Show Recipe 2025
Cardamom and white chocolate cake
Ingredients
225g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
4 free-range eggs
225g caster sugar
225g self-raising flour
2 level tsp baking powder
12 cardamom pods
For the icing
100g white chocolate, broken into pieces
50g unsalted butter, softened
75g cream cheese
200g icing sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
50g of white chocolate to decorate
Method
- Preheat the oven 180C/160C Fan/Gas4. Grease two 20cm/8in loose-bottomed sandwich tins and line with baking paper.
- Put the butter, eggs, sugar, flour and baking powder in a large bowl and beat together until well combined.
- Remove the seeds from the cardamom pods and grind as small as possible using a pestle and mortar (seeds only, not the pods) Stir the crushed seeds into the cake batter, then divide the mixture between the tins.
- Bake for 25 minutes, or until golden-brown and springy to the touch. Leave to cool for 5 minutes, then run a small palette knife or rounded butter knife around the edge of the tins and carefully turn the cakes out onto a wire rack. Peel off the paper and leave to cool completely.
- For the icing, gently melt the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of just simmering water, making sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water. (Do not overheat the white chocolate or it will not set.) Stir until runny, then set aside to cool a little.
- Whisk the butter and cream cheese together until fluffy and soft. Add half the icing sugar, whisk again, add the vanilla and the remaining icing sugar and whisk again. Stir in the white chocolate until combined. Transfer to the fridge for about 20 minutes, or until thickened to a spreading consistency.
- Divide the icing between the two cakes, spreading half on one to sandwich them together, and the rest to cover the top.
- Using a sharp knife, cut or shave the 50g of white chocolate into shards and arrange on top.