Maple Cardamom Coffee Cake

Maple is magic. Gorgeous trees create sap that we can turn into not only delicious syrup, but also maple water, maple sugar, maple cream, maple candy— the possibilities are endless! It’s by far one of my favorite flavors and also one of the coolest things we can find in nature.

Last year, I had the chance to visit Vermont during the fall in preparation for a press and influencer trip the following March for maple sugaring season— when maple syrup is actually made! Most of us think of it as a fall flavor, but maple sugarmakers actually collect the sap and boil the syrup in the spring when the frost thaws. Makes total sense, but this was news to me before working on this project, since so many maple products appear in stores in the fall. Although in Vermont this isn’t necessarily the case— they use maple year round, from coffee and tea to creemees. I wholeheartedly support this and I wish the rest of the country could get on board with it.

Sadly, the spring trip was canceled due to the pandemic, but I learned so much while I was there and in the preparations (we were supposed to be on site the week of NYC’s lockdown, so we were really ready to go!).

We visited Burlington, where we saw Mount Mansfield Maple, and Manchester, where we saw Dorset Maple Reserve, on the fall scout trip. I’ve always loved Vermont, having been for camp and vacations many times, but on this trip I really had a hard time pulling the rental car back into the airport lot and coming back home.

Not only was the scenery stunning, but the people we met at every turn were so gracious and warm and shared so much with us. Vermont has such a sense of place, and such pride in its agriculture and it’s not hard to see why. The maple industry is so vibrant up there. I cannot wait to go back once this pandemic ends.

One of my most vivid maple memories from the trip was a tea we had at the Taconic Hotel in Manchester after a very long day of scouting in Burlington, plus a drive all the way downstate. It was an herbal tea with cardamom, clove, and peppermint that the hotel served with maple syrup. It was so soothing and delightful that I still buy that same tea and drink it with maple syrup after a long day.

This cake is a riff on those flavors, as warm and comforting with a cup of tea as it is with coffee. It uses maple sugar, which you can buy directly from a maple sugarmaker (see here or here) or in some Whole Foods or specialty stores, but if you’re not able to find it, you can use the granulated sugar substitution noted below.

And if you’re feeling extra into the maple magic, definitely add some to your cup as well.

Recipe

Ingredients

For the filling

¼ cup plus 2 tbsp (70g) maple sugar (½ cup 100g granulated plus extra tbsp maple syrup)

2 tbsp maple syrup 

1 tbsp ground cardamom

½ tsp ground cloves

For the streusel

¼  cup (50g) maple sugar or 75g granulated plus tbsp maple syrup

¾ cup (100g) all purpose flour (had to add an extra 30g, use less butter)

2 tsp ground cardamom

¼ tsp ground cloves 

5 tbsp (115g) unsalted butter, cut into 1 inch pieces.

For the cake

8 tbsp (115g) unsalted butter

½ cup (90g) maple sugar (or 100g granulated sugar plus 1 tbsp maple syrup)

2 eggs

2 cups (250g) all purpose flour

2 ½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp ground cardamom 

¾ cup Greek yogurt or sour cream

½ cup maple syrup

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter a 9x9 inch square cake pan, then line with parchment so that some of the parchment paper hangs over the sides. This will make the coffee cake easier to remove from the pan.

Make the filling: in a small bowl, combine the maple sugar, maple syrup, cardamom, and cloves. Set aside.

Make the streusel: in a small bowl, combine the maple sugar, flour, cardamom, and cloves. Add the butter and incorporate it using your fingers or a pastry blender until the mixture is crumbly with no remaining butter pieces. Try to leave the crumbs large, so the mixture is not sandy. If you overmix, you can always press some of the mixture back together to get some big crumbs.

Make the cake batter: using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a hand mixer in a large bowl), cream the butter and maple sugar together until it is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs until the mixture is relatively smooth and uniform, stopping to scrape down the sides as needed. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl too! 

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the yogurt and maple syrup. 

Add ⅓ of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until just combined.

Add half of the Greek yogurt mixture and mix until just combined. 

Add another ⅓ of the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Repeat with the remaining Greek yogurt, then the last of the flour mixture. The batter will be thick.

Assemble the cake: add half of the cake batter to the prepared pan, then sprinkle the filling mixture over the surface. Add the remaining cake batter on top, smoothing the surface with a knife if needed. Sprinkle the streusel over the top of the cake.

Bake: bake the cake at 350F for approximately 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with only a few moist crumbs. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then lift the cake out using the parchment paper. 

Place the cake on a cooling rack and cool almost completely, but try to serve it a bit warm if you can.

You can store leftover cake at room temperature in an airtight container for about 3 days, or in the freezer well-wrapped for up to 1 month. If frozen, defrost the cake at room temperature for a few hours or unwrap it and pop it into the microwave for 30 seconds to a minute.

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