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“This. Is. DELICIOUS. Go ahead and make it, share it with your friends and family and coworkers. It will go down in history as one of the best things you’ve made.” ~Jess
the love of cardamom crumb cake is in my dna
I grew up in a suburb just outside New York City, and I have a pretty good dose of German heritage on my dad’s side. If you put those two things together in a hat and shake them up real good, you’ll come up with, among other things…crumb cake. Crumb cake is as New York as New York pizza, and it seemed like it was always sitting on the counter in our kitchen, sometimes homemade, mostly store bought, and always accompanied by a glass of orange juice that was puckeringly sour when it followed a bite of that sweet cake. Now that I’m grown up I’ve replaced the orange juice with lots of hot coffee, and it’s pure heaven.
what you’ll need for cardamom crumb cake
It’s rare to find a New Yorker who doesn’t love crumb cake, but it’s possible that if you live on the West coast, you might never have heard of it. It’s a very simple, unassuming but very buttery and moist cake topped with lots and lots of crumbs. And it makes the perfect cozy breakfast treat.
- all purpose flour
- granulated sugar
- unsalted butter
- milk
- large eggs
- sour cream
- baking powder
- salt
- vanilla extract
- cardamom
why cardamom?
Cardamom is an aromatic spice in the ginger family. It grows in green or black pods filled with tiny seeds. When you grind the seeds you’ll get an incredibly fragrant spice. You can also use the pods whole in savory dishes, just crush them lightly to release the seeds.
This lovely cake stands out from others because it’s spiced with warm, fragrant cardamom, which is not traditional, but really wonderful. Cardamom is more subtle than cinnamon, and if you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend you do. Switching out cinnamon for cardamom is a tiny little change that can freshen up a lot of your favorite recipes. I happen to love the spice, and use it in everything from meatballs and roast chicken, to Christmas cookies!
There are lots of ways to make a crumb topping — sometimes the crumbs are like little boulders all over the top, and other times it’s more like a streusel topping. This one is the latter. The crumbs are made from a bit of reserved cake mixture, so it’s super easy. The cake will take you about 15 minutes to get in the oven. Easy peasy.
more cake for breakfast!
- The Best Pumpkin Crumb Cake
- Lemon Sugar Crumb Cake
- Easy Rhubarb Breakfast Cake
- Lemon Yogurt Breakfast Cake (Ciambella)
- Cranberry Breakfast Cake
Cardamom Crumb Cake
Video
Equipment
- 9×9 square baking dish
Ingredients
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp ground cardamom
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter
- 2/3 cup milk
- 2 large eggs
- 1/3 cup sour cream
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350F
- Spray a 9×9 square baking pan and line with parchment paper if you want to be able to lift it out for cutting. That part is optional.
- Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cardamom in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to combine, You can also do this by hand in a large mixing bowl.
- Cut the butter in small pieces and add it to the bowl. Pulse to combine, maybe about 20 pulses. The mixture should be crumbly with the butter well distributed and in very small pieces. You can also do this by hand with a pastry cutter.
- Measure out 1 cup of the mixture and set aside.
- Whisk together the wet ingredients and mix with the dry, just until combined. Spread the batter into the pan, and top with the reserved crumbs.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
Notes
- I hope you try this with cardamom, but if you’d like to substitute another spice, you can use cinnamon, or allspice.
- This is a very tall cake, so do not use a smaller pan or you will have too much batter.
Thank you so much for all the great recipes that you post.
I made a Dozen muffins and a small bread pan. The muffins took 30 minutes, the cake 55. Very light and delicious. Next time I’ll just make it in the 9×9.
I subbed Cup for Cup gluten free flour and Swerve granular sugar and it tastes great.
I went to make this yummy cake, I have made it several times before. I had 1 teaspoon of cardamom!?. So I used cinnamon instead. I am sure it will come out great! Just love the recipe. Good for a snowy New England day (18 inches predicted!). Thanks for such great recipes!
Cinnamon will give it a nice classic flavor ~ we just had our snow here in Wisconsin…enjoy!
Looks and taste just like my crumb cake back in New York. I used a 9″ springform pan and yogurt instead of sour cream. It took about 50 minutes to bake.
You never answered my comment regarding using almond flour. I still would like to know
As always a successful recipe.
Sorry about the slip on the almond flour Joan, but I don’t think you could bake this with almond flour alone, it would not have enough structure. Maybe almond flour and a gf baking mix combined would work.
OMG! Crumb cake was my favorite Sunday morning trip to the Jewish bakery. (Native New Yorker) I can’t wait to try your recipe.Do you think I can use almond flour? I always have success making your recipes. I recently started using cardamon spice mixed with the cinnamon wonderful taste.
I’ve never tried this with almond flour Joan, I think you’d need to mix it with a gluten free baking mix if gluten free is what you’re after. Almond flour won’t have enough structure for a cake like this.
I will be making this for our vacation this week. My daughter is very allergic to cinnamon so cardamom is my replacement. I love the smell and flavor of cardamom and it is my substitute for cinnamon.
Mine too 🙂
Hi Sue,
This is the 4th time I have made this cake and it’s amazing! Love the cardamom and it’s so perfect with coffee, or piled with strawberries. I didn’t have all the ingredients so here are the substitutions that I made. I used fat free greek yogurt for sour cream, used half and half for the milk (to add back in the fat) , and added both vanilla bean paste and a 1/4 tsp of “Fiori Di Sicilia” from King Arthur. The hint of citrus was perfect. Thanks for your inspiring recipes especially when we are all home right now.
Hi Sue,
First time on your site and too anxious to wait for the most delicous smell coming from my oven, the cardamom cake. I have never baked or dealt with that spice before but have a feeling I will be subbing my cinnamon for it at times. I wasn’t totally pure with the recipe, I too added the apples on bottom. hope you don’t mind if I write again once I eat it.? Thank-you for the recipe.
I’ll be anxious to hear how the apple bottom goes, and I’m so glad I could introduce you to cardamom, it’s one of my favorites!
Can you put the measurements in cups, please ( metric/imperail button doesn’t exactly work ;-p )
The recipe is written in cups.
As a big fan of both cardamom and crumb cake, I was eager to try this recipe. I added peeled, diced apple to the bottom of the pan before I added the batter, and baked it for 45 minutes. It was divine! Thank you for a great recipe.
I love the idea of adding apples, why didn’t I think of that??
Actually, come to think of it, I did sort of…have you checked out my Honeycrisp Apple Cardamom Cake?
Looks awesome!