Cardamom Streusel Coffee Cake

This evening we had leftovers for dinner -- we have a ton left from both the roast I made in the crock pot Monday night as well as the stuffed peppers and mushrooms I made last night.  Rather than completely take the night off from cooking -- I decided to do a little baking instead!  I have wanted to make a coffee cake for a while now...so I decided that tonight would be the night!  I wanted it to be "not too sweet"... I wanted a "crumbly streusel-type topping"...I wanted it to "include nuts and chocolate"....and I wanted it to be "fragrant" too!  Usually cinnamon takes care of the fragrance part of most coffee cakes...but I wanted something even more fragrant this time.  I decided that cardamom would be the perfect "fragrance" as well as flavor for my coffee cake...so I made Cardamom Streusel Coffee Cake!   I added some fresh orange zest and extract to the cake and topped the streusel topping with chopped Green & Black's 85% chocolate bar.  So...what's not to love here???  I didn't start baking until 8:00 tonight....so I am making a late post this evening because I wanted to taste a piece with a cup of coffee so I could "review" it for you.  One word....awesomely awesome (I lied...that's two words).  It is moist, tender, light, fragrant, flavorful and just really hits the spot with a cup of coffee.  It isn't overly sweet and the smell of orange, chocolate and cardamom is heavenly.  It provides a good dose of aromatherapy too while you eat it -- so, it even makes you FEEL awesome too!   :-)    Alright...enough of the awesome stuff -- it really is good.  I snapped a couple photos below as well as the recipe.  Enjoy!

Cardamom Streusel Coffee Cake

INGREDIENTS:

Cake:

2-½ cups blanched almond flour

⅔ cup Swerve sweetener (or sweetener equal to ⅔ cup sugar)

2 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon sea salt

1-¼ teaspoon ground cardamom

1-½ teaspoon grated orange zest

2 large eggs, beaten

6 tablespoons butter, melted

½ cup buttermilk

1 tablespoon instant coffee powder

½ cup water

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon pure orange extract

Streusel Topping:

½ cup blanched almond flour

⅓ cup Swerve sweetener (or granular sweetener equal to ⅓ cup sugar)

1 teaspoon grated orange zest

1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder

½ teaspoon ground cardamom

4 tablespoons butter (1/2 stick), diced

½ cup chopped walnuts

2 ounces 85% cacao chocolate bar, chopped (approximately 1/2 of a 3.5 oz. bar)

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Lightly grease or spray a 9-inch square baking pan with butter or oil.  In a small bowl or cup, mix ½ cup water with 1 tablespoon instant coffee powder until dissolved and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine almond flour, Swerve (or other sweetener), baking powder, baking soda, salt, 1-¼ teaspoon cardamom, 1-½ teaspoon orange zest; and whisk to break up any lumps. 

In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, melted butter, buttermilk, ½ cup of water that was mixed with 1 tablespoon instant coffee powder, vanilla extract and orange extract.  Pour into the large bowl with flour mixture and stir with whisk, just until combined.  Pour batter into the prepared baking pan.

Streusel Topping: In a small to medium sized bowl, add almond flour, Swerve (or other sweetener), 1 teaspoon orange zest, cocoa powder, ½ teaspoon cardamom, and mix until blended.  Cut 4 tablespoons butter into the dry mixture using a pastry cutter or dough blender, until crumbly.  Stir in walnuts (the mixture will be crumbly).  Spread the crumbly topping mixture over cake batter in pan.  Sprinkle chopped chocolate bar over the top of crumbly mixture.  Bake in a 375 degree oven for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.  Let cool approximately 20 minutes before cutting.