Serve this Cardamom Apple Coffee Cake with a hot cup of coffee on a crisp Autumn morning for a cozy and delicious breakfast.
If you give me the choice of a savory or a sweet breakfast, I’m always gonna go with sweet. A slice of this Cardamom Apple Coffee Cake served with coffee will make the coziest breakfast on a crisp Autumn morning. I certainly wouldn’t mind a second slice either, because all of my favorite Fall flavors are baked up perfectly in this delicious coffee cake.
How to Make Cardamom Apple Coffee Cake
The cake batter is made with lots of plain yogurt and dark brown sugar to yield a moist texture and a deep almost toffee like flavor that complements apple so well. I used a large Fuji apple which yields about 2 cups when diced. Any other variety will work well in this recipe, best to pick one you enjoy snacking on. You know how they say cook with the wine you like to drink, same idea! The diced apple is then folded into the batter, which will release moisture as it is baked and keep the cake even moister.
The streusel topping, spiced with cinnamon and cardamom, is really the star here. You must sprinkled all of this over the top of the cake batter before baking, don’t skimp, use it all. I bake this cake in a springform pan so I don’t have to flip the cake over to remove it. If you don’t have a springform pan, just bake it in a regular cake pan that you can cut and serve out of without worrying about scratches.
This Cardamom Apple Coffee Cake is definitely my kind of breakfast, or should I say dessert disguised a breakfast? What’s the difference really? You’re talking to a girl who will eat pancakes for dinner and noodles for breakfast. It’s all fair game in my world. No matter what label you want to give it, this cake will definitely bring coziness and deliciousness into your world. So enjoy!
More Apple Recipes for Breakfast
If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment, rate it and don’t forget to tag me @wildwildwhisk on Instagram. I’d love to see what’s cooking up in your kitchen. Cheers!
📖 Recipe card
Cardamom Apple Coffee Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup plain yogurt
- 2 large egg
- 4 oz unsalted butter - soften
- ⅔ cup dark brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 large apple - peeled and diced (yields about 2 cups)
Streusel Topping
- 6 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 6 tablespooon granulated sugar
- 1.5 oz unsalted butter – cold
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon cardamom
Instructions
- Let all refrigerated ingredients come to room temperature.
- Brush a 9” springform pan with butter and line the bottom with parchment paper, brush the parchment paper with butter as well.
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- To make the streusel, combine flour, sugar, cardamom and cinnamon in a small bowl, mix together thoroughly with a whisk.
- Cut the cold butter into small cube and add to the dry mixture.
- Use a pastry blender to cut the butter into the dry mixture until coarse crumbs form. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
- In another small bowl, measure out flour, salt, and baking powder, mix together thoroughly with a whisk and set aside.
- Add soften butter and dark brown sugar in the stand mixer bowl and beat with the paddle attachment until combined an light.
- Add the eggs and vanilla extract, beat to combine.
- Stir in a third of the dry ingredients and then half of the yogurt, alternate until everything is combined.
- Fold the apple into the batter and pour into prepared pan, use the spatula to distribute the batter evenly and create a flat surface.
- Sprinkle the cold streusel over the top evenly.
- Bake for 45 - 50 minutes until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
- Let cool on a wire rack until cool enough to handle before unmolding the cake.
Nutrition
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Erin
This cake was amazing! Made it today for my family and it is a new favorite.
Trang Doan
Thank you Erin! So happy to hear your family enjoyed it! 🙂
Liz
Can I substitute buttermilk for the sour cream?
Trang Doan
Hi Liz, this recipe uses yogurt, which you can substitute sour cream for. Are you trying to use buttermilk instead of the yogurt? It probably will work but could be a little too liquidy.
Rachel C
Love this one! I think next time, I’ll add a layer of streusel in the middle of the cake (there is plenty), and maybe do it in a square 8×8 (ish) dish. Love the way the apples kind of dissolve into the cake. May also do the streusel with brown sugar, or at least half brown half white. Thank you for this one!
Trang Doan
Thank you Rachel!! Glad to hear you loved it!
Rachel
I think there’s a typo in the directions. The yogurt should be mixed with the butter sugar egg mixture, right?
Looking forward to trying this.
michelle
I love this cake recipe! its the fourth time I make it this season.
Trang Doan
Thank you Michelle! So glad to hear you enjoyed it 🙂
Jeannie
My son made this for us yesterday and it turned out absolutely delicious. I had it after dinner 🙂 Sweet, crunchy, and flavorful. Thanks for sharing it with us!
Trang Doan
Thank you Jeannie!
Rachel
Sorry — no typo in the recipe. I just didn’t read it closely enough. Please ignore my earlier comment.
Trang Doan
No problem! Yogurt is used in step 10.
Casey Davis
This was ok. I like that the cake itself was not overly sweet but unless you add in some spices it’s very bland. I wouldn’t make it again. But we did eat what I made. I think I will stick to my tried and true coffee cake recipe next time and add some cardamom and apple to that instead.
Trang Doan
Sorry to hear you didn’t like this cake.
Heather
I can’t wait for this to be out of the oven! Already giving it 5stars though 🙂 I too added just a tad more cardamom to the topping. I was forced to use some maple yogurt with some plain because I was short. And I shredded my peeled apple instead of diced. Mmmm cardamom apple coffee cake…drool…
Lisa
Hi,
Can this be made with. 9 inch cake pan?
And can it be made night before serving?
Thanks
Trang Doan
Yes and yes!
Nancy
Love this cake. So moist. I used half sour cream half Greek plain yogurt. And I added some rhubarb I had from the garden to give it a tang.
Trang Doan
Such a great way to use rhubarb! I’m glad you love the cake, Nancy.
Susie
Could this be made in a Bundt pan ?
Trang Doan
I don’t think so because you want the streusel on top of the batter, and it doesn’t really work in a bundt pan since you would invert the cake and the exposed part of the cake in the bundt pan would become the bottom.
Chrissy
I just made it with some new spices and it came out great. I will increase the cardamom a little next time; personal preference. Thanks so much!
Trang
Glad to hear you enjoyed it Chrissy! And yes increase the spices to your preference 🙂
Rachel
Came across your recipe while searching for apple recipes. I have tree in the garden and it’s throwing down apples left, right and centre at this time of year. I absolutely love the taste of this cake! Not overly sweet, easy to make, easy ingredients. I’ve added a little extra cardamom to the streusel, but that’s just because I love the taste. Glad I found your website and instagram account. Thanks for this delicious recipe!
Trang
Thank you for stopping by and taking the time to leave a review 🙂 Cardamom is one of my favorite spices, I’m glad you like the recipe and sounds like you have a lot more apples to bake with!!!
Susan C Hammond
Hi,
Thanks for the recipe. Any chance you have weights for the major ingredients. I try to use a scale in all of my baking for consistency.
Trang
Hi Susan, sorry I don’t have weights for this particular recipe. I started doing weight for new recipes because readers like you started asking but unfortunately not this one. However, based on my recent measurements, I can give you some estimates:
1 1/2 cup flour = 197g
1 cup yogurt = 235g (this is the weight I have for 1 cup of sour cream, but they should be very close)
4 oz unsalted butter = 113g
2/3 cup dark brown sugar = 140g (this weight is for light brown sugar, but should be very close)
Hope this helps, let me know if you have any other questions.
Marie
If a cake can be cosy this is absolutely it. This looks divine and I love that crisp topping.
Kenneth Orloff
A new Thanksgiving dinner treat???
Trang
Is that a request?? haha