A delicious chocolate cardamom cake, rich and decadent, frosted with whipped buttercream, combines the bold flavor of chocolate with the warm and aromatic spices of cardamom. Make this 2 layer cake with under 8 ingredients in under an hour.
Rub butter on the inside of two 8-inch round pans.
Dust the greased pans with cocoa powder
For the frosting, open a can of coconut milk and sit it opened in a pot of boiling water for about a minute until it has melted. Don't let water splash inside it. Stir to combine and take can out to cool before making frosting but don't let it turn solid again.
Make the cake
In a medium bowl, stir the dry ingredients together.
¾ cup cocoa powder, 2 ¼ cups all purpose flour, ½ teaspoon baking soda, 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder, 2 teaspoon ground cardamom
In a larger bowl, mix together the wet ingredients including the sugar. Make sure you stir long enough so the sugar seems dissolved.
¼ cup pumpkin puree, ½ cup olive oil, 2 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 ½ cups cane sugar
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.
Mix the batter until smooth but not longer than 2 minutes or cake will be rubbery.
Divide the batter evenly between the two baking pans, tapping them on the counter to level the mixture.
Bake 30 minutes or until tester is clean.
Let the layers cool in the pans about 15 minutes, then run a knife around the inside, turn each over onto a cooling rack and tap until it falls out. Let them cool completely on the racks before frosting.
Make the frosting
Melt the butter in the microwave at 10 seconds. Let it cool.
Add sugar, cocoa, butter, vanilla and coffee to a mixing bowl and mix until combined and creamy.
¾ cup cocoa powder, ½ cup butter, 3 ½ cups powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon cold coffee, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, ⅓ unsweetened cocoa powder
In a different bowl, whip the cooled coconut milk with a hand mixer until it resembles the texture of a heavy whipped cream, not necessarily a fluffy texture.
2-4 tablespoon full fat coconut milk
Fold the whipped cream into the chocolate mixture with a rubber spatula and combine gently and for only a minute or until just combined so you don't deflate the whipped cream airiness.
Cover the bowl with a soaking wet paper or cloth towel if not ready to frost immediately.
Assemble cake by stacking layers, frosting each. Or, to replicate our cake pictured, slice each layer lengthwise to make a 4-layer cake.
Storage
Once frosted the cake will last one day at room temperature uncut. Once cut, eat or refrigerate for two days, although refrigeration will dry out the cake. The cake unfrosted can be frozen if wrapped in air-tight seals for two months.
Notes
Lemon juice: or you can use white vinegar or lemon juice.Milk: I use almond milk, but any milk will work.All purpose flour: I often make this with baking flour 1 to 1 gluten-free by Bob's Red Mill.Organic cane sugar: Regular cane sugar will work here, but try organic cane sugar if you can, it tastes so much better.Pumpkin Puree or apple sauce: Instead of eggs, I use pumpkin puree (not pumpkie pie puree) or apple sauce.Mix wet ingredients well. This is your main chance to help the sugar dissolve so stir well so the sugar seems dissolved. Once you add the wet to the dry, you need to mix just enough to combine - over mixing leads to a touch cake texture.Keep frosting moist. If you make the frosting before the layers are cool, cover the bowl with a soaking wet paper towel to keep it fresh.Don't forget the coffee. You won't taste it, it just elevates the taste of the chocolate.