Cardamom Plum Coffee Cake
Get ready for a glowup to coffee’s best friend because this cardamom plum coffee cake recipe is something special! Super moist buttermilk cake with juicy plums, topped by a spicy cardamom oat crumble and accompanied with rich, spiced and roasted plums. This summer bake is a breakfast must have!
About This Recipe for Plum Coffee Cake with Cardamom
This cardamom plum coffee cake recipe is the perfect late summer, early fall baked good with different textures and flavors. The moistness of the cake and the crunch from the crumble with the softness of the plums really makes each bite exciting and flavorful. And the plums and cardamom are just so fantastic together between spiciness, sweetness, and tang. The addition of the roasted plums on top, gives a little extra sour against the sweetness of the cake. And don’t forget to pair this with your favorite cup of coffee!
The Origin of Coffee Cake
While nobody knows who exactly invented coffee cake, we do know it has European roots from the 1600s and specifically the Germans, Danish, and Scandinavians. Scandinavians would enjoy sweet cakes with nuts, spices, and fruits with a cup coffee; it was a specific break time activity. Because of this, the term coffee cake actually comes from the action of drinking coffee while enjoying sweet cake and not from the cake being coffee flavored.
However, that term did not come into play until the 1800’s when the Dutch and Germans immigrated to America bringing their recipes with them. By the later of the 1800’s, coffee cake became tremendously popular in the New York and surrounding states, and it had turned into a sweet pastry treat rather than a sweet bread. Learn more about coffee cake here!
Cardamom Plum Coffee Cake Ingredients:
- Red Plums: In season during the late summer and early fall. I usually prefer red for their color contrast between the skin and inside however any type of plum will do for this fruity bake.
- Cardamom: A traditional spice in Indian cuisines and gives a spicy, almost astringent edge to it’s dishes. I love cardamom because it’s a lovely surprise to the palate and is more unique than the traditional cinnamon, nutmeg, clove combo. Although, it is very expensive (and I do think it is worth it) due to how labor intensive it is to harvest, it can be substituted with a 50/50 mix of black pepper and cinnamon for this plum cake recipe.
Major Allergens Present: Gluten, dairy, eggs
Equipment Needed
- Hand or stand mixer: Used to make the cake batter and the crumble topping. For this you will use the paddle if using a stand mixer and the beaters if using a hand mixer for both.
- 9″ Cake pan: this recipe uses a 9″ cake pan for triangle slices. If you are looking for square pieces you can use 9″ x 13″ pan and multiplying the recipe by 1.5.
How to Make Plum Coffee Cake With Cardamom:
What’s In This cardamom plum coffee cake recipe?
This twist on a classic plum coffee cake uses a buttermilk pound cake with plenty of cardamom. It’s topped with plums we toss in brown sugar, lemon, and again cardamom with other baking spices. And then that’s topped with an oat crumble also spiced with ground cardamom. I prefer to serve with the spice roasted plums because it gives it an extra fruity dessert kick and flavor.
Make the Cardamom Crumble:
You want to have the crumble ready to go for when the cake batter is ready, so make this before the cake. The goal here is to have pea sized granules of crumble. If you mix too much, you may form a dough all together which is not at all what we want. Also, use cold butter and then rest in the fridge after mixing until use to firm up that butter back up. Since butter melts quickly, you want it cold to melt slower so that the flour bakes before the cold butter melts too fast. This will keep the crumble crumbly instead of a sheet of… something.
Make the Cardamom Plum Coffee Cake Batter:
Before getting started with the cake batter, mix up the plums. Halve, remove the pit, and slice each half into 6 slices. Toss in the the brown sugar, spices, and lemon juice and set aside. This pre work will help enhance the flavor of the plums.
This plum cake recipe uses a basic creaming method. A creaming method is creaming together the butter and sugar until fluffy. This adds air into the dough/batter formed by the sugar crystals slicing through the butter. Second, the eggs and extracts are added, and finally adding the dry ingredients and liquids (if any) alternately. Many cakes and cookies use this method and is a foundation for baking. Know this method well. The key is to continuously scrape the bowl and attachment(s) before and after each addition of ingredients. This ensures all the ingredients are playing together cohesively.
Assemble Cardamom Plum Coffee Cake and Bake:
Prepare your cake pan with parchment on the bottom to make removing easier. The order goes: cake batter, plums, crumble. You can opt to pour and spread half the batter, layer the plums, then the rest on top if you want plums in the middle versus below the crumble but that’s your choice! When layering the plums, it’s okay if they overlap! Since there’s a lot going on in one pan, this does take a good amount of time to bake. Use a knife to test.
Prepare the Roasted Plums (optional):
This is 100% optional, but it is so worth it! Easy: just combine all ingredients and roast until soft. You can underbake them if you want them more firm as well. Serve these warm and be sure to spoon the juices over as well. You’ll find it goes so perfectly with your cardamom plum coffee cake alongside a cup of coffee.
Getting hung up or lost on all the baking terminology? Study up here.
Enhancing This Cardamom Plum Coffee Cake:
- Not a fan of stone fruit? Try raspberries or blackberries instead, and skip the roasted fruit addition.
- Add two packets of instant coffee with your dry ingredients to really emphasize the coffee in coffee cake.
- Turn this into a lovely fall dessert with honeycrisp apples instead of plums and add about 1/2 cup of chopped pecans to the crumble.
How to Store and Freeze Cardamom Plum Coffee Cake:
- Store cardamom plum coffee cake covered at room temperature for up to 4 days.
- Store roasted plums covered in the fridge for up to a week. Warm slightly before serving.
- Do not freeze any component.
Troubleshooting Cardamom Plum Coffee Cake:
- My cardamom crumble turned into a dough! You over mixed, and have two options: start over or bake separately. If you choose to start over, keep a closer eye on the crumble and do not mix passed a pea sized stage. If you choose to bake separately, bake at 350*F and break apart/mix every 5 minutes to create a crumble. Bake on top of the plum coffee cake when it has 5-10 minutes left of baking.
- My cardamom crumble baked really weirdly! The butter was not cold and therefor melted before the flour could set. There’s nothing you can do at this point, but in the future, use cold butter and refrigerate before topping and baking.
Something else going wrong? Reach out and we will troubleshoot together!
Cardamom Plum Coffee Cake
Equipment
- Stand or hand mixer
- 9" Cake Pan
Ingredients
Cardamom Crumble
- 50 g Light brown sugar
- 50 g Oats
- 50 g Cold butter, unsalted 7 Tbs
- 50 g All purpose flour
- ¼ tsp Cinnamon, ground
- 1 tsp Cardamom, ground
- 1 Pinch Kosher salt
Coffee Cake
- 3-4 ea Red plums
- ½ ea Lemon juice or 26g
- 1 Tbs Light brown sugar
- ¼ tsp Cardamom, ground
- 138 g Butter, unsalted 1 stick + 2 Tbs
- 255 g Granulated sugar
- 2 ea Whole eggs
- 204 g All purpose flour
- 1 tsp Baking powder
- ½ tsp Kosher salt
- 1 tsp Cardamom, ground
- 150 g Buttermilk
Roasted Plums (optional)
- 4-6 ea Red plums
- 2 Tbs Butter, unsalted
- 1 ½ Tbs Light brown sugar
- ½ tsp Cinnamon, ground
- ½ tsp Cloves, ground
- ½ tsp Cardamom, ground
Instructions
To prepare the cardamom crumble:
- Combine all ingredients in the bowl of your stand mixer and paddle until pea sized, crumbly granules. You do not want the butter to homogenize with the other ingredients and form a dough. Place in the fridge until ready to use.
To prepare the coffee cake:
- Slice the plums in the half and remove the pits. Slice each half into 6 slices and toss in the lemon juice, cardamom, and brown sugar. Set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F, and prepare a 9” pan with pan spray lined with parchment paper.
- With your stand mixer and paddle or hand mixer and beaters, cream together the butter with the granulated sugar until pale and fluffy on medium-high speed. Scrape the bowl and mix for an additional 30 seconds.
- Bringing the speed down to medium low, add the eggs in one at a time scraping the bowl in between each addition. Scrape the bowl and mix for an additional 30 seconds.
- Combine the remaining dry ingredients together and add it to the batter in three additions alternately with the buttermilk in two additions. Scrape the bowl and mix until incorporated.
- Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan, and line the plum slices on top. It’s okay if they overlap. Sprinkle the crumble on top, and bake for 75-90 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean.
To prepare the roasted plums:
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. Slice the plums in the half and remove the pits. Slice each half into 4 slices and lay them in a pan with the remaining ingredients.
- Bake for 10-20 minutes depending on how soft or firm you’d like them. Serve warm with the cake, and don’t forget to drizzle some of the juices on top.
Nutrition
Frequently Asked Questions:
- What is so special about plum cake? This plum coffee cake recipe is a rich buttermilk pound cake then dressed up with plums and baking spices which makes it such a special cake.
- What is the difference between a plum cake and a normal cake? Plum cake has the addition of plums and hopefully baking spices while regular cake does not.
- What makes coffee cake different from cake? While both are cakes, coffee cake usually refers to a cake made with baking spices, fruits, and/or nuts that was normally eaten with coffee.
Have another question? Reach out and I’ll try to answer it for you!
Omg the plums in this were soooo good! Loved the added roasted plums too.
This was so light and yummy! I was a little worried it would be too much sugar but the balance was perfect. Thank you for all the detailed instructions. I can’t wait to try more of your recipes!
Thank you so much for making my cardamom plum coffee cake! It’s a favorite of my in-laws. Looking forward to hearing more feedback on other recipes 🙂