Kardemummakaka: Swedish cardamom cake

In Sweden (as well as in the rest of Scandinavia), Midsummer’s Eve is one of the most important days of the year. The celebrations involve a lot of dancing and of course eating and drinking. In 2021, it will be celebrated on Saturday 26 June, a few days after the summer solstice and the longest day of the year (at least in the Northern Hemisphere). To mark the occasion, I’ve decided to bake a moist and aromatic cardamom cake (known as kardemummakaka in Swedish). Cardamom is a widely used spice in Swedish recipes. In fact, cardamom buns (kardemummabullar) are an essential part of fika, the renowned Swedish coffee break.

Fika is an essential part of the Swedish culture year-long, an opportunity to refuel on coffee and perhaps a delicious cinnamon or cardamom bun, as well as to socialize. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why Sweden is one of the highest coffee consuming countries in the world.

Here’s the recipe for the kardemummakaka:

Ingredients:

Dry ingredients:

1.5 cup flour
2 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
Zest of 1 orange

Wet ingredients:

1/4 cup orange juice (or juice of 1/2 orange)
3/4 cup oil
3/4 cup honey
1 cup yoghurt

2 eggs

A handful of blueberries

Method:

In a bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together.

In a second bowl, beat the eggs, then add all the wet ingredients.

Add the wet mixture into the dry mixture and mix well.

Add the blueberries to the mixture.

Transfer the mixture into a cake tin and bake in a pre-heated oven (at 170°C, fan) for 60 minutes.

Further reading

If you’ve worked an appetite for cake, here are a few more recipes that you might enjoy:

Marillenkuchen: Austrian Apricot Cake

The best recipe for tsoureki (Greek sweet bread)

Fanouropita: a Rhodes-inspired recipe

Alex

(the soon-to-be-Traveling-again-Psychiatrist)