Time for cake in the house! I had all the ingredients except for full-fat crème fraîche. So I decided to whip this up before heading to a book reading in the afternoon. This cake was so full of the scent and subtle flavour of cardamom, delicious and unexpected. It actually tasted like a lemon cake.
The book reading was at “The Open Book” which is a second hand book store on Ponsonby Rd. 
Fabulous place, you could get lost there for hours with its room after room of categorized books, historical fiction, cooking, gardening, nonfiction and the list goes on. There is a sale at the end of the month. GO 🙂
To make the cake, I buttered the loaf tin and then sprinkled sliced almonds around the sides. This would coat the outside
of the cake when baked. What a good idea. 
I put the flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl and set this aside. I stirred the milk into the crème fraîche and set this aside. I de-seeded and ground the cardamom seeds in my pestle and mortar, love that job, so satisfying. I think I was an amazonian woman in a past life. 🙂
I added this to the soft butter and mixed it to a creamy mayonnaise like consistency, beat in the sugar, then the eggs, 
then folded in the flour alternatively with the crème fraîche. 
The mixture was luscious and creamy. 
I scattered chopped nuts on top and baked for an hour. This cake is supposed to be put away and best eaten with a pot of coffee. It’s also advised to store before eating, as the flavours develop with age. 
No such luck in this house. I discovered a small piece left a day later, devoured!!! It had a taste of lemon, go figure, no lemon in it, just cardamoms. Interesting. The texture was great too, filled with sliced almonds. The other day I was inspired by this cake, so I got out my Julie Goodwin cookbook, the first winner of Master chef Australia. She has a fabulous cake recipe called ‘Never Fail cake”Julie Goodwin’s Never fail cake to which I added orange zest and almonds. Another great crowd pleaser! 🙂 I posted this recipe last time, enjoy!!! You could even add crushed cardamoms and almonds to Julie’s recipe. Great idea. 🙂
