I love baking, and cooking too. But baking has a special place in my heart. The summer when I was 14 we moved to a new house and I didn’t have any friends. It was the summer holiday in between semesters and I just didn’t know anyone in this new place we lived. I spent the entire summer reading semi erotic fantasy novels (47 of them!) and baking cookies and cakes until we were all ready to burst from all the baked goods. I piled on the pounds but it was still nice. However, I didn’t bake this cake that summer, I know that for sure. It’s a very simple and incredibly tasty cardamom cake that requires little work but really delivers. I couldn’t get any good photos of it, when I last baked it the sun had already set and I am too tired to make a new one. Instead I give you this photoshopped version, it’s a cardamom girl cake!

This cake is really good just the way it is. Or you can slice it and serve it with some fruit salad and soy cream. Either way it’s absolutely delish! It’s an old fashioned Swedish recipe that doesn’t use eggs, so veganizing it was a no-brainer. It’s also not incredibly sweet but has fantastic flavour.

Cardamom cake:

• 125 g (½cup) vegan margarine
• 300 ml (1 1/4 cups) sugar
• 2 tsp ground cardamom
• 250 ml (1 cup + 2 tsp) soy milk
• 500 ml (2 cups + 1 tbsp) flour
• 2 tsp baking powder

Turn the oven on to 180 C. Melt margarine in a pot. Turn of the heat and add sugar, cardamom and milk into the margarine. Sift together the flour and the baking powder and add to the wet mix. Stir carefully with a whisk until the lumps are gone (but don’t overmix it).  Grease and flour a pan. It looks cuter in a bundt pan but a normal sponge cake pan will do just fine. Pour batter into a the cake pan and bake in the middle of the oven for about 45 minutes or until the cake is golden and a toothpick inserted to the centre comes out clean. When the cake is done, let cool for about 5 minutes then flip onto a plate. Remove the pan while the cake is still warm and let it cool completely. Let mature in a bag for a day before eating, it tastes even better if you do!