christmas eve cake - cardamom walnut cake

the recipe I am testing is from someone else's review of 

The Violet Bakery Cookbook

 - 

Book by Claire Ptak

Makes 12 individual cakes / *making bundt cake 

wet

3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened - used oil 
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup sour cream or yogurt 

*2-3 TB dutch cocoa powder                                                                               (If you want to make this a chocolate cake add the cocoa powder into the wet ingredients at the end to combine)

dry 

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoon baking powder 

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

1 teaspoon ground pink peppercorns

2 1/2 ounces walnuts

coffee icing 

1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar

2 tablespoons freshly brewed strong coffee or espresso

Preheat the oven to 350ºF & prep baking pan with oil and or parchment paper

make 

Prep your pan of choice with melted butter or other oleo and use parchment paper on the bottom as well. 

In a stand mixer, whisk the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.                       Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until each one is fully incorporated, then add the vanilla extract & yogurt. If you are making this into a chocolate version add the cocoa powder in now and stir to combine.

In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices.

Mix in the dry to the wet, stir to just combine.  This is a thick batter.

Pour into your prepped baking pan - i used a bunt pan. Bake until a knife comes out clean. In the bunt pan it took me 40 minutes to bake the cake but start checking around the 30 minute mark.

 Place the cake to cool on a wire rack before frosting. 

Walnuts & Frosting

Toast walnuts on medium heat for a few minutes to bring out the best flavor.

Whisk together the ingredients for the icing and spoon it over the cakes. Use the back of a spoon to gently guide it to the edges so that it willingly drips down the sides.

test #1 christmas eve
for got to add the coffee until the batter was in the ring! ha! still added it before i baked it.
the cake turned out well, i topped it with a hard sauce of sour cream, cream cheese, vanilla and powder sugar then topped it with chopped walnuts.  firm cake could hold in your had, soft to the bite - dad said it was slightly dry and suggested i add apple sauce (high praise from the old gent).

test #2 chirstmas morning
well this time i added shredded fresh red pear and forgot to add the sour cream.
the cake came out of the pan perfectly - firm and springy.  i topped it the exact same way.
we will serve it tonight and we'll see the outcome of no sour cream.