Oh I am in love with this cake! The texture is light and springy while still being nice and moist, and the flavour fragrant with cardamom and walnuts and subtle hints of coffee. A very sophisticated, adult affair. And actually, it's very easy to make! You know what a lazy cook I am - separating eggs and that kind is faffing about is usually beyond me. The simpler and easier something is, the more often we do it, and that's what I'm here for. Getting you cooking more often, and from scratch. And this cake is just that - a blitz of the dry ingredients, a mix of the wet ingredients and our batter is made. Next up we line the tin, which with our reusable pre-cut, perfectly-sized cake tin liners is so easy - just push it in and pour your batter straight on top. I can honestly say I bake way more at home thanks to these liners... it's a little upgrade, but it just makes the whole process feel effortless. And we've got four shapes and sizes, so all your cake, bread and slice tins are covered! Click here to check them all out.
Now, in the photo above we've gone all-out with the decorating and the layering and the Quick Toffee Caramel Sauce (made in all models of the Thermomix), and what an impressive outcome for a special occasion! But for an for an everyday, afternoon tea bake I whip up the cake, plonk on a the cream cheese frosting (recipe below) and sprinkle some toasted walnuts on top. Simple as that. Don't let perfection be the enemy of a delicious homemade creation... life's too short not to have cake!
You can see just how easy it is to whip up in this quick video...
Tips for making cakes in the Thermomix (which you saw me do in the above video!)...
🧁 In my opinion, when making cake batter, once the flour has been added you should never mix above speed 3 in your Thermomix. Any faster and we can start to activate the gluten in the flour, like when we're kneading bread dough. Now for bread dough, this is the desired result, but for a cake, that's the last thing you want! To keep our cake light and fluffy, we never want to activate the gluten.
🧁 Your flour probably won't be all combined completely on speed 3, and that's ok. We're going to finish folding it through using our Thermo Spoon Spatula - this should take less than a minute. I would prefer us to have to do 30 seconds of manual labour, rather than risk a tough cake.
🧁 Lastly, once you've poured or scooped out your batter, there's usually a decent amount stuck on and under your blades. To easily flick this off, blitz for 1 second, speed 10. All remaining batter will be flicked to the side of the thermo bowl, easy for you to scrape out with (you guessed it!) your Thermo Spoon Spatula. Less wastage, more cake, easier clean up. That sums me up 😂
This recipe was adapted from a delicious.com.au cake my dear friend Katherine often makes and raves about... when she was talking me through the steps I thought "Gee that would be so easy in the Thermomix!". And here we are, I wasn't wrong. Enjoy xo
Serves 8
+vegetarian
+soy free
Ingredients
170g walnuts (make sure they are fresh and tasty, not rancid!) + extra for decoration
200g brown sugar
8 cardamom pods, seeds only
180g macadamia oil, or light-flavoured olive oil
80g strong coffee (a short black)
2 free-range eggs
200g plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
60g full-fat yoghurt
FROSTING
50g white sugar
1 tsp instant coffee powder (optional)
200g cream cheese, roughly chopped (the block-type, not the whipped or low fat variety)
70g butter, roughly chopped, at room temperature
Method
- Preheat oven to 160C. Line a 20cm round cake tin with our reusable cake tin liner.
- Place walnuts on a baking tray, toast for 9-10 minutes. Set aside.
- Place brown sugar and cardamom pods in TC bowl, mill for 30 seconds, speed 10.
- Add 120g walnuts, chop for 2 seconds, speed 7.
- Add macadamia oil, coffee and eggs, mix for 5 seconds, speed 4.
- Add flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda, mix for 10 seconds, speed 3.
- Take remaining walnuts and break up into small chunks. Add these to TC bowl, along with yoghurt. Mix in with a spatula until yoghurt is just combined (our Thermo Spoon Spatula is the best spatula for all your Thermomixing!). I would prefer us to have to do 30 seconds of manual labour, rather than risk a tough cake.
- Pour mixture into lined cake tin. Blitz your Thermomix for 1 second, speed 10 to flick any last morsels of batter off the blades making it easy to scrape out off the sides (again, this is best-achieved with our Thermo Spoon Spatula).
- Bake for 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
- Allow to cool completely in the tin, then remove from liner.
- When cake is completely cool, make your frosting. Place sugar and coffee powder (if using) in clean, dry TC bowl, mill for 1 minute, speed 10.
- Insert butterfly. Add cream cheese and butter, whip for 1 minute, speed 4. Spoon frosting over cake and spread out evenly with a palette knife. Sprinkle with extra walnuts, if desired.
Your cake is ready to enjoy! Store any leftovers in the fridge - this cake will stay fresh, moist and delicious refrigerated in an airtight container for up to five days.
NOTES ON HOW TO MAKE IT FANCY...
To level up your cake to the version in the photo, you're going to need to...
- Whip up a batch of our Quick Toffee Caramel Sauce - this super easy recipe can be found on page 252 of our much-loved cookbook for Thermomix machines; Everyday Thermo Cooking. Make the caramel first so you can get it in the fridge and chilled, then start on the cake - follow the recipe as above.
- When you're making the frosting, you'll need to double it - double the ingredients, follow the exact same steps. Pop the frosting in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Once your cake has cooled, pop it in the fridge for 30 minutes - this will help with a clean cut. Once chilled, cut it in half, or if you're brave, in thirds. A cake leveler makes this easiest.
- Spread frosting evenly between each layer and drizzle with the caramel sauce. Use a piping bag and star nozzle to decorate the top - the cream cheese frosting will be much easier to pipe if it has been chilled slightly in the fridge first. If you chill it too much and it becomes unspreadable, allow to warm up slightly then put back in your TC bowl (with butterfly whip inserted), and whip for 30 seconds, speed 4, or until a nice consistency is reached.
- Alternative decorations to the piping include macaroons, chocolate coated coffee beans, dustings of cocoa, edible flowers or candied citrus.
