orange cardamom coffee cake with crunchy almond streusel

It's Saturday morning, and I'm sitting on my shaded patio digging into a slice of this warm cake. I've had dozens of similar slices over the last month or two as I've tweaked this recipe, and I think I've finally arrived at its pinnacle. Soft, nutty, a kiss of salt and spice; and behind everything, an ambient orange like daybreak.

I'm pleased.

I developed this recipe using Bob's Red Mill gluten-free 1 to 1 baking flour, so you should be able to swap in all-purpose wheat flour for virtually the same result. If you do this, please let me know how it goes!

Watch the video here!

Streusel

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup gf all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cardamom

1/2 tsp orange zest

1/4 cup sliced almonds

Pinch kosher salt

2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut up

Cake

1/2 cup granulated sugar

Zest of 1 orange

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temp

2 eggs

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp almond extract

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour (gluten-free or wheat)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp kosher salt

3/4 tsp cardamom

1/2 cup milk (I use oat or almond, but cow’s milk will work too)

Directions

1. Zest the orange; set aside 1/2 tsp for the streusel.

2. Prepare the streusel: throw everything together in a bowl and combine with a pastry cutter or your fingers. The mixture will look sandy, but the butter should be worked in enough that you can squeeze a handful of it and it will stick together. Pop the mixed streusel into the refrigerator while you mix up the cake batter.

3. Combine the sugar and orange zest in a bowl, rubbing the zest into the sugar with your fingers until the sugar takes on an orange hue.

4. Add the softened butter to the sugar and beat until light and fluffy.

5. Beat in the eggs. Then add the oil and extracts and beat until combined.

6. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cardamom.

7. Add half the dry mixture to the wet mixture and beat just until incorporated. Then add a quarter cup of the milk and beat just until incorporated. Repeat with the last half of the dry mixture and quarter cup of milk.

8. Use the butter wrapper to grease an 8- or 9-inch cake pan. Then sprinkle some flour over the greased pan and tap the pan to distribute the flour into a thin layer over the butter. Pour the cake batter into the pan and smooth it out.

9. Take the streusel out of the refrigerator and sprinkle it over the cake.

10. Bake the cake at 325°F for 45 minutes. Let it cool before serving.