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• Lemony hazelnut cake with fall fruit & cardamom

I took the Cinnamon Cake in Mark Bittman's newest book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/How-Bake-Everything-Simple-Recipes/dp/0470526882">How to Bake Everything</a href>, and pushed it to its limits. I replaced half the flour with hazelnut meal; I used plain yogurt mixed with a teaspoon of lemon juice instead of buttermilk; I swapped out cinnamon for cardamom; I arranged sliced fruit (first pears, then figs) on the top before baking; I forewent the crumb topping for a drizzle of honey-lemon glaze; I sprinkled with nigella seeds; I baked it in a tart pan. I took a simple Cinnamon Cake and Frankensteined it into a Fruit-Dappled Cardamom-Honey-Lemon Hazelnut Cake. (Maybe I am the monster???) <br /> <br />Bittman's cake tolerated all my prodding and nudging. My tweaks and swaps resulted in a strangely delightful and delightfully strange dessert—tart from the lemon, sweet from the honey caught on the fruit, and tender from the nut meal, with the wildcard ingredient—nigella seeds—adding a welcome savoriness. <br /> <br />Suggestions for taking this cake and toying with it some more: <br /> <br />- Instead of figs, use thinly sliced apples or pears. Try oat flour in place of the hazelnut flour and cinnamon in place of cardamom. Or try a mix! A pinch of nutmeg (and even a pinch of coriander) would also be welcome. <br />- Or drop in Concord grapes and use almond flour. Replace the vanilla extract with almond. <br />- Brown the butter (then cool completely) before stirring it into the batter. <br />- Use brown sugar in place of the white. <br />- Add the crumble (from the original recipe) back in! It's a simple mix of 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, and 3 tablespoons butter.

Oct. 17, 2023, 5:05 a.m.

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