (ideally with reasonably straight sides) and then dust it with flour.
• Combine all the wet ingredients in one bowl and all the dry ingredients in a second bowl
• Pour the wet into the dry and mix until just combined.
• Pour the mix into the loaf pan, level it gently with a spoon or a spatula, and then pop it in the oven.
• Bake for 30 – 35 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
• Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning it out onto a cooling rack.
• While the cake is cooling mix together your icing by combining the softened butter with the icing sugar and whisk to combine. Then add in the rest of the icing ingredients, give it a taste and adjust to your own preferences. Add more salt if it’s too sweet; add more tahini, coffee or cardamom if you want to really bring out those flavors; and if you want a thinner icing add in some more cream.
• Once the cake is fully cool it’s time to start trimming and assembling. Begin by leveling the top of the cake. If you're making the rectangular cake, slice the cake in thirds to create three rectangles. If you want really straight sides you can also level the sides of the rectangles. For the round cake use a round cake cutter (4 – 5 ") and cut out two or more circles of cake. If you'd like, you can slice these horizontally to get more, thinner, layers of cake.
• Spread a layer of icing on one of your cake slices and then top with another layer of cake. Repeat until you've used up all of the cake and finish by topping with a last layer of icing and decorating with sprinkles!

Keyword coffee and cardamom, Small Batch, small birthday cake recipe, small cake recipe, small cake recipe for two