Pear and Cardamom Snack Cake

A comfy, cozy buttermilk snack cake spiced with fragrant cardamom and studded with fresh pears. This simple cake is topped with a cardamom crumble and a caramel glaze.

Its snack cake season, everyone. The time of year where you’re looking for simple, seasonal bakes that you can share with friends and family at holiday parties, potlucks, or gatherings. And because I love a good snack cake, I have quite a few lined up to share with you over the next few months.

This pear and cardamom snack cake is a perfect fall treat. The batter features warm browned butter and floral cardamom and is filled with juicy seasonal pears. Plus, there’s a cardamom crumble on top and a warm caramel glaze that takes this cake to the next level. Let’s jump in!

simple snack cake

For me, for a cake to be considered snack-able, it needs to follow a few rules. First, it’s a single-layer, one pan situation. No baking multiple pans of batter or torte-ing layers allowed. Ideally, it’s a blending method cake—meaning wet ingredients are whisked into dry ingredients and liquid fat is incorporated. This means no mixers or lots of dishes for clean-up.

I also love seasonal snack cakes, with ultra-simple bases that hold up whatever seasonal fruit I have on hand. Adaptability is key.

how to make a pear cardamom snack cake:

• To make this recipe, we start with the crumble. Flour, oats, and spices are mixed together with softened butter just to bind everything together and form craggy clumps. This gets chilled while you make the cake so it’s easier to crumble.

• To make the cake, we start by browning butter with a few smashed cardamom pods until it’s nutty and fragrant. I like to get whole cardamom pods at my local Middle Eastern grocery store or World Market, but if you can’t find them, feel free to omit them.

• While the butter is cooling, all of our dry ingredients get whisked together, followed by the wet ingredients. Then the wet ingredients are added to the dry ingredients to form a batter and finally, the browned butter is whisked in.

• For this recipe, I used two large pears. I started by cutting the pears in half so that I had four pieces. I diced three of the halves into small chunks and then thinly sliced the last half and set it aside for topping.

• The diced pears are folded into the batter and then the batter is transferred to a 9” cake pan (I like deep springform pans for this recipe), before it’s topped with the reserved pear slices (for aesthetic purposes) and the chilled cardamom crumble.

• The cake is baked—it will need a longer bake due to the high moisture content, and then warm caramel glaze is drizzled over the top.

Yield one 9" cake, serves 8-10

Author Anna Ramiz

Prep time

30 Min

Cook time

1 Hour

Total time

1 H & 30 M

Print

With ImageWithout Image

Pear and Cardamom Snack Cake

A comfy, cozy buttermilk snack cake spiced with fragrant cardamom and studded with fresh pears. This simple cake is topped with a cardamom crumble and a caramel glaze.

Ingredients

for the crumble topping

• 1/4 cup (32 g) all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup (30 g) rolled oats
• 1/4 cup (50 g) brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1/4 cup (56 g) unsalted butter, softened

for the cake

• 1/2 cup (113 g) unsalted butter
• 2 cardamom pods, smashed
• 2 cups (240 g) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup (227 g) buttermilk
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 pears (375 g), 3/4 diced, 1/4 thinly sliced

for the caramel glaze

• 1/4 cup (30 g) sifted confectioner's sugar
• 1/4 cup warm caramel, homemade or store-bought

Instructions

to make the crumble topping

1. Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed for 2-3 minutes, until all of the butter has been worked in and mixture forms large clumps. Transfer to a bowl and chill while you make the cake.

to make the cake

1. Place butter and smashed cardamom pods in a small saucepan set over medium heat. Cook, swirling occasionally, for 6-7 minutes or until the butter becomes foamy and fragrant and little brown flecks begin to form on the bottom of the pan. Transfer the butter to a bowl to cool and discard the cardamom seeds.
2. Line the bottom of a 9" springform pan with parchment paper and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350° F.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, ground cardamom, and salt. Set aside.
4. In another bowl or a large measuring cup, whisk together eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla until smooth.
5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk until batter is smooth and no flour clumps remain. Whisk in the cooled browned butter until thick and homogenized.
6. Gently fold the diced pears into the batter until dispersed. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and arrange the sliced pears on the top. Generously sprinkle the crumble topping over the cake.
7. Bake for 50-60 minutes, until cake is deeply browned and a skewer or knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan.
8. While the cake is cooling, whisk together the confectioner's sugar and warm caramel to form a smooth, drizzle-able glaze.
9. Invert the cooled cake onto a serving platter and drizzle with the caramel glaze.

Notes

You can use store-bought or homemade caramel for this recipe, but you may need to slightly adjust the amount added depending on the thickness of your caramel. You can find the homemade caramel recipe that I used for this recipe here.

Similar Recipes

Fall Apple Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Salted Caramel

French-Style Apple Torte with Maple Tahini Cream

Sweet Potato and Rye Coffee Cake

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @gatheredatmytable on instagram and hashtag it # gatheredatmytable

Roasty Toasty Carrot Cake

An easy, single layer snack cake loaded with caramelized, roasted carrots, bright citrus, and toasted walnuts and topped with a classic cream cheese frosting.

Guys, I’ve been sitting on this recipe for a long time waiting for the perfect time to share it. I started working on this recipe back around Easter, when our recipe lists and tables were filled with carrot cake. For starters, I wanted simple—single layer, no torte-ing, easy to mix together. But I also wanted a little bit interesting when it came to flavors. I started playing around with the idea of roasting carrots before adding them for an extra layer of depth, adding lots of toasted walnuts, and balancing all of that warmth out with bright citrus flesh, zest, and juice. After a few trials, we had a winner.

a very easy carrot cake recipe

This recipe features our usual carrot cake cast of characters:

• Flours: I used a blend of spelt and all purpose for a bit of extra nuttiness, but you can definitely do 100% all purpose if you don’t have any spelt flour.

• Spices and Leaveners: There are lots of warming spices in this recipe—cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves. And then baking soda to balance the acidity in the carrots and baking powder for rise. And salt. Always salt.

• Sugar: For sweetness, of course.

• Oil: This is an oil-based cake for maximum moisture. I like the grassiness of olive oil, but you could also use any neutral oil of your choice—avocado, vegetable, or grapeseed.

• Eggs: In this recipe, eggs provide fat, emulsification, moisture, and structure.

• Carrots: In this recipe, I’m using carrots two ways: some roasted and pureed for depth of flavor and lots of moisture. Plus a few shredded carrots because you can’t have carrot cake without visible carrot pieces.

• Walnuts: Extra toasty.

• Citrus: I used both orange and lemon zest, plus chopped up the flesh of the orange for a little extra pizzazz.

Yield 8, one 9" cake

Author Anna Ramiz

Prep time

30 Min

Cook time

1 Hour

Total time

1 H & 30 M

Print

With ImageWithout Image

Roasty Toasty Carrot Cake

( 0 reviews )

This simple, spiced snack cake is filled with sweet, roasted carrots and toasted walnuts and topped with a bright, tangy cream cheese frosting.

IngredientsUSMetric

for the roasted carrots

• 3 large carrots
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp granulated sugar
• pinch of salt

for the cake

• 1/2 cup (65 g) spelt flour
• 1 cup (125 g) all purpose
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/8 tsp ground cloves
• 1 1/3 cup (260 g) granulated sugar
• 1 orange, zested
• 1 lemon, zested
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup (165 g) olive oil
• carrot puree, from roasted carrots (above)
• 2 large carrots, shredded
• 1 cup (100 g) toasted walnuts
• the flesh of one orange, chopped

for the frosting

• 2 oz (4 tbsp) unsalted butter, softened
• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 4 oz creme fraiche
• 1/2 tsp vanilla powder, or 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 100 g powdered sugar
• pinch of salt

Instructions

to make the roasted carrot puree

1. Preheat the oven 425° F.
2. Cut carrots into sticks and place in a small baking dish. Add the olive oil, sugar, and salt and stir to coat. Roast for 30 minutes, until carrots are softened and caramelized. Let cool.
3. Transfer the cooled, roasted carrots to a food processor and pulse until pureed. Set aside.

to make the cake

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F and line a 9” cake pan with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together spelt flour, all purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine sugar, orange zest, lemon zest, and eggs. Whip on medium high speed for 3-4 minutes until light in color and thick.
4. Decrease the mixer speed to low and gradually stream in the olive oil, whipping until homogenized. Add the carrot puree and mix once more until completely combined.
5. Remove the bowl from the mixer and add the dry ingredients. Stir with a rubber spatula until all of the flour has been incorporated and no dry spots remain.
6. Chop the toasted walnuts and add them to the batter along with the shredded carrots. Peel the orange and chop the flesh. Add the orange flesh to the batter. Gently fold with a rubber spatula until everything is distributed throughout the batter.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45-55 minutes, until the cake is deeply browned, the top is set, and the sides begin to pull away from the pan.
8. Cool completely in the pan, and then flip out onto a cooling rack.

to make the frosting

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment combine the butter and cream cheese. Beat for about 30 seconds, until smooth.
2. Add the crème fraîche, sift in the powdered sugar, and add the vanilla and salt. Whip again until frosting is thick and smooth.
3. Spread the frosting in a thick layer over the top of the cooled cake.

Similar Recipes

Caramel Almond Snack Cake

Salted Honey and Banana Snack Cake

Roasted Grape and Olive Oil Cake

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @gatheredatmytable on instagram and hashtag it # gatheredatmytable

Chocolate Buttermilk Snack Cake with Sage Caramel Buttercream

Meet your new favorite snack cake. This ultra-simple, rich chocolate and buttermilk snack cake gets topped with a sage caramel Swiss meringue buttercream and swirled with homemade sage caramel.

I’ve been on a bit of a chocolate dessert kick lately and I’m not mad about it at all. As much as I love me a good fall squash dessert, it’s easy to get a little spiced-out during the holiday baking season and I tend to forget that chocolate desserts still exist. So I set out to cozy-up my very favorite chocolate cake recipe and it was quite the success.

a very simple chocolate snack cake

I am not lying when I tell you that this might be the simplest chocolate cake recipe you will find. It only dirties up one bowl, one measuring glass, a whisk, and a rubber spatula and utilizes pantry ingredients you probably already have on hand.

P.S. If you aren’t someone who keeps buttermilk on hand at all times, I highly recommend it. Buttermilk is one of my top 5 baking ingredients and it will transform the textures of your cakes and breads.

To make the cake, simply whisk together dry ingredients + sugar and set it aside. Then whisk together olive oil and buttermilk, add it to the dry, and whisk until the batter is smooth and lump-free. Transfer the batter to an 8” cake pan and bake it until the center is set and the sides begin to pull away from the edge of the pan. Let cool almost completely and then invert it onto a cooling rack. Voilà. You could totally stop there and just eat the cake frosting-free, maybe with a spoonful of crème fraîche or whipped cream.

But I suggest continuing on with a simple sage caramel buttercream.

homemade sage caramel and a caramel swiss buttercream

I won’t spend too long dissecting the steps of making homemade caramel because you can read about that whole process in-depth here, here, and here! But we are essentially making our classic dry caramel with a bit of added pizzazz. Before making the caramel, we’ll bring our heavy cream to a simmer and steep a handful of fresh sage leaves in the hot cream. Before using it, we’ll strain out the leaves and then that herbal, fragrant cream will get added to our caramel in place of regular cream. This is a really easy way to add flavor to your caramel and you could definitely experiment will all sorts of herbs and flowers (rose! lavender! cardamom!)

Now, for the buttercream.

Swiss meringue buttercream is the swoopiest and fluffiest of all of the buttercreams in my opinion, and it is fairy simple to make once you know the steps and what to look for. Let’s break it down.

1. Combine egg whites and sugar in a double boiler. You’ll cook this mixture over very even heat, stirring very frequently, until the sugar has completely dissolved and the temperature reaches 160° F. You can use a candy thermometer if you’d like, but I like to dip my finger into the bowl to test for readiness. The mixture should be warm and free of sugar granules.

2. Whip egg white/sugar to form a meringue. Once you’ve reached your ideal temperature, transfer the mixture to a stand mixer and begin whipping, starting on low speed and then increasing speed gradually, until you have a thick, glossy, room temperature meringue.

3. Add the buttah. With the mixer on, add your softened butter, one tablespoon at a time. When all of the butter has been added, switch to the paddle attachment and beat it until the light and fluffy and the consistency resembles that of a buttercream.

4. Stream in the caramel. With the mixer on low-speed, add half of the caramel (this should be room temperature too) and beat until it’s mixed in. Swoop it on your cake, drizzle with more caramel, and enjoy!

Yield

one 8" round cake

Author

Anna Ramiz

Prep time

15 Min

Cook time

50 Min

Total time

1 H & 4 M

Print

With ImageWithout Image

Chocolate Buttermilk Snack Cake with Sage Caramel Buttercream

Meet your new favorite snack cake. This ultra-simple, rich chocolate and buttermilk snack cake gets topped with a sage caramel Swiss meringue buttercream and swirled with homemade sage caramel.

Ingredients US Metric

for the cake

• 1 1/2 cups (195 g) all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup (60 g) cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 3/4 cup (165 g) granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup (100 g) brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (100 g) olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups (350 g) buttermilk

for the sage caramel

• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 8-10 sage leaves
• 1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt

for the caramel swiss buttercream

• 2 egg whites (60 g)
• 115 g granulated sugar
• 170 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• Sage caramel, recipe included

Instructions

to make the cake

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F and line an 8” cake pan with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, and brown sugar.
3. In a large measuring cup, whisk together olive oil and buttermilk until smooth and homogenous.
4. Slowly stream the wet ingredients into the dry and whisk until batter is smooth and no flour clumps remain.
5. Pour the batter into your prepared cake pan and bake for 40-45 minutes, until the center of the cake is set and the edges pull away from the sides of the pan. Let cool in the pan before inverting the cake onto a cooling rack.

to make the sage caramel

1. Place heavy cream and sage leaves in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook until cream has started to bubble, then remove from heat and cover. Let steep for 30 minutes and then discard sage leaves.
2. Place the sugar in a medium saucepan and set over medium heat. Cook, without stirring, until the sugar begins to liquify. At this point, you can gently swirl the pot to ensure even cooking. Continue to cook, watching closely, until all of the sugar has dissolved and the caramel is a deep amber color.
3. Remove the caramel from the heat and whisk in the heavy cream. Return to the heat and cook for 1-2 more minutes, until smooth and golden, the remove from the heat and whisk in butter and salt. Let cool completely.

to make the caramel swiss buttercream

1. Create a double boiler using a heat-proof bowl and a medium saucepan. Combine egg whites and sugar in the bowl and heat, stirring frequently, until the temperature reaches 160 degrees or mixture is hot to the touch. Make sure that all of the sugar crystals are dissolved.
2. Transfer mixture to the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and whip on medium-high speed until completely cool. You should have a stiff, glossy meringue that forms peaks when the whisk is lifted out of it.
3. With the mixer on medium-high speed, add butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, making sure each piece is incorporated before adding the next. It is very important at this point that the butter and the meringue are the same temperature before adding the butter. As soon as you add the last of the butter, switch from the whisk attachment to the paddle attachment and beat on high speed until mixture is smooth, light, and fluffy. It should look like a familiar buttercream at this point.
4. With the mixer on low speed, add half of your room temperature sage caramel and salt, and continue to mix until well-combined and homogenous.
5. To serve, spoon the frosting over the cake and swoop and swirl it however you’d like. Drizzle the top with any remaining caramel and garnish with more sage leaves.

Similar Recipes

Classic Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Milk Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Spiced Caramel Chocolate Lava Cakes

Espresso Chiffon Layer Cake with Chocolate Ganache Buttercream and Salted Caramel

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @gatheredatmytable on instagram and hashtag it #gatheredatmytable