If you need a quick holiday dessert, this Orange Cardamom Holiday Cake is just the perfect thing to serve friends & family!
Cake is always on my list of things to make during the holidays, specially because honestly, who doesn’t love cake?! This Orange Cardamom Holiday Cake is adapted from my classic Dominican Cake recipe that has become a top favorite on the site throughout the years. It’s actually my mom’s recipe, one she has been making for decades, so that’s why it’s so good!
Now, as you can see, this cake is simply decorated with sprinkles and not just any sprinkles! These sprinkles are made with clean ingredients like plant-based food colors, coconut oil, and no soy or palm oil and are from the Supernatural Kitchen brand. Their mission – “leading a parade for kitchen creativity, and reimagining the ingredients that help chefs shine”, which is quite a lovely mission for sure!
If you didn’t know, traditional sprinkles are packed with artificial food coloring, such as Red 40. Red 40, also known as Allura Red, is the most commonly used red dye in products. It comes from petroleum distillates or coal tars and causes reactions such as hives and allergies in children and adults alike. When trying to live a healthier lifestyle, avoiding food coloring is one of the most important things you can do, so I love that companies like Supernatural Kitchen are making better for us sprinkles and food dyes are plant-based colors are made without artificial dyes, artificial preservatives, or allergens. They’re also non-GMO, gluten free, vegan, and certified kosher!
This Orange Cardamom Cake is a delicious sponge flavored with orange zest, vanilla extract, and fragrant cardamom, filled and coated with a quick spiced buttercream that makes it easy to attach the sprinkles to. I hope you get to recreate this cake at home with friend and family this holiday season!
- 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ½ orange, zested
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ cup buttermilk*
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 2½ cups powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon cardamom
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- sprinkles, about ¾ cups
- Preheat oven to 350F. Butter and parchment two small, 6 inch cake pans.
- Using a stand or hand-held mixer, cream the butter, sugar, vanilla, orange zest, cardamom, and salt for 8-12 minutes until light and fluffy. Halfway through, scrape the bottom and sides of bowls to ensure even creaming.
- Add both eggs and mix for 2-3 minutes until incorporated.
- In a small bowl, whisk the flour and baking powder. Add flour and buttermilk interchangeably, ending in buttermilk, without over-mixing. Pour into pans and bake for 30-35 minutes until lightly golden and when you touch the center of the cake, it springs back. Let cool on wire rack for fifteen minutes and then unmold.
- While the cakes bake, make frosting by putting all the ingredients in a mixer and with a whisk attachment, mix until fluffy and light, scraping down the bowl even 2-3 minutes. This should take about 10 minutes total.
- Once cakes have cooled completely (do not try to frost a slightly warm cake, the frosting will all melt), top the first cake with enough frosting to be the filling. Then place the second cake on top. Using the rest of the frosting, ice the cake all over.
- This is the fun part - lightly pat the sprinkles all around the cake and on top for a quick and easy decoration!
- *Note: if you don't have buttermilk you can use a mix of regular milk and orange juice, or use 1 cup of milk and add 1 tablespoon vinegar to it.
Supernatural Kitchen gifted me some sprinkles, but I was under no obligation to post about them. I did because they seem like an awesome brand and I wanted cake!
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