Cardamom Cream Cake Recipe (2024)

I made it for my friend's 70th birthday. Had to practice 2x & both times the frosting separated & I had to default to whipped cream-cream cheese frosting. I was determined to make it work for the final go. I used the most quality ingredients I could find (whole milk, fresh, expensive) & here's my frosting trick: whip the cold mascarpone w/ cold greek yogurt first & put back in fridge. Whip butter & powdered sugar. Whip cream. Fold them all together carefully. Charm.

Melissa forgot to mention that her friend Zoë thinks this is the best cake ever made. Make it for someone (or ones) that you love. They will never forget it.

Some frostings can become runny/sloppy when all ingredients are used at room temp. I don't remember where I learned this (Martha Stewart?) but a great trick to making cream cheese frosting for carrot cake is to have the butter at room temp but the cream cheese stone cold from the fridge and process all frosting ingredients together at once in a food processor. It works like a charm, the frosting turns out perfectly smooth and thick and spreadable.

I made this and it turned out perfectly and tasted incredible. I put the mascarpone and yogurt in the freezer for a few minutes before I mixed them for frosting and had no problems with curdling. I think the complaints about the wetness or "cheesiness" of some versions may be because there is so much variation in quality, texture and moisture in the key ingredients of ricotta, yogurt and mascarpone.

Delicious, glamorous cake, not for first time bakers. I'm an experienced cook and the frosting curled instantly. Frustrated, I refrigerated it for a bit, did a Google search and fixed it in a jiffy. I wished small amounts of it in a stainless steel bowl over hot water, bringing the frosting back to room temperature and the frosting corrected itself and was delicious. I garnished with dried rosebuds (for tea) and some of the guest actually ate them.

I doubled the cardamom. Highly recommend you taste EVERYTHING so you can titrate the cardamom and rose water as needed during mixing. I used bitter orange water actually and half the amount was more than enough.Put the marscapone AND the yogurt in the freezer before using for the icing. I had no problems with curdling doing this. I would add more milk syrup and maybe even poke some thin holes in the cake to let it penetrate next time. Fantastic cake for my dinner party, I highly recommend it.

The rose water and cardamom combination is lovely, but it's important to pay VERY close attention to the instructions regarding the frosting. Alas, I didn't, and presumably because the mascarpone wasn't cold enough, it "curdled." No way to recover it. Such an (expensive and time consuming) shame. I'll make another icing to complete the cake today--and with luck, it will still be yummy.

I always buy my orange blossom and rose water at an Asian stores where they have a middle eastern aisle. The middle eastern brands (like Ziyad) are very high quality and aromatic, and comparatively very inexpensive.

There was no mention of a specific rose water so I used Nielson Massey brand of rose water which is an extract i think and way more concentrated than what is used in the recipe :( Overpowering is not the word. Lesson learned !! However, the crumb was fantastic. Would it be possible to be brand specific in the future in this case citing the rose water used ?

Such a delicious, delicate cake! The layers make for a beautiful presentation. Baked and assembled it 2 days in advance. The cardamom/rose water combination was not easy for people to identify, they just knew they loved it. Not too sweet, a wonderful light texture. I had the same experience with the icing texture; after reading other notes here, stirred it over a bit of warm water and it smoothed out easily. Most flavorful served at room temperature. Thanks for another wonderful recipe Melissa!

This is highly recommended, so unique and special. It took a while to make, but I thought it was a pretty fun experience. I think I cooked the milk syrup too long, so I ended up with less syrup than I would have liked (the cake is pretty dry on its own, so the milk syrup is very helpful). For the frosting, I made "mascarpone" using this recipe http://allrecipes.com/recipe/78071/mascarpone-substitute/, and it worked very well. I also made my own ricotta.

I did! It made 27 cupcakes.

1 pound of butter, 3 cups of sugar, plus heavy cream and ricotta— in just 1 cake. To top it off, the recipe is unnecessarily complicated. Just look at the comments about curdling. I spent a significant portion of my day making this cake for a birthday. I could have achieved the same taste with much less ingredients- Especially the butter. I hope it tastes good. But frankly, I won’t be following this recipe again.

My frosting broke too after adding the mascarpone and yogurt. My solution to re-emulsify was to warm the mess up slightly (75 oF) and rewhip. Went back together and smoothed out nicely.

I just measured for the baking powder. Recipe says 1tbsp plus one tsp baking powder or 20 grams.Since one tbsp weighs 6 g, it would take more than 3 tbsp to get to 20 grams. So I’m thinking there is a mistake here.I’m wondering if those of you who have made this used tablespoons and teaspoons or used the gram measurement as stated?Thank you.

I made this for New Years Eve where we served a full Indian meal. I don't like rose in my food so I went with some cognac I had - I couldn't taste it. The cake is beautiful and a visual crowd pleaser. I would have liked a lot more cardamom. I called it an Indian-ish quatro leches cake. It was good - but I wouldn't make this again.

The flavors in this cake were superb. I bake a lot but have trouble assembling layer cakes. Not a criticism, but FOR ME easier would be to bake batter in thirds for three layers without having to split. These layers came out too thick for a layer cake but too thin for me to split easily. I drained ricotta 2 days in the fridge and just added a little bit of cream to whip - it was a nice consistency. Used 8 oz mascarpone 2 c cream for frosting bc of others’ trouble w/ Greek yogurt frosting.

This was a huge hit at my friend's birthday party. Definitely agree with other commenters noting that you need to keep the mascarpone and yogurt very cold. I put a metal bowl in the freezer for a few minutes before making the frosting. I also leave my butter out over night to soften (for this and all frosting recipes that require softened butter). Worked like a charm. I dialed up the cardamom a good bit, and overpowered the rose water a little, so just keep that in mind.

Should the pistachios be salted or unsalted?

This is truly ras malai in a cake! Delicioius!I made the frosting twice and it curdled. I used the second batch anyway and then put a thin layer of mascarpone, cream, powdered sugar and cardamom whisked gently by hand, on the top. It looked great and no one could tell that the underlying layer of icing was weird.

Fun and fabulous. I chickened out making the ricotta filling and used half a teaspoon of rosewater and half a teaspoon of vanilla. Next time 1 teaspoon of rosewater all the way. The cake itself is wonderful and moist. I added a bit more ground cardamom to the batter and I’m glad I did. The roasted pistachio pieces are the perfect finish.

This is a truly spectacular cake in all ways. After making it twice as directed next time I will use 8" pans so the layers are a bit thicker and easier to halve. I did cut the sugar in the batter by 45 grams and that actually worked well for those of us who prefer our cakes a bit less sweet. It's definitely an enterprise, but it's not difficult if you just follow the instructions. Absolutely worth the effort

This cake was laborious and exceptional. Make it for people who feel appreciated by great efforts made on their behalf. Finding rose water and candied rose petals in our small city on the east coast of Canada in was a challenge, so we substituted with vanilla. Simple but delicious. We can't wait to try it again with the listed ingredients. No doubt the rose water will add a delicate complexity to this light and tasty cake.

This recipe looks awesome, but it is beyond my cooking abilities. Someone mentioned cupcakes, but I cant find the specifics. How exactly could this recipe be turned into cupcakes? Thank you!

53 g of fat and 65 g (13 tsp) of sugar per serving: eat at your cardiovascular risk.

Has anyone tried this with orange water? I've made the version as given and loved it (but took MC's suggestion for the easier cream cheese frosting, much as the mascarpone seems more delightful), but I tend to prefer orange water to rose water and am curious as to how it turns out. (I know the answer is that I could just try it, but it's quite the time-consuming experiment if it's simply better with rose water!)

So decadent and a real labor of love. Perfect for a very special occasion. Absolutely divine!